Why the people and organizational viewpoint is key to realize AI value

And those who receive the tools? We also need a broader workforce that can receive the tools, and use them effectively. The value from AI comes from employees becoming more productive in their work; otherwise, licenses for tools and models are just a cost. Finding the right measurements for analyzing the return on investment, planning for how much more productive our teams will become with the tools, and what we will do with the leftover time, are key factors in how the value of AI is realized. Without it, we leave value realization to chance. Should we adjust the size of the organization? How much, if so? Which roles should be adjusted? Should we use the time saved to do new things?

It is critical that organizations include these perspectives at an early stage in the AI transformation to avoid realizing after the go-live date that it only became an additional cost for the organization, and there is no better time to start than now.

Extensive focus on driving adoption and change management:

We all know how important change management is, and it is especially important when it comes to AI as the changes are often larger. AI will affect how we perform our work, but it also changes how we fundamentally interact with technological platforms, e.g., through the language used to interact with GenAI tools such as prompting.

Employers see AI as a groundbreaking solution for productivity and flexibility – and it is, but only if the technology is actually used. For AI to truly create value, we must build both confidence and practical understanding among those who use the technology daily. It is very important to approach driving adoption and AI change management from an end-to-end perspective, not just when the tools are going live. Early on, it needs to be defined what vision the company is working toward with AI, which business cases we are working toward, and how those correlate to the strategic objectives of senior business stakeholders, showing employees that the change is real, engaging leaders to drive the change, setting up clusters of engaged users who can help others adopt the new technology, and promoting experimentation.

If AI is to become an integrated part of the company's way of working and culture, it needs to become just that, an integrated part of how leaders lead, how employees work, and how groups collaborate. This requires an extensive focus on driving adoption, and according to our experience, it does not often occur naturally.

The use of AI in the workplace has increased significantly over the past years and will continue to become a larger part of our lives. Many companies find it difficult to extract value from their AI investments, often due to a lack of focus on building the workforce that effectively utilizes AI. They risk becoming obsolete if they do not start now. To realize the value of AI tools, it is important for organizations to focus on two main perspectives: creating a workforce that can develop and utilize AI tools, and driving adoption and change management from an end-to-end perspective – from before a decision to go ahead with a specific use case, to after the roll-out is complete – tracking benefits and ensuring business value.