When the most senior person answers first, the meeting is effectively over. Silence gets filed as agreement, and it usually is not. In a small company, where everyone knows everyone, the cost of speaking up is higher rather than lower.

Two people describe the same AI rollout in the same week, and both are telling the truth. The owner is measuring the decision. The team is measuring the work. The distance between those two measurements is where most of the money goes, and it is nearly invisible from the top.