How Change Management Will Benefit Your Artificial Intelligence Implementation
Generative AI, or genAI, is quickly moving from the bleeding edge of innovation to a proven technology across entire organizations. Just like with any technology rollout, you can improve the likelihood of success by grounding your rollout in time-tested change management principles. Key advantages of a thoughtful approach include:
- Improved Adoption Rates – smoother transitions, reduced hesitance and resistance, decreased anxiety, and increased likelihood that employees will adopt and effectively use genAI tools.
- Enhanced Communication – clear, consistent, transparent, and trustworthy communication so everyone understands the purpose, benefits, and permitted use cases for genAI.
- Engaged Employees – empowered employees, who feel safe sharing their ideas and co-creating the future, will have higher morale and be more productive.
- Mitigated Risks – reduced disruptions, smoother rollout, greater sustainability due to proactively identified and addressed risks.
Five Key Change Management Principles for a Successful GenAI Rollout
Keep things simple. Stay focused on a few foundational concepts to keep yourself on the right path.
Be Intentional
Don’t just dive right in. Make sure you understand why you’re considering using genAI in your business. Start getting your arms around the pros, cons, and risks of using genAI. Think about how quickly you want to start seeing any changes, whether pilot projects or a broader rollout. Consider potential changes to peoples’ jobs or even job losses, and understand that those questions will be top of mind for most people across your organization. Think about how you’ll measure success: Can you define what a “win” looks like? Can you envision SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) to help achieve your objectives?
Clarify Your “Why”
Be clear on why you’re interested in AI. Do you want AI to help you find strategic advantages over your competitors? Do you want AI to help you become more efficient or automate some of your tasks? Are you just trying to use AI because everyone else is, or because someone told you that you had to in order to stay relevant?
There are no right or wrong answers here. Just be clear and honest with yourself and as transparent as you can be with your employees. Use simple language and short, clear sentences to describe your vision.
Begin with the End in Mind
Once you’ve clearly defined your “why” and crisply stated your vision, you can start reaching out to people across your organization to share the news. Help them visualize the future: why genAI is important, why now, and where you see it taking your organization.
If you’re planning a few small pilot projects to see what AI can do, give people an opportunity to volunteer to help co-create how those pilots will run.
If you’re planning a massive automation rollout that even hints at changes to peoples’ jobs, give people time, space, and grace to process that news. Be extra transparent about your reasoning and intentions. Keep an open-door policy and make it clear you want to hear any questions or feedback.
Be Realistic
Do you have the resources to succeed? Small teams can execute AI projects quickly and inexpensively. Broader rollouts can take much longer, be far more expensive, and require more expertise from a lot more departments to implement and to maintain. The bigger the effort, the more complex things will inevitably become, requiring extra effort and time to align a broader set of stakeholders.
If you lack the expertise, can you train your people, or do you need to bring in outside experts to help? How will you ensure that any changes are sustainable, not just financially but also from the perspectives of process and culture?
Plan for Pushback
No matter how much you craft your story and consider other perspectives, some people will inevitably resist change. What can you do now to reduce hesitancy or outright opposition to your changes? Are there respected people within your organization who can champion your change efforts? Can you customize your talking points or demonstrate via early pilots how any contrarian groups will benefit?
Make Change Your Friend
Implementing a ground-breaking technology such as genAI can be a turning point for your organization. When done thoughtfully and with a little bit of preparation, your organization can benefit from genAI’s capabilities without suffering from many of the typical technology transition challenges.
Contact any of us with questions about change management or adopting genAI. We’re happy to learn more about your organization and specific needs to determine what approaches might work best for you.
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