Assess organizational readiness
- The generative AI market is projected to grow exponentially between 2023 and 2028, and more and more organizations are considering introducing gen AI into the workplace. The guidance of HR leaders will be vital. However, a recent Baker McKenzie survey on AI and corporate oversight revealed that only 54% of C-Suite leaders say their organization involves HR in the decision-making process for AI tools. In my view, all HR leaders should be AI fluent and prepared to engage and take center stage as their organizations embark on this incredible transformative journey. Assessing your organization's readiness for implementing gen AI is crucial in determining its alignment with organizational objectives and deciding if it's the right time to undertake such a significant step in transforming the workplace. Start by defining business objectives. A few questions to consider are what strategic goals does the organization expect to achieve by implementing gen AI and how will implementation align with the broader vision and strategic direction? What value can it deliver? Is the goal to improve customer experience, enhance productivity, streamline processes or drive creativity, growth, and foster innovation? Next, you'll need to conduct a needs assessment. To do this, you must engage senior leaders and as many key stakeholders as possible, like functional leaders, employees, customers and partners. Listen for challenges and pain points, and identify potential use cases where gen AI can add value. Assessing IT and data infrastructure is a critical component in determining readiness as well. Here are a few questions to consider. Can the existing infrastructure support the implementation of generative AI? What upgrades are required to ensure seamless integration? Are there any gaps or constraints? Goldman Sachs economists predict that 300 million jobs globally could be eliminated through generative artificial intelligence. This has caused a significant amount of trepidation among workers, so assessing your organization's culture and readiness for change is essential. Even if your organization's culture is grounded in growth and innovation, you still need to identify potential barriers, assess levels of resistance to change and acknowledge that fear of job loss may be prevalent. Now, of course, you'll need to assess skill gaps, training needs, risks, and legal privacy and ethical considerations in the context of readiness. I will discuss several of these in the videos that follow.