AI is a People Problem First

Before AI adoption at your organization is a technology problem, it’s actually a people problem.

When your organization tries to adopt AI, the first step isn’t to just pick a platform and start using it. (Unless you’re an organization of one person! Lucky you!)

At a very high level, the steps are more like this:  First, you need internal alignment from all the decision makers about the approach: the exec team, legal and compliance, technology, and maybe others. Then, you need to get the rest of the organization on board with the plan. Finally, you need to decide who is going to do what.

One way to think about it is that permission precedes action. Give people permission and you’ll see a marketplace of action.

Only after all of those people-related tasks are complete can you actually do the technology tasks. And those technology tasks will also require a variety of people-related tasks to go with them.

That process requires all your people systems – culture, performance management, training, incentives, communication, employee relations – to make the adoption work.

And then even after it’s live, you’ll have ongoing oversight using all those systems to ensure the adoption happens successfully.

What does that mean?

Your HR team should be a major part of the adoption of AI. Before you roll anything out, make sure you figure out the people, leadership, and operational aspects of the program.

What does this also mean?

It’s nice to be a small organization with fewer levels, fewer blockers, more agility! And if you’re a bigger organization, you still need to find a way to make this work for AI adoption and other major initiatives.

Which reminds me of a great management quote from Ross Perot: “I come from an environment where, if you see a snake, you kill it. At GM, if you see a snake, the first thing you do is go hire a consultant on snakes. Then you get a committee on snakes, and then you discuss it for a couple of years. The most likely course of action is — nothing. You figure, the snake hasn’t bitten anybody yet, so you just let him crawl around on the factory floor. We need to build an environment where the first guy who sees the snake kills it.”

Go kill your AI snake!