Bridging the AI adoption gap

Source: BCG/Columbia

Anxiety among business leaders is rising as they understand the benefits AI can bring, but struggle to adopt it successfully, and fear the impact of their competitors getting there first. A key blocker is not engaging with their people about AI in the right way.

This is driven by a major misconception recently revealed by a BCG/Columbia survey. Over three-quarters (76%) of executives reported that their workforce feels excited about adopting AI. But when employees themselves were questioned, only 31% expressed enthusiasm for the technology.

Phill Gillespie, AI Strategist, Mindera

“Many take an education-first approach involving mandatory AI training,” says Mindera AI Strategist Phill Gillespie. “This may seem logical, but AI isn’t simply another new technology tool, it’s a dramatic shift in ways of working and thinking. Winning hearts then minds must be the order to overcome the distrust, fear, uncertainty and doubt people feel about AI being introduced into the workplace.”

Mindera has been addressing this issue head on with some of its more forward-thinking clients. One major retail customer, for example, said it was excited at the potential AI has to accelerate key parts of the business. Yet the senior team admitted that the company was simply not ready to embrace it and asked if Mindera could help.

"We’ve been having varying levels of success with our software teams adopting AI despite the tooling being available,” explains the retailer’s Head of AI. “We expected everyone to share our excitement about what AI can do. But it turns out that's not the case.”

A strategic framework and vision for accelerating AI adoption

Acknowledging the AI engagement gap that exists across organisations, Mindera has developed a three-stage framework to help solve the problem. It directly addresses the emotional barriers to getting employees onboard:

• Engage: Win hearts then minds by focusing on the future vision, why colleagues should care, and what’s in it for them.
• Educate: As engagement progresses, education becomes so much more effective and creates self-motivating loops.
• Embed: Build the knowledge and passion into daily activities that quickly become second nature to the whole business.

“The initial Engage stage bridges the current disconnect between a company’s goals and feelings on the ground,” explains Gillespie. “It opens the door to ongoing education and upskilling, and embedding adoption thoroughly across an organisation.”

Liaising closely with the retailer’s Head of AI and other key members of the senior team, Mindera worked on the Engage stage by deploying the following three steps:

STEP 1: Drafting the vision

This involved painting an ambitious and inspiring picture of what an AI-driven future would look like for the retailer. It began with setting key goals, such as:

• Understanding the risks and opportunities from AI
• Making using AI exciting for people
• Developing a culture that’s open to experimenting with AI
• Celebrating people using AI

Then identifying the key problems driving employee resistance to change, such as:

• Using AI just like existing tools (Status quo bias)
• AI feeling mandated rather than co-created, meaning staff have no sense of ownership
• Anxiety of being replaced by AI
• Fear of losing identity and decision-making status (Loss aversion)
• Feeling that only lesser employees need to use AI (Self image/status)

A draft vision statement was then created, encapsulating the goals and addressing people’s resistance. Hand in hand with this ambition, guiding principles were outlined to set clear boundaries for the use of AI at all levels of the business.

STEP 2: Building advocates and refining the vision

Next, the draft vision was refined by embarking on a listening tour across the business.

We spoke with engineers across the breadth of the company to understand their views and what their teams were saying about AI. The individual discussions explored the macro impact of AI on how software engineering operates. Questions included the roadblocks and obstacles currently hindering adoption, such as levels of trust in AI-generated code and testing, the future prediction of how daily workflows will change if the programme is successful, and what new things that will unlock.

This helped us identify advocates who are ready to champion the journey and gauge the thoughts of employees to develop the vision and principles further.

STEP 3: Inspiring engagement

Finally, the vision was completed by tapping into the initial employee feedback. Then a narrative story was built, supported by advocates, to help galvanise the entire workforce behind the vision.

“This lays the foundations to develop an effective education programme and embed AI successfully within the workforce,” says Gillespie. It will create a culture of ongoing innovation and skills development, helping to future proof the retailer’s business.

“Working with Mindera, we realised that a lot of the reluctance to adopting AI wasn't down to any practical barriers,” says the retailer’s Head of AI. “Instead it came from deep-rooted fears over a loss of identity, vulnerability, and the seismic shift AI is driving across their industry and craft.

“We want to do the best for our people as well as maximise productivity and customer value, and Mindera has helped us towards this goal by guiding us through this tricky period."

Watch Phill Gillespie explain more about the Engage strategy in the video below:

Look out for the second part of this series, where we showcase the next phase of increasing AI Adoption and Engagement.

Get in touch to discuss your AI adoption challenges.