ENTERPRISE ADOPTION OF AI: AN UNINTENDED BARRIER

The obstacle to enterprise adoption of AI?  Oddly, it could be your company's AI policy. Ethan Mollick makes a great case in this post. Why? Because it emphasizes the dangers of AI and penalizes incorrect use. The result? No one uses it. And if they do, they hide it. This means you risk losing the productivity gains your competitors are getting and risk defections by top talent—who want to stay competitive and leave to find organizations that embrace AI.

What your organization needs most is social proof—that scientific truth that says that in times of uncertainty, we look to the behavior of others to know what to do. Just like “over 1 million served” or five-star reviews, your organization needs visible evidence that AI is being used. If everyone is using it, it must be good, right?

So revise your policy. And consider the following 4 actions that will encourage adoption

1. Provide access to paid versions of advanced frontier models, as Mollick suggests.

2. Encourage social proof by ritualizing the sharing of AI use cases and prompting tips during standups.

3. Highlight the growing trend in daily AI use in your organization. Employees want to be part of a movement! And not get left behind.

4. But be careful. Early on, report the TREND in usage rather than a specific statistic. If adoption is low, reporting actual numbers could provide NEGATIVE proof that discourages AI use. (If no one’s using it, how useful could it be?) Comments are welcomed.