AI Integration: Managing Change for Optimal Results – Predict 2025

Hi everyone. Um, it's really great to be here today. My name is, uh, Sarah, and I'll be, uh, speaking to you today specifically about AI integration and, uh, how can we manage this change in, in the, in this very fast moving environment to deliver optimal results for the productivity of your teams.

Um, a little bit about myself. I've spent the last eight years, uh, working in the tech industry in, um, Europe, or at least in Africa, in our beloved EMEA region. And I took up various roles in tech, um, starting from sales and helping companies supercharge their, their sales, um, and their marketing strategies with, uh, digital marketing, um, all the way to my latest role working on the AI go to market strategy for, um, one of the largest tech hyperscalers we know of today.

A little bit more about me. Um, I'm really passionate about, um, empowering customer facing, uh, teams, be it sales, customer service. So maybe the examples I'll be bringing up today are more from, from this world.

Um, and I'm very excited to talk to you about how we're bringing AI to these teams and to more, uh, diverse teams across the different organizations, which is what brings us to ai, which is a topic of today and a topic of every day, actually lately in, um, in the past three years at least. Um, I'm incredibly excited about the potential of AI and how it could transform how we work, particularly it's impact on productivity and on how we do work every day is something that, um, I've been working on religiously in the past two and a half years, and I'm very excited to share my experience with you in, in this talk. We also know, um, and many of you have already tried, uh, bringing in AI into your organization with varying degrees of success as implementing new technologies, including, uh, artificial intelligence and generative AI specific, and the exchange management can be a bit challenging.

So today why I'm here is to share with you some practical insights, uh, more of like my mini playbook and how, uh, we can employ strategies that help us successfully integrate AI into your organization and into your teams. So we'll cover everything starting from laying a very good ground for change, to working on the groundwork to ensure all the way to up, to ensuring we have a continuous improvement into implementing ai, uh, into your team's workflows every day. And we'll try, um, to give you some tips as well in order to ha to up the knowledge of your teams, um, and make sure you choose the right tools to make AI work for you and your teams as well.

My flow today will be, we'll first discover how do we lay a good ground for, for this change? What's the, the vision, um, how do we tackle leadership endorsement, um, and so on so forth. And then secondly, and a very important lever of AI adoption into your organization, which I've, I've witnessed working with some of the largest customers in the region.

Why? And how do we invest in customized department specific training? So not just generalized training.

How can we make it more specific to the workflows of the users that we're trying to, um, change their behavior into adopting ai, into changing the way we work? And thirdly, how do we foster an AI culture? Or in other words, how can we create an AI enabled AI first drive in the organization?

And how do we also boost collaboration when it comes to this topic and the teams helping each other to increase this adoption? And finally, and most importantly, how do we drive continuous improvement, not just purchase or, um, start deploying the tool without having a plan for continuous improvement, for metrics tracking and iterative refinement. All of these four elements we'll be discussing today in more de detail.

Um, this all comes from my personal experience as well as my three year experience in ai go to market strategy and working on success strategies on how to implement AI into your, um, workflow and to boost productivity of your teams. It has given me so much time. The preparation for this talk took me only 30 minutes when in the past, in similar talks or in similar speeches, I would spend more than four hours preparing.

Uh, maybe I'm biased and also as an individual working on AI myself, it might have been a little easier to adopt since it's like the, the bread and butter of how I do my work every day. But I'll be honest, um, getting AI up and running in an organization isn't always easy in the diverse industries in this world. So there are varying degrees of how, um, adoptions scales up in organizations.

Maybe it's, uh, faster enter tech companies more slow in more traditional companies. And this fool, um, foolproof, um, strategy that I'm gonna share with you today is hopefully adaptable to different industries and different verticals. So starting with the first lever, which is laying a good ground for change, as I would like to call it.

We're all excited about ai, but where do we even begin? Your employees might be already using some of the most popular tools from their consumer accounts. They have some experience with it, some haven't at all played around with it.

It's crucial to realize that bringing AI tools isn't just about choosing the tech itself. It's about also changing how we think about how we work. It's a cultural shift in your organization.

Think of it more of like building, um, a house and you need a strong foundation, right? That foundation is about getting everybody on board and having a clear vision into why we're implementing this, um, tool or way of working moving forward. And for that, there are two levers, two sub levers as there are so many levers now or to, to stop points.

