What we are forgetting about Ai...

Recently I started using Wipro's internal Ai platform in my daily work of strategy and transformation. It's been a very interesting journey of playing with prompts and sharing tribal tips with colleagues.

When I experienced first-hand using Ai to write a communication, brainstorm ideas, and create new content from existing content, I was hooked. I've become a walking talking billboard about our platform internally, telling everyone who will listen how great it is.

I'm reminded of something that futurist Gerd Leonhard said ~18 years ago when commenting about then "new" social networks - To paraphrase: "The time will come when you will cease to be relevant if you are not involved in social networks. Opportunities will come to you personally and professionally from your network."

Replace the term social network with Ai, and this statement rings true again.

This brings me to the real issue, though: you have to use Ai to experience value. Most of us know how hard it is to get people using a new technology. With any change, you're going to see a range of human behaviors from hearty enthusiasm to outright resistance.

So how do we really get people using Ai?

Mind the Gap

For technology gurus, Ai is simple. It makes sense; using engineering prompts and the way it looks is intuitive. But, for general business users, it's not as easy to understand. It's important to be aware of this; just putting a tool out there isn't enough. Change management has to be part of the equation or you will limit the use of Ai to the curious few.

Make it Real

Take a common use case that someone struggles with in their job, and show them how Ai can help with that task. This might be a five minute demo at a team meeting, or a quick video posted on an intranet. It has to be something that can bring Ai out of the land of 'woo woo' and into the real work day.

Nudge, Nudge, Nudge

Reward the behaviors you want to see in your team and highlight the little victories to share proof with others. I ask my team if they are using Ai and how it's helping. We discuss results and what we are learning together. I also use our Ai platform live during meetings so it becomes embedded in our team culture and ways of working.

Ai is powerful no doubt - but let's not forget the importance of bringing along the humans using it.

About the Author:

Shantell Ogden is a strategic business transformation leader at Wipro, focusing on high-impact programs that change ways of working for 240k global employees. For more than 25 years she has focused on making a difference on human side of technology in marketing, communications, and change management.

Note: This article was not written with Ai, but probably would have been better if it was.