AI Adoption Starts With Your Team, Not the Tool

As organizations look to rollout AI tools across their team, leaders are focused on choosing the platform, buying the licenses, and making an announcement that the tools are available. 

What usually happens is a scattered rollout, frustration, and leadership disappointed with the ROI.

Leaders assume access to tools creates adoption. Everyone on the team is going to react differently to changes in how they work. People change at different speeds and learn in different ways. This is especially true with AI enablement work. It has the potential to touch every piece of the business and every role.

A successful AI rollout depends on understanding team behavior before you get started. You will have some people excited, some unsure but willing, and others that will resist.

If your team isn’t on board, your initiative will fail.

When organizations begin introducing AI into their work, three behavior patterns show up

1. Explorers - These are your go-getters. Your cutting edge, ready for anything types. They’ve been working with AI tools in their daily life. They probably have their own personal subscriptions. They maybe had some early mistakes and ran up a credit card bill vibe coding.
2. Learners - Next we have our busy optimists. They are curious. They are interested in it. They’ll get to it someday. Maybe they use it here or there for simple tasks. Clean up an email. Look up some info. They want to learn more but they feel they need time and guidance. They know it’s important but they are looking for help. They aren’t always sure how it fits or helps them in their role.
3. Resisters - Last, there are is the resistance group. It might be a moral choice. Maybe not interested in learning. Or they might think it will all go away. At the end of the day, this group is afraid. It’s your smallest group. We won’t forget about them but they can’t take your full attention right now.

We need to focus on your explorers and your learners. They are your most interested and eager audience.

Your explorers already know what works and doesn’t for your organization. They are talking about it and already helping others. It’s not just your technical roles. You’ll find them in all departments and levels of experience. They’ll help provide the roadmap and give plenty of ideas of where to start. Work with them to get early access to tools, training and guidance. They are your future internal trainers and advocates for AI enablement. They’ll help answer questions and really advocate for the access AI tooling provides. Give them the tools, the guardrails for usage, and they’ll help pave the way. This group will shape how the organization leverages AI and help get others onboard with their enthusiasm. Leaders should learn from the explorers before creating training or policies.

You’ll need to spend the most hands on time with your learners. They will want lots of examples, 1 on 1 time, group talks and they’ll probably ask for documentation they never look at. This group is worth spending the time on. It’s your largest group of people and they genuinely want to learn. They are probably good at what they do and have spent a lot of time perfecting their craft. Change means carving new pathways to get things done. I find that office hours and internal chat groups to compare notes are the most helpful ways to engage this side of the team. It allows them a place to share what works, what doesn’t, and ideas. If time is on their calendars, they’ll take the time to engage. It’s even better if you can mix up the roles in the groups for the idea sharing to happen across roles and departments. AI adoption is a social learning process and not a completely structured training course. Sharing with peers helps build confidence. The roadmap to success is different for each organization. Your people will help you understand the path.

Your resisters are the last group. We don’t want to leave them all behind. As the other groups engage and embrace some new ways to work, you’ll find many of these people convert into the learners. As people see what is possible and where others are accelerating, it’s a lot easier for them to envision themselves in that mode too. The fact is that over time you have a decision to make on what the people left in this group need. You’ll need to dig into the fear and work with them to understand the gaps. The way the team is working has changed, and with it, the expectations for the role. It would be easy to dismiss this as a function of AI but this type of person is found with any change in process or productivity tools.

Before introducing AI to the entire organization, take a small set of steps with your team first.

1. Identify your explorers and learn how work has already changed for them
2. Leverage your explorers to share learnings and examples with peer groups
3. Create a space for learning leveraging wikis & chat groups
4. Use office hours to give time and space for collaborative exploration

For any organization to get started with AI, you have to understand your team. If you only focus on the platform, the costs and the access, you will create frustration and resistance that you’ll spend months, even years, undoing.

Many organizations are underestimating the time it takes to rollout AI and end up frustrated with the results. A key factor is understanding your team’s readiness. If you’re preparing your AI rollout, let’s schedule a call and dive in deeper.