The advent of Generative AI (GenAI) has ushered in a new era of possibilities for businesses, allowing them to harness the power of artificial intelligence in unprecedented ways. With the global generative market currently worth $44.89 billion and expected to reach $66.62 billion (Statista) by the end of the year, it’s no wonder that organisations are keen to get a piece of the proverbial pie. However, whilst the appetite exists, it is the execution where many organisations falter, with recent studies showing 62% of business executives lack the skills to execute their AI strategy (Statista).
Implementing GenAI technology is a complex process that goes beyond just updating software or systems. It involves a fundamental shift in organisational operations and decision-making, affecting workflow processes, employee roles, and interactions, as well as changing the perception that GenAI will not replace people.
- Understand your “why”
Organisations often fall into the trap of believing that Generative AI (GenAI) is the silver bullet for their challenges, investing billions without fully understanding its value. To determine if GenAI is truly worth the investment, it’s crucial to understand your “why” – the benefits users can seek from GenAI.
GenAI can excel in tasks that are time-consuming, error-prone, or repetitive, and can provide enhanced data analysis and insights for better decision-making.
There may not be a single “why” but rather a collection of generative use cases and associated users who could benefit from this technology.
What this looks like in action: When Clarasys worked with in Professional Services, we identified early adopters proficient in using GenAI solutions.By providing them access to this technology, they were able to explore its capabilities and limitations. This feedback was instrumental in creating a comprehensive use case library.
- Build a GenAI Proof Of Concept
Proving the effectiveness of GenAI solutions is key to gaining buy-in and to do so, requires the involvement of a diverse array of users and their perspectives.
The term “diverse” is crucial because in global organisations, users often have nuances specific to their locations, roles, and sectors that affect how they adopt technology and their appetites for change.
Consequently, this requires tailored change management strategies to be used that address both broad (macro) and specific (micro) organisational levels/challenges and helps to identify super users.
- Provide training and support: As your organisation adopts GenAI, providing thorough training and support is crucial to ensure users feel confident with the new technology. This includes live training sessions, workshops, and ongoing support from GenAI experts, ideally, through a centralised learning platform.
Creating a super user community of change champions is a key strategy. These champions can help design, test, train, and support the transition, ensuring productivity remains steady and guiding the organisation towards successful adoption and long-term sustainment. This community should represent the diverse user base to ensure all perspectives are considered. They need to become the face of the change, actively assist with queries, host talks and training sessions, and stay updated on GenAI advancements to share information across the organisation.
Based on our experience, multiple levels of training are necessary to accommodate the varying levels of maturity in GenAI knowledge and usage among users.
It is important to remember that just as Rome wasn’t built in a day – neither will the adoption of GenAI happen overnight. For global organisations, training needs to be done over time and when designing your training plan, you can segment the user base into training groups i.e. by region.
- Measure GenAI output success against goals
It is important to set clear and realistic goals for implementation. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, you may set goals related to reducing manual data entry time by a certain percentage, increasing the accuracy of forecasting models, or improving customer satisfaction scores.
- Monitor and evaluate progress: Finally, it is crucial to continuously monitor and evaluate the progress of GenAI implementation in your organisation. This could involve tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) related to the goals set during the planning phase, gathering feedback from users on their experience with GenAI, and making adjustments to the implementation plan as needed to ensure success.
One thing to note is that the evaluation needs to take into consideration how the technology will be used by different user personas within the user base in their daily operations as this may affect why and when they use the GenAI solution
Ultimately, successfully implementing GenAI technology requires a holistic approach that considers not only the technical aspects of the change, but also the cultural and organisational shifts needed to support its integration. By gaining buy-in from all stakeholders and fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration, organisations can maximise the potential benefits of genAI technology and drive meaningful change within their operations.
Clarasys is an international business consulting firm.
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