AI is EVERYWHERE, and it gets a bit overwhelming. Many of us feel almost inadequate to this change. Where do I start? How much time do we put into this to make sure we don’t fall behind, WHILE still running the business? I can sense the potential value of AI for us, but how do we make it work for the whole organization?
Option 1 – start with yourself
There is the obvious, self-guided tool approach. Acquire a tool and start dabbling. Explore how to use it. Stumble about here and there, but with enough time and perseverance, build your expertise. All the true AI experts we have today started like that, on their own, staying ahead of the pack (the rest of us). I know several people who took the trailblazer approach, personally and they are amazing. They are much smarter than I am, they saw the potential, often dropped everything they were doing and went AI (as in, “All In”) on AI.
I, myself, am a late adopter, and I never wanted to stop doing what I was doing. Although reasonably technically savvy, this uncertainty on ROI on my time exploring everything by myself held me back; especially at the time when the usefulness was really in question. Honestly, I am kinda glad I did. Let others blaze the paths, pick the right one to follow, and progress at a higher pace with lower overall time expenditure. This also means I jumped in once patterns were established, pitfalls known, limits tested. I truly believe that in 12 weeks I got very close to the point I would be at, had I spent the last year to date dabbling and self-learning. Maybe even further (less stuff to un-learn).
What I’m trying to say is, if you are starting now – you are benefiting from a much better starting point than those who started a year ago. No reason for FOMO. There are resources, courses (yes, also a lot of hype so do your homework). Pay the money to those who did the hard work, they deserve it, and you won’t regret the investment.
Option 2 – grow an AI champion
The driving force behind AI adoption in the organization doesn’t need to be you – as long as you support it, though! Someone on the team can take the reins, and run with it – given enough resources and authority (we’re, after all, talking about a major change that needs to be managed). Set up the expectations, and let them go and explore (same rules apply – good course / community would be the way to go here for best ROI).
I have a running joke with my personal trainer: “20% what I pay you is for you to tell me what to do. 80% is for me to show up.” I took the same approach with learning AI. Dedicate the time, the money, and dive in. I can’t recommend it enough, especially now. The space is evolving so fast that should I have started on my own now, I would have never caught up. Now I feel like I’m riding the wave. Your business can too.
Where does the AI journey fit in your business and what is YOUR next step?