One is leadership sponsorship and setting strategic objectives. And the second one is identify which workflows, which teams and key departments that will be more impacted. Is it like marketing with content generation?

Is it, um, the human resources departments and how to improve their, uh, the recruitment process from A to Z? With ai, we need to think about these things going to leadership point. First, of course, we need our leaders to champion AI when they are visibly using it.

And when they are openly and consistently talking about its benefits, it gets everybody else excited and helps overcome hesitation. This endorsement needs to come from the leadership level, and this vision needs to come at the top level of the organization as this would set the tone. And with, with the leadership team also, they have a huge responsibility in setting crystal clear why we're implementing ai.

We need to define our goals. We need to define what are our objectives into maybe the micro objectives as well, pre departments that are needed, um, in order to entice this excitement in, in, into their, the teams and the different individuals in the, in the organization. Are we aiming to speed data processing?

Are we shortening the, the recruitment, uh, timeline? Are we improving customer interactions? What are the macro and micro goals that would help us reach, um, a better and a more productive organization overall using these emerging tools?

And finally, we need to be also very strategic. Where will AI make the biggest difference? As we previously discussed as a second board, what are the impacted workflows and key departments that we will adopt this change?

We map out what are the key workflows? Is it hr, is it customer service? And focus our resources there.

We may want to also take a, um, a phased approach to, to our implementation as well. And that could be a, a way that your organization would, would take to implement AI into your, uh, business. So this targeted approach, uh, ensures that we get the most out of AI and make the transition smoother for everybody.

The second element or leader that we always recommend that organizations focus on of course, is training. Change management is not easy. It's not only the vision that needs to be set, but you need to give your teams the, the knowledge and the tools in order to make the most out of this investment that you've brought into your business.

You've got the groundwork late, now everybody knows what's the goal. Um, let's talk about getting our people comfortable and confident with using AI in their day, day-to-day. It can be intimidating, and that's where trainings comes in.

We spoke about generalized versus department specific trainings, and I'm all in for department specific. You can, of course, it, it depends on the resources of the organization. Can you, do you afford at this stage, um, of the, of the adoption process to really customize the, the training?

There are ways that you can do it in a simple manner in which you can make it relatable to the different teams, um, across the different departments. It cannot be a one size fits all approach. Every team uses AI differently.

You have to elaborate on the use cases. Sales teams, for example, might use a to analyze customer data or improve their pitches or with email outreach while HR might use it to automate resume screening, for example. Um, or also comms with the, with the, with the recruits, et cetera.

So we need to really tailor the training to each department so they understand how each and every user could benefit from this technology. Think of it more like of, um, of a specialized workshops where everybody learns exactly how AI can help them in their role rather than a generic, um, guidance for the tool. This makes the benefits also crystal clear and gets everybody excited to use it along the process.

We need not to forget about ongoing support. We need to provide easy access to resources. You could avail on demand resources or video trainings, best practice guides.

This allows people really to learn at the wrong pace and help and get the help whenever they need. Some, of course of the vendors, of the AI organizations, they offer best practice guides, but you may want to consider if that is available in your, in your company as a resource to kind of customize it. Again, going back to department specific best practice guides.

And finally, to make sure that the training is consistent. You need ownership, you need someone to own it. Maybe it's, it's the human resources department really, depending on the structure of your organization.

Maybe it's it, or maybe we can have an AI training lead. Um, again, if resources allow, and it'll definitely be a very positive ROI if done right. The point is, we need a clear structure.

You need the dedicated team to make sure that everybody is equipped to succeed with ai, to have a competitive advantage that you, um, need for, to grow your business. And now the third point, and it's about creating a collaborative AI enabled culture. Now that's a lot of, um, AI words thrown at you.

I apologize in advance. You must have heard it a lot also, uh, across the event. But it's inevitable that we, um, break down this topic further to maximize the benefits that we can get from it as well.

Now we've got the training down, but there's another key ingredient for success. And that is, so like more than the, even the previous two, the four points are focused on people, but this is really focused on the people-centric approach on the culture where everybody feels comfortable with AI and is excited to use it. How do you create a friendly environment where AI is welcomed with open arms across the different teams?

And with that, there are some tactical approaches that you can take in order to create this culture. And one of the best ways is, and we do it in in my company as well, is to encourage knowledge sharing. You can create spaces where, like physical spaces or virtual spaces where people can easily connect and talk about ai.

You can make it near, I'm not gonna complicate it for you. You can make it as generic or as specific as possible. So AI and marketing, AI and in sales or just using AI at company X, for example.

