Unite AI and Change Management
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Define change management.
- Identify the keys that must be defined for AI change management.
Welcome to the Future
Generative AI (artificial intelligence) is changing how we live and work. Machines capable of making complex decisions once only dreamed up in science fiction books are now a reality. Today, Sales AI can craft a follow-up sales email based on previous communications and account activity. And Customer Service AI allows service agents to leverage AI-generated contextual responses when chatting with a customer. These are but a small representation of what’s available with the AI revolution. And the success of AI in the business world relies on choosing the right solution—and on ensuring deployment goes smoothly. This is why change management is key to successfully implementing AI in your business.
What Is Change Management?
Change management is a set of processes designed to help organizations and individuals successfully implement new initiatives, like launching new AI solutions. The goal of change management is to ensure the success of new initiatives by creating a comprehensive plan to launch and track the impact of new technologies.
The steps of change management in AI deployment may shift based on the solution and organization, but generally include:
- Obtaining buy-in from stakeholders
- Outlining who is responsible for completing specific tasks
- Implementing team training
- Ensuring high adoption rates
- Securing the long-term success of the new AI solution
The Keys to Change Management
To ensure investments in AI pay off, your organization must pair AI deployments with change management. Otherwise, your investments may be underutilized, underfunded, and ultimately unsuccessful.
Properly executed change management improves the overall success of incorporating AI technology into your business, but only when these key steps are followed.
Define Training Initiatives
Training is crucial to any new business initiative's success, but even more so for AI solutions. For workers unfamiliar with how AI functions in the workplace, the futuristic technology and terms may be intimidating. While terms such as automation, algorithm, and machine learning may have positive connotations for some, the basics of AI may not be as clear to other team members. Your employees can start ramping up on the basics with Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals and Generative AI Basics. Businesses with the smoothest AI transitions start education early and tailor it to multiple stakeholder groups before launch. Providing stakeholders with a baseline knowledge of the value of AI ensures your teams have a clear understanding of the benefits of AI adoption and the new tool's capabilities. Training should include everyone who will work closely with the new system.
Uncover Roadblocks Before Launch
The launch of new AI solutions can impact your teams and systems beyond those most closely related to the process. For example, Service AI clearly impacts the day-to-day tasks of the service agents, but may also affect operations in other departments. Part of the change management process is considering the broader impact of new technology on the business as a whole. Other roadblocks that can be mitigated through change management may include verifying the true need for the solution, ensuring proper metrics tracking, and reducing critical system downtime. Recognizing barriers early in the process enables new processes to integrate as seamlessly as possible into your existing processes.
Increase Adoption Rates
Adoption rates, or the number of people who actually use a new solution, should be one of the key metrics your organization tracks to ensure a new solution’s long-term success. If your company pours resources into deploying AI but doesn’t provide proper training or develop a new reward system, you may not see the expected return on your investment. The goals of increased efficiency and productivity falter when few people use the new system to its fullest.
Ensure the Long-Term Success of AI Technologies
Long-term success of your AI solutions aren’t determined at the end of a day or even several weeks after you launch. New technologies can take time to implement, and resistance is a common challenge in change management. Resistance can be particularly common when launching large-scale AI solutions that dramatically change the way some of your employees work. One of the keys to successful AI adoption is sustaining the changes and embedding the new processes into your organization’s workflow and culture. By using a change management process that outlines these initiatives from the start, you improve the new technology's long-term success.
Change management provides a roadmap for AI implementation that guides your business through the change. It helps anticipate challenges and ensures your company reaps the full benefits of AI technology. But how can you better support and empower workers when implementing AI solutions? Continue to the next unit for practical tips.