Managing Expectations of AI

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform the workplace, leaders are faced with the challenge of managing expectations around its adoption and implementation. With the hype surrounding AI’s productivity gains, it’s essential to separate reality from expectation and ensure a smooth transition for both leaders and their people. 

The Hype vs. Reality

In recent research by The Upwork Research Institute revealed a significant gap between expectations and reality. While 96% of C-suite executives expect AI to increase productivity, only 26% have AI training programs in place, and a mere 13% report a well-implemented AI strategy. This disparity highlights the need for leaders to manage expectations and take practical steps to ensure successful AI is understood by their people so adoption can occur.

Practical Steps for Leaders

  1. Align Expectations: Ensure leaders are on the same page regarding AI adoption and its goals. Surface individual agendas and business areas to create a unified understanding. 
  2. Explore Problems to Solve: Identify specific problems to tackle with AI, rather than introducing technology for its own sake. Involve teams in the process because they know what the problems are for their work and the customer experience. They will help you to gain the most valuable insights and quickly.
  3. Develop a Clear People-Centred Strategy: Create a roadmap for AI adoption, including ideation, proof of concepts, and experiments. Be realistic about involving teams by creating the space to learn and participate and managing their expectations.
  4. Foster a Culture of Experimentation: Encourage a culture open to trying new things, learning from failures, and evolving skills. This will help teams build understanding, be curious about and ultimately embrace AI to maximise its benefits.
  5. Manage Cultural Dynamics: Recognise that AI adoption is not a silver bullet. Navigate media hype, and apply a realistic lens to your organisation’s current state, culture, and processes.

The Role of Leadership

Leaders have a great opportunity to harness the natural desire for progress and improvement within their teams. By managing expectations,  being thoughtful about problem-solving, and creating a culture of experimentation, leaders can embark on a successful AI adoption journey.
Remember, it’s about baby steps, not a sudden leap from zero to 100.

Also, AI is not going to solve your existing issues around human behaviour that have never served your culture or business outcomes. In fact AI will only add pressure to the human to human dynamics. Your role as a leader is to address the issues now in a way that creates clarity of what’s needed in the workplace now and into the future.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Assess AI Readiness: Evaluate your organisation’s cultural attributes, ways of working, data processes, systems, infrastructure, knowledge, and skills to determine what can be achieved with AI.
  2. Manage Expectations: Align expectations among leaders, employees, and stakeholders. Ensure everyone understands the potential benefits and limitations of AI.
  3. Diverse Perspectives: Encourage diverse thinking and perspectives to identify potential risks and opportunities. Actively choose to play different roles in the conversation to bring questions and ideas from a different perspective (eg, risk v’s ideas v’s enabling etc)
  4. Clear Communication: Communicate the problems you’re trying to solve and how this solution came to be in the experiment you’re running to ascertain if it’s the correct solution. Proactively manage expectations clearly to all stakeholders.
  5. Start Small: Begin with a proof of concept to test and refine your approach. You can test all 3 critical areas -people, process and technology at once and learn a bunch for what happens next.
  6. Monitor Progress: Regularly check in and assess progress to ensure alignment, ongoing management of expectations and adjust course as needed.

Conclusion

Managing expectations around AI in the workplace requires a thoughtful and practical approach. By aligning expectations, exploring problems to solve, developing a clear strategy, fostering a culture of experimentation, and managing cultural dynamics, leaders can create solid foundations for a smoother transition to maximise the benefits of AI adoption. Remember to separate hype from reality and focus on progress, not perfection.

At AI Adaptive we work with leaders every day to help them supercharge their workplace in an intelligent way.
We are also the hosts for the Humans & AI in the Workplace Podcast 

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Unlocking the Potential of Microsoft Copilot: Navigating Human Dynamics and Governance

As organisations embrace the power of artificial intelligence, Microsoft Copilot has emerged as an early front runner, promising to supercharge productivity, amplify creativity, and ensure trusted security. However, without a thoughtful plan for sustainable adoption, organisations may crash into human bottlenecks and struggle to harness the collective intelligence of human and technology. In this article, we’ll delve into the key takeaways from a conversation with Matthew Shadwick, a seasoned Product Owner and Program Manager, on introducing Microsoft Copilot and the essential considerations for success.

The Human Bottleneck

One of the primary challenges in adopting Microsoft Copilot is the ‘human bottleneck’ (coined by Dr David Rock). As users transition from traditional keyword searches to prompting a large language model, they must learn new skills, such as prompt engineering. This requires a significant shift in mindset, as users must think critically about what they want to achieve and how to instruct the AI assistant effectively. Matthew Shadwick emphasises that “it’s a big learning curve for end users, and we’re teaching people new skills.”

Governance and Guardrails

To mitigate potential risks and ensure responsible use, governance and guardrails are crucial. Organisations must establish clear policies and guidelines for using Microsoft Copilot, particularly regarding sensitive data and privacy concerns. Shadwick stresses that “guardrails need to be considered, and people need to be educated on the use of the tooling.” This includes developing critical thinking skills to validate the accuracy of AI-generated output and making informed decisions.

Education and Critical Thinking

As AI technologies like Microsoft Copilot become more prevalent, education and critical thinking are essential skills for the workforce. Users must understand the capabilities and limitations of the technology and approach AI-generated output with a critical eye. Shadwick notes that “critical thinking is a skill that people need moving forward” to ensure they’re not simply accepting AI-generated output at face value.

Organisational Culture and Human-to-Human Relationships

The adoption of Microsoft Copilot also raises important considerations about organisational culture and human-to-human relationships. As AI technologies become more integrated into daily work, they may amplify existing cultural dynamics, such as lack of transparency and lack of accountability.

Key Takeaways

To unlock the full potential of a AI Copilot and effectively navigate the challenges of adoption, organisations should:

  1. Develop a thoughtful plan for sustainable adoption, considering both the benefits and potential risks.
  2. Invest in education and training for end users to learn new skills, such as prompt engineering.
  3. Establish governance and guardrails to ensure responsible use and mitigate potential risks.
  4. Foster critical thinking skills to validate AI-generated output and make informed decisions.
  5. Consider the impact on organisational culture.

By embracing these key takeaways and approaching the adoption of AI Copilots with a thoughtful and planned strategy, organisations can harness the power of AI to drive productivity, creativity, and innovation while minimizing the risks and challenges associated with human dynamics and governance.