Um, and with that, with that forum, this allows everyone to learn from each other, share tips and best practices and, um, maybe troubleshoot together, et cetera. And this really makes the AI culture even more popular across your organization and within every team, there's always those who are what we call champions or those who really embrace new technology fast. Um, identify those AI enthusiasts, turn them into champions, um, make them known in the team and in the organization.

They can be ambassadors for their own teams or sharing their knowledge, answering questions, encouraging each other to give AI a try. This also really helps bring everybody along on this journey. And then finally, um, making sure we're consistently listening to the people with, whether it's through these channels that you created.

Make sure that the AI owning team or the AI adoption strategy owning team that we previously discussed in the preceding point is listening and is gathering the feedback. There are surveys going out, there are team discussions happening and feedback forms also maybe being sent. This helps you understand what's working and what's not, where, which teams are struggling more than the others, or you need to focus more resource, et cetera.

And that really helps improve the AI experience for everyone and break those, um, let's call them misconceptions that are around the AI topic in the workplace. After all, um, with this collaborative culture, you really make AI work for your company and not the other way around. And for the final point, before we go into summarizing the four levers, it's very important that we iterate, we refine, and we drive continuous improvement with possibly phase three rollouts as well.

It's not only about introducing the tool as we have previously discussed, it's not only about purchasing, purchasing it for your team with all the previous three steps, you'll be able to keep things moving. The world of AI specifically is so fast changing. I went on holidays for a month almost now in December, and I am back to a new reality.

Um, even as my core role in AI go to market, there's a lot to learn this week particularly. And in, in January, um, a lot changes. It's like trying to hit a moving target.

So we need to be flexible, adaptable in how we implement it. Think of it like an ongoing journey. It's not we purchase, we roll out and that's it.

It's not a one time destination. Instead of like diving head first, I recommend you take a phased approach. Start with a small pilot project.

Um, if a full rollout in your whole company may not be feasible, maybe start with, um, customer service and see how it goes, learn from it, fine, tune it, and then gradually roll it out to other areas. This way we could avoid major disruptions and build confidence along the way and have like role model departments that the rest of the organization could look at and learn from. You also need to know if AI is actually working.

It should as the data prove that. And if it's not, then you need to be looking, are you tracking the right metrics? Are you saving time?

Are you reducing errors? Is productivity increasing? So you need to keep a, a close eye on these numbers and use the data to make AI even better.

That's what we call by iterative refinement, and it's a key concept in change management. You need to embrace the idea of, of iteration, especially as we mentioned that the AI landscape is constantly evolving and you would, you may need to revisit your strategy. The tools you have purchased may have evolved.

There's are new, new things. There are new security, um, features that are upcoming. Make adjustments and try new things and always update your organization.

That goes back up to the leadership also endorsement and their, and their championing from their side as well as the owning team. You need to make sure there's continuous communication in different channels across the organization in order to help bring everybody on board and really up the game when it comes to productivity, um, across your teams. That's, that's the fourth point really.

Um, if I may summarize again, um, and wrap things up first, remember, it's not, AI is not just about boosting productivity or automating tasks. It's so much more than that. It's transforming the workplace culture.

This is not the future. It is the present. It is happening there.

Your many of your team members are already using theses in their personal lives or even using it for their work life, using their consumer accounts. Um, which is something we always advise against as the tools need to be enterprise grade fostered with enterprise grade security. Of course, AI fosters innovation.

It empowers your team to do their best work. It removes the layers of mundane tasks, um, and really, really saves time. Uh, and an example is my top to date, 30 minutes versus four hours previously.

Let's recap the key takeaways. We need to start with a strong foundation laying the ground for change, as we call it. Set clear objectives, leadership barrier, targeted approach.

And then you need to invest in customized trainings. With that you foster a collaborative environment where everybody feels comfortable with AI and they come together to share best practices. And you finally need to embrace continuous improvement, especially with ai as it's very fast changing, keep learning, iterating, adopting AI strategies ahead of the curve to stay ahead of the curve.

And this is how you create an AI ready, um, business environment across your teams and work together to achieve really great things. Um, by reaping the benefits of this emerging technology. I really hope this kind of playbook or guide, um, really touches on the needed aspects of change management into how to bring AI and boost its adoption into your organization.

And I believe there will be a q and a also available and ready for your questions. Thank you very much. It was lovely to be with you.