3 Ways To Ensure Effective Generative AI Adoption

With all the excitement and buzz around generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), it can be challenging for organizations to ensure AI usage sticks and is done strategically. Will employees actually use the technology? Will they be willing to change their current processes to include AI? Will they see the value of the tools and stick with them, or will the excitement about something new quickly fade? Change is naturally difficult, and AI is a loaded topic, with some people overwhelmed by the potential, others fearful for their jobs, and some uncertain about the entire thing.

This is where the role of strategy and change management teams is crucial. Gen AI is the most disruptive technology to be released in decades, so ensuring a strategic release and effective change management is critical — not just for current teams but for the company's future.

How can leaders and strategy teams ensure AI adoption happens and measure its success? Here are three best practices.

Parallel Long-Term Strategy with Pilot Testing

In a perfect world, companies would have time to start small with Gen AI, do continuous testing, and then build toward a larger strategy. The reality is that companies will need to build their long-term strategy while also piloting against use cases. You can’t have speed without strategy: if you have the right AI strategy but don’t move quickly, you’ll get left behind and can become obsolete. But if you move quickly but don’t have the right AI strategy, you’ll operate on a shaky foundation and will likely need significant course corrections down the road, which can be costly and put you far behind the competition.

Balancing strategy and speeds requires a balanced approach to manage both at the same time. Think about your overall Gen AI strategy, the business investment required, and the long-term solution architecture while also testing a variety of tools and use cases to see what sticks. A strategy may look good on paper or in the lab, but you won’t know how it works in the real world of your organization until you test it. You can’t wait for your strategy to be set in stone before you start testing — you have to take a leap of faith and move through both processes simultaneously.

From our experience, companies need to use a stage-gate model to balance long-term strategy with pilot testing. As you implement new AI tools, check in on the teams and users periodically and use their insights and metrics to quickly shift your strategy to what makes the most sense. Is the current strategy working, or should you pivot? What strategy shifts could impact the testing? Should you stop a pilot test, change a test, or start a new test? Check-ins open the door for valuable insights, which must be followed by quick shifts. As you parallel long-term strategy with pilot testing, you create a strong AI foundation and can become a leader in the field.

Measuring the Success of Gen AI Isn’t as Simple as A/B Testing

For everything from new products to new ad campaigns, most companies are used to doing A/B testing as they expand and introduce new ideas to their digital products and services. We’ve grown accustomed to analytics providing clear answers about optimizing products and processes to reach long-term goals.

But Gen AI tools aren’t always used in a linear progression — users may start with one for a few tasks before switching to another tool or trying something new. They could also use AI for multiple tasks or tasks that influence other activities. The path to adopting Gen AI isn’t a straight line but rather resembles a football playbook with users moving in all directions simultaneously.

Because of that abstract pattern, companies can’t rely on their traditional quantitative testing and data analysis methods and expect to get accurate and usable results.

Instead, your best insights will likely come from asking users about their experiences. Gen AI allows users to create fluid experiences — the tools may replace parts of a task or a full task or even combine multiple tasks into a new experience. There isn’t one metric that can measure the impact of that change. Your best resource is the people who use AI tools in their daily work.

Lean into qualitative data and ask employees how they use the Gen AI tool and how it has helped them save time or improved their experience. Those real-world responses can help teams determine whether the AI tools are on the right track and being used in impactful ways or if there is room for improvement. Continue gathering these insights throughout the testing and implementation process to make adjustments and ensure the right AI tools are used in the best way possible for your company.

Set and Communicate Realistic Expectations

While Generative AI has incredible potential, it’s crucial to have a realistic understanding of its impact and when your organization will see results. Many companies think of Gen AI as the silver bullet solution to all their problems and are disappointed when they don’t immediately see a dramatic transformation. Expectations are starting to self-correct, but there is still work to be done to create a realistic view of Gen AI’s impact and timing.

AI technology is rapidly growing and evolving, and there’s a long way to go for companies to see consistently accurate results. As you invest in Gen AI tools, you likely won’t see savings right away. But that doesn’t mean the investment isn’t worth it. Embracing AI and going on the ride as it is developed is a worthwhile endeavor that can set your organization up for long-term success — even if you can’t see that immediately.

There’s a lot of fear, questions, assumptions, and unknowns about AI, especially from people who only interact with it tangentially and aren’t in the trenches of its development and application. Strategy teams need to push expectations up and down their organization so management understands the required investment and employees realize the fear that AI will take their jobs isn’t the likely reality.

Middle managers need to stress with leaders the reality of the investments required to successfully implement Gen AI. Many leaders expect quick success with minimal or one-time investments, but that isn’t the case. As you teach leaders and employees realistic expectations for Gen AI, they can begin to have an accurate view of its incredible potential — without expecting overnight results or fearing they’ll be replaced by an intelligent system tomorrow.

AI technology is crucial, but effective change management for its implementation is just as important. As you strategize, test, and teach, you can establish a successful implementation of Gen AI that lasts across your entire organization.