From Skeptic to Shaper: Laying the Foundations for AI Adoption (Part 1)
Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity
This is a longer post. So I have divided it into 2 parts.
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I am trying to grow my Substack with like-minded individuals. It would mean a lot.
I have been intrigued by “traditional” AI (meaning not Gen AI) since 2017 or so, as I was working with lots of startups outside of my corporate job, where tons of ideas were on the table all the time. But obviously, I was limited with what I could do, I could only read about it and get into conversations on data, ML, analytics. I then started reading more and took a couple of online courses. But the shift happened when Dalle came about, i got to play with it a bit then went on mute until ChatGPT came in November 2022. That’s where everything changed for me. It became my focus day in day out, learning, experimenting, reading and constantly discovering, with others, and alone.
I am writing this newsletter, longer than the usual one, and might turn it into a podcast episode too.
Today I want to try and help anyone already working with AI or interested in starting, by sharing my findings in helping others work with AI. We help teams build the creativity, maturity, and mindset needed to make AI a lasting part of their day-to-day. And this requires change, transformation and intuition.
Now let’s dive in.
First things first.
Let’s set the expectation straight.
You don’t need a Phd or background in computer science or tech to use AI or to work with it. I am the perfect example. Background in design. 100%, from service, product and going back in time to my days in interior architecture. More on this here (youtube) or here (spotify) or here (substack).
If you can communicate, then you can probably help others discover and get excited about AI, they can then take it to the next level.
We have all used AI whether we realised it or not. We have shared our data whether we like it or not. The moment we got a mobile phone and Google Maps (not to mention platform logins, emails, socials, ecomms…) AI was has been with us in the background. We, humans also became data.
Every person, team or organization has to find their own way of using AI. There isn’t one workflow, one way, or a right way. There are basics, but there is appropriation… adaptation. Electricity allowed humans to extend the ‘daylight’ but did not dictate to work longer or party more. Gen AI allows us to do more independently or with other brains. More of so many things.
But here’s the thing. Time. Training. Experimentation.
These are not buzzwords, but what is essential to increase adoption. To drive maturity and change the mindset and behavior.
Training is essential. You can definitely learn about AI by yourself, but nothing beats learning with people, inside and outside your company. Not everyone’s got the time, appetite and capabiltiy to learn outside office hours. To many, a job is a job and they have other responsibilities after. A safe environment to allow employees to learn, and test and giving them a safe space to experiment to figure out what works for them is fundamental.
No one can know all the tools. And AI is not about tools first and foremost. It starts with the tools to break the ice, but it doesn’t end there. This is about maturity, creativity and mindset. Also intuition. AI adoption starts with exploration, experimentation, sharing and reporting. Just like creativity. It’s a way of doing, thinking… and being.
Fear is human. Anything new in general is met with fear (by default) and questions by our brain. AI adoption requires way more than AI training.
One thing that I find super valuable is untriggered, spontaneous conversations, even off topic (directly) that lead the way to dive into scenarios and potential use cases.
When someone is in doubt and gets seriously curious, you are off to a win.
People have their reservations on anything new. This is human nature. This is why people train on uncertainty, be it AI or not. Creativity is uncertain. Walking for toddlers is uncertain. Sometimes a little push, a small ‘creation’ or win will unlock curiosity, you will see it in their eyes, the AHA moment will happen. which can be all it takes to gage someone’s interest to go further.
As long as conversations occur, along with cross-company contamination and inspiration, executive level people tend to focus on the unimaginable future and forget to focus on the immediate availability. AI is evolving, but we cannot let our ideas evolve without getting our hands dirty in workflow discovery, experimentation and integration seriously.
Buying AI licences and making it available to everyone in an organisation is not what adoption is about.
Most people don’t even know what to do with these licences. Yes, it happens more than we think - the typical top-down approach with 0 or very little onboarding - or a focus on tooling, when tools evolve faster than usual software updates - not comparable.
I’ve never met anyone as confident as a LLM. It knows it all, spits it out, whether it’s right or wrong. Whether it makes sense or not. But it makes you feel you hit the jackpot.
AI gives tells you anything you want it to hear with confidence. Then can tell you the exact opposite with the same level of confidence. Nothing beats human judgement. Nothing beats your experience. AI has no context and follows your ask… and is sometimes guided by your nuanced communication, sensing you have a slight preference. Now the new buzzword is context engineering, but come on (that’s for another time.)
On China vs USA
Is American AI safer than Chinese AI? Is Chinese AI safer than American AI? Not sure how to ask the question. I am not mentioning any other geographies for the simple reason is that most companies that are making noise are primarily from USA, and China.
Here’s how I look at it. Is Instagram safer than Tiktok? Free usage is control. Even if you pay for your AI, terms and conditions change. What about countries? To me at least, it doesn’t matter. None is safer than we think, but following this logic, we might al live off the grid. Unless you want to spend your time reading terms and conditions.
Let’s be safe rather than sorry and filter sensitive data. Let’s use our human judgement in how we use AI. My sensitive data might not be your sensitive data.
Working together. Interacting together. Being together.
It’s about looking at how people work in teams and individually over looking at technology. Because this technology is about behaviour change. Not just integration. And certainly not just about tools. It is and was never about tools. It’s about rewiring the way we think and do. How we collaborate, lead, participate and offload work and tasks. And about critical thinking, judgement and curation. However you want to call it. I would add your gut too, as mentioned earlier. Which comes from your experience.
Coming up next:
Gen AI is not Magic
How to start
Making decisions
& more… (incl. more podcasts)