Many leaders face common challenges when implementing AI strategies: which departments or roles should be the first to introduce AI, how to design training programs, how to learn best practices, but more importantly, they need to shift their mindset from simply improving individual productivity to creating lasting value for the entire organization. To this end, how should we break the game?
Principle 1: Deeply analyze the shortcomings of organizational data and explain potential development bottlenecks
Amy Webb, a quantitative futurist, recently had an in-depth conversation with a client and found out that they had no idea when the data was last audited, let alone who was responsible for it.
"Before we can move into the future of AI, we must first ensure that our internal data infrastructure is robust and reliable. ”
Amy Webb
Quantitative futurist
Only by finely structured processing an organization's data can AI help employees navigate and utilize it efficiently. According to a Microsoft Global Survey, when asked which tasks they are most likely to use AI tools and technology to accomplish, employees in sales (83%), customer service (81%) or IT/technology (85%) roles ranked "help me find the information I need quickly" as their top priority.
In addition, some employees are more specific and nuanced in their data needs. For example, 79% of sales employees expect AI to integrate marketing and sales data to improve work efficiency, finance employees want to use AI to break down information barriers and achieve real-time information sharing and circulation, and supply chain employees are eager to use AI to identify potential patterns in data to optimize supply chain management processes.
Principle 2: Identify job pain points and implement personalized solutions
Every role is unique, and the pain points and problems behind it are very different. Employees are looking to AI as a powerful tool to solve the core problems that will move a department or company forward, while freeing them from tedious administrative tasks.
In the case of salespeople we surveyed, topics such as "identifying opportunities" (75%) and "identifying the right customer contact" (73%) were cited as top priorities. However, in reality, they have to spend a lot of time answering emails, attending non-essential meetings, and writing cookie-cutter sales reports, and the time they actually have to understand and serve customers is extremely limited. Daniel Bertrand, Digital People Enablement Leader at Microsoft Customer & Partner Solutions, describes this repetitive work as "administrivia." AI provides them with an opportunity to solve this dilemma: whether it's drafting emails, creating sales reports, or visualizing data, AI can support them. What's more, AI can also help them organize a clear list of key points based on email exchanges before key meetings with customers, ensuring that they can more accurately grasp the core content of the discussion in the meeting.
Today, many salespeople have already tasted the sweetness of AI. According to a recent LinkedIn survey of B2B salespeople, up to 75% of salespeople who use AI are able to exceed their quotas, compared to 25% of salespeople who don't.
In the field of marketing, a whopping 82% of practitioners are eager to get the latest market trend insights in order to better grasp the business opportunities related to their products and services. Luckily, they can now use the Copilot feature in Excel to pinpoint trends and outliers from the vast amount of market research data to steer their campaigns.
In the IT industry, a surprising fact revealed by our survey: 83% of practitioners expect the power of AI to make routine tasks such as software updates and backup management efficient and automated. Perhaps the true appeal of AI lies in its ability to provide solutions tailored to the unique needs of each specific role.
When asked which tasks AI is most likely to help with with it, sales employees (83%), customer service teams (81%), and IT/technology (85%) all say "quickly locate and get the information you need" is their top choice.
Principle 3: Discover and nurture super users to lead the team forward
We should proactively seek out employees who are passionate about AI, use it frequently, and actively provide feedback, and give them more responsibilities and opportunities to become a key force in driving change in the team. Not only will these power users be our best evangelists, actively sharing their insights and learnings, but they will also serve as a treasure trove of knowledge within the team, providing valuable guidance and support to other employees. Their presence, as Anand puts it, will "drive the adoption of AI in exponential ways."
The power user not only plays the role of evangelist, but also the think tank of the team. When other employees encounter confusion or problems while using AI, they can ask the power user for advice to ensure that they are doing it correctly.
When it comes to AI, no one wants to go it alone. Our survey shows that 32% of IT/technical employees are eager to have a dedicated in-house team to oversee and guide AI integration efforts, while 33% of marketers expect organizations to share more use cases about AI tools to help them better understand and apply them.
To unlock the full potential of these champions and innovators, we can take a more creative approach.
