Embracing AI with confidence and leading your team into the future

If your newsfeed across every platform is flooded with AI-related content - or even generated by AI - and you're starting to think it's time to get on board, you're definitely not alone.

The explosion of AI is comparable to the arrival of transformative technologies like smartphones, which have had a widespread and lasting impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. But you’d also not be alone in feeling overwhelmed about how or where to start to bring AI into your business. Sometimes the best way to start is by speaking with someone who's a few steps ahead—hearing their experience and learning from their tips. With this in mind we caught up with Kalyn Ponti (KP), CEO at Humankind and BPTW^TM Advocate Partner. Here are her incredible insights on getting started with AI.

Four phases of AI integration‍

When the team at Humankind began their AI journey, they realised that meaningful and thoughtful integration required cultural alignment, while addressing employee concerns about job security through reskilling and showcasing AI's role in enhancing productivity, not replacing jobs. And to do so, the leadership team’s involvement and advocacy of adoption was paramount.

They quickly learned that widespread adoption would not happen all at once, and so the process needed to be separated into four key phases:

Individual adoption
Individual utilisation and understanding of AI technologies—focusing on personal use of AI tools to uplift capability, increase curiosity and willingness to experiment with AI, build trust of AI outputs and resilience to change, and identify skills gaps.
Organisational adoption
Focus on the overall integration of AI into organisational processes, workflows and systems. Bringing AI into strategic goals to improve operational efficiency.
AI-enhanced products and services
Leveraging AI to augment or improve existing products and services rather than creating entirely new ones. The integration of AI can enhance performance and customer experience or unlock new capability without fundamentally changing the core functionality of the product or service.
Fully AI-driven organisation
AI is leveraged throughout the organisation’s entire operation, powering core processes, decision-making and task automation. AI becomes a part of the organisation’s systems, strategies, and even culture. Data collection and analysis is prioritised for AI to extract meaningful insights that underpin and inform strategic decisions.

Within the organisational adoption phase, KP also emphasised the importance of planning how AI is integrated into individual roles. During Humankind’s AI integration, they found the guidance from Josh Bersin very helpful:

Reframing current work
Using AI to create greater efficiency, for example using Co-Pilot as a digital co-worker to draft general copy, analyse data, generate imagery, or optimise workflows.
Role augmentation
Replace steps in processes, systems, and workflows with AI. For example, using AI to write code.
Re-engineering tasks
AI agents and team members working alongside - utilising the AI agent to undertake more mundane or repetitive tasks so the best of the human’s skills and abilities can be harnessed.
AI-specific roles
AI agents working under a human manager to complete tasks, leaving the human team to focus on more meaningful, value-adding tasks.

AI integration starts with culture‍

Like all changes within a workplace, integration of AI starts with the organisational culture. And how this plays out very much depends on the organisation’s strategic direction - for example if the strategy is to be first to market, then there will be a strong culture of innovation and AI would be used to support rapid iteration, accelerate experimentation and empower the team to take on new challenges. On the other hand, if the organisation deals with sensitive client data, then the culture will have an emphasis on security, privacy and accuracy, in which case AI will support those imperatives.

Regardless of the culture or strategy, it is important to focus on building a culture around AI that encourages curiosity, confidence, and capability. Every workplace will have people at every stage of the adoption spectrum, from early adopters to the skeptics. The goal is to inspire excitement about AI’s possibilities—and to reassure people that it's not here to replace them. Indeed, it is here to help bring out their talents, uplift capability, and make their work lives easier and more enjoyable.

Inspiring confidence‍

Despite your best efforts, there will still be some who fear that AI will replace them. This is where transparency and strong communication will help. During Humankind’s journey, KP said they ensured time was taken to surface the fears, and convey their commitment to supporting the team and their understanding of the technology by exposing them to the tools and supporting development of the skills required to evolve.

When KP was at the beginning of Humankind’s AI integration, she articulated clearly to her team that “AI won’t take your job, but someone who knows how to use AI could”.

By helping people to understand that AI has become a part of the world we live in, that its role is to improve and enhance productivity, and that as a result of using AI they will develop new skills and work on more meaningful tasks, KP found that the fear of AI quickly became a thing of the past. This was further reinforced by regular AI stories and case studies that were shared in weekly huddles, monthly updates and learning sessions.

Driven by leaders

KP emphasised the importance of the role of leaders in AI adoption, and stressed that this is not something that should be delegated. The sharing of success stories and building AI into organisational rhythms are key to creating a successful cultural shift.

Not all leaders will have the skills or understanding of AI to drive this change alone. And so seeking the help of external AI experts to support the journey in whatever capacity is needed may also be a good option. This support may be purely from a technical perspective to create AI agents, or it may also include support from an employee experience, culture, and organisational design perspective to ensure readiness across all aspects.

A world of possibilities‍

KP’s final words of advice for business leaders was simple: Embrace the possibilities AI offers. As you embark on your AI journey, remember: it's not about fearing change but leaning into the opportunities it brings to amplify human potential and organisational success.

If you would like organisational design and employee experience support as part of your AI journey, speak to the team at Humankind.

And if you’d like to get a gauge of your current culture and employee experience before you embark on a transformation, try the BPTW^TM Annual Survey, which can be activated until the end of May.