Why did Moody’s—a legacy financial institution built on risk assessment—move aggressively to adopt generative AI, an unproven technology? Because leadership calculated that the risk of standing still outweighed the risk of moving fast. Instead of cautious experimentation, Moody’s launched a company-wide transformation grounded in three principles: 1) everyone had to be involved, 2) new ideas should be built upon, not dismissed, and 3) real business impact was the priority. This required a fundamental shift in how transformation was viewed—not as a move toward a fixed goal, but as a continuous process of adaptation. Moody’s example offers lessons for other companies: inaction comes with its own risks, decentralized innovation works, change must be continuous, strategic partnerships matter, and culture drives adoption.