"We should focus on the employees who are most likely to breathe new energy and creativity into Copilot. So, we can set a certain number of qualifications, say 50, and then encourage employees to submit their creative ideas, and select the 50 that have the most potential and innovation, and award them with these qualifications. ”
Kevin Sherman
Director of Marketing at Microsoft
In the process of deploying AI, we need to carefully consider which teams and domains can maximize the benefits of AI in the shortest possible time. Microsoft, for example, started its first foray into five core departments, including marketing, sales and customer service, and human resources and finance. For other organizations, leaner teams may be selected for the initial phase to pilot, but it's important to make sure that these teams have a significant impact on improving customer satisfaction and achieving business goals.
Whether your organization is planning to deploy 20 or 2,000 AI seats, it's important to ensure that your entire team has access to AI technology once you move beyond the experimental pilot phase to full deployment and implementation. In this way, team members can learn from each other, learn from each other's successes, and learn from failures to continuously improve and improve. At the same time, the support of senior leadership is indispensable. "We have found that only when employees really feel that managers value AI technology will they be more motivated to use Copilot and realize its full potential," Bertrand emphasized.
Principle 4: Focus on skills retraining to create the core competitiveness of talents
While interacting with AI is fun, maximizing its value requires employees to devote enough time to in-depth training. This training not only helps them acquire new skills, but also gives them a competitive edge in their careers as AI tools become the norm at work.
"We have to retrain our staff. They need to learn how to share data efficiently and how to operate AI tools proficiently. The retraining of interactive skills is crucial, and it is a journey where technology and users progress together. ”
Hussein Noba
Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft
Organizations need to build this foundation of trust in AI in a number of ways, such as holding professional training workshops that detail the rigorous testing and validation process that the technology has undergone. In Microsoft's survey, respondents generally agreed that "clearly defining the scope and limits of AI tools that employees can use" is the most effective way for organizations to build trust in workplace AI, regardless of their career field. By doing so, organizations can ensure that employees are able to use AI tools to their full potential while following the appropriate rules and restrictions, enabling more efficient and safe AI applications at work.
Principle 5: Deepen employees' adaptability to new technologies and cultivate efficient work habits
As new technologies emerge, employees need to adapt and develop work habits to match. Whenever a company launches a new technology tool, it often experiences a brief boom followed by a decline in usage as some employees find that the tools don't quite meet their expectations. As Bertrand put it: "There are those who have strong personalities and act decisively, and they may say, I'll only give you one chance, and if you don't do what I ask, then I'll do it myself." ”
In order to overcome these potential challenges and realize the full potential of new technologies, we need to develop solutions that are tailored to the different roles and responsibilities of our employees.
"By crafting typical AI use cases for each role, we can significantly improve the productivity of our employees and make them more accustomed to using these advanced AI tools. ”
Daniel Bertrand
Microsoft Customer & Partner Solutions
Digital people empower leaders
For salespeople, new work habits may include leveraging Copilot to record meeting highlights so they can focus more on capturing customer needs and feedback, while finance professionals may use AI tools for fast and accurate data analysis to support decision-making. In addition, customer service personnel may be eager to use AI to assist in generating preliminary service plans, IT personnel may want AI to automate software update tasks, marketers may expect AI to summarize and analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, and supply chain personnel may use AI to optimize order processing and logistics distribution processes.
However, regardless of the employee's position, Sherman shares a commendable habit for using AI: "Every once in a while, I deliberately set aside a period of time in my schedule to focus on exploring how to use Copilot to solve the challenges in my day-to-day work. This intentional setting aside time for focused exploration has become a highly effective way to integrate Copilot more deeply into my day-to-day work, and has led to a significant increase in my productivity. ”
It's important for leaders to build habits of reflection and iteration. Once you've introduced AI technology, it's important to spend the first few months scrutinizing how well each feature works and identifying what works well and what needs to be improved. Is the data source lacking in precision for a function?Are users enthusiastic about a skill and showing a strong interest?Are users having skills that they don't currently have but are eager for AI to help?Keeping an eye out for these early signs will help organizations leverage AI in a more strategic way.
Regardless of your industry, it's always wise for leaders to follow these five principles to embrace the AI trend as early as possible, and create more value through the process of exploring and learning from the process, rather than joining as a latecomer.
◉ Principle 1: In-depth analysis of organizational data to provide precise direction for AI applications;
◉ Principle 2: Identify job pain points and realize personalized AI solutions;
◉ Principle 3: Discover and cultivate super users and lead the team forward;
◉ Principle 4: Focus on skill retraining to enhance the team's AI strength;
◉ Principle 5: Deepen the technical adaptability of employees and cultivate efficient work habits.