Speaker 1: If you're a leader who's rolled out an AI tool
Speaker 1: like co pilot or chat GPT and wonder Light hasn't
Speaker 1: led to the big productivity gains you were promised, or worse,
Speaker 1: it feels like you've created more mess. You are not
Speaker 1: alone because on paper, this stuff should be easy. Give
Speaker 1: people access, maybe run a short demo and let them
Speaker 1: figure it out. But in reality that approach often leads
Speaker 1: to confusion, resistance, and a lot of wasted time. And
Speaker 1: it's not because your people are unwilling or slow to adapt.
Speaker 1: It's because AI adoption isn't really a tech problem, it's
Speaker 1: a people one. So in this episode, Neo and I
Speaker 1: unpack the single most important question every leader should be
Speaker 1: asking about AI and what to do once you've asked it.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk through why giving people licenses without
Speaker 1: support backfires, how poor AI use can actually reduce productivity,
Speaker 1: and three things leaders need to get right from day one.
Speaker 1: By the end, you're going to have a much clearer
Speaker 1: sense of how to bring AI into your organization without
Speaker 1: losing trust, time, or momentum. Welcome to how IAI with Me,
Speaker 1: Doctor Amantha Imba and Neo Applan, head of Inventium, AI.
Speaker 1: Each episode we share one practical way to use AI
Speaker 1: better at work and in life. No fluff, no tech jargon,
Speaker 1: just things you can use straight away. So, Neo at
Speaker 1: Inventium AI, we work with so many different teams and
Speaker 1: we've probably worked with hundreds and hundreds of different leaders
Speaker 1: at this point in time, and they have got a
Speaker 1: lot of questions for us. But today we want to
Speaker 1: talk about the one question that we think every leader
Speaker 1: should be asking about AI. So tell me, Neo, what
Speaker 1: is this one question that every single leader should ask
Speaker 1: about AI.
Speaker 2: It's about how can I help my people be ready
Speaker 2: for AI? Because it's a people problem, not a technology problem.
Speaker 2: We found this every single step along the way, where
Speaker 2: simply giving someone here's an AI, go for it. You've
Speaker 2: got CHPT, you've got clawed, you've got Gemini go is
Speaker 2: actually a recipe for disaster. They've shown this in so
Speaker 2: many studies of implementations globally. There've been cases where people
Speaker 2: have effectively demigrated, which is the staff have risen up
Speaker 2: and said, take this damn thing off my computer now.
Speaker 2: And so that's an expensive problem to have. It's an
Speaker 2: expensive mistake to have, and not just that you've got
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of staff members who are then disenfranchised,
Speaker 2: don't feel like they we listen to and things like that.
Speaker 2: So this is very much a people dimension. So how
Speaker 2: do we get our people ready for AI?
Speaker 1: I am personally surprised at how many organizations we encounter
Speaker 1: that have given people a paid license for whatever their
Speaker 1: AI tool of choice is and they haven't done anything
Speaker 1: in terms of building capability. They think, oh, it's just
Speaker 1: like Google. You just you know, speak to it in
Speaker 1: your caveman, you know, best restaurants, Melbourne speak, and it's
Speaker 1: just intuitive how to get the best out of it.
Speaker 1: But for you and I I think, because we're deep
Speaker 1: in this space and we have been using it every day,
Speaker 1: multiple times a day, for gosh like about three years now,
Speaker 1: to get the best out of it, it's not actually intuitive.
Speaker 1: So what are some of the things that leaders can
Speaker 1: practically do to set their teams up for success assuming
Speaker 1: they have just implemented or rolled out a paid version
Speaker 1: paid licence since the it's a their AI tool of choice,
Speaker 1: or they're thinking about doing that in the coming months.
Speaker 2: First off, telling people why why you will think that
Speaker 2: AI is a good thing. Now, we found the most
Speaker 2: successful organizations give the why, not that we're going to
Speaker 2: replace people and get bitter people in their jobs. That's
Speaker 2: going to make people scared. The why often we've found
Speaker 2: from organizations is we've got people who are already overloaded.
Speaker 2: They're already feeling like they've got to work seventy out
Speaker 2: of hours a week. How do we get people so
Speaker 2: they can reliably do their forty hours a week to
Speaker 2: be able to get more done and also to do
Speaker 2: more important things. So you're doing a ministrivia, I'm doing
Speaker 2: everyone's doing a minister via. Why don't we get AI
Speaker 2: to do some of that in misterrivia so we can
Speaker 2: focus on the important stuff. The leaders that I've spoken to,
Speaker 2: most of them recognize that this is the thing that
Speaker 2: really is going to drive their business forward, rather than
Speaker 2: get AI to replace people, because particularly with these kinds
Speaker 2: of AI, this is very much a knowledge worker AI.
Speaker 2: It's plucked into your applications, your emails and things like
Speaker 2: that to help you to do your day. Because, of course,
Speaker 2: the other AI, which is like full on automation and
Speaker 2: things like that, so that's a completely different type of
Speaker 2: AI and also different kind of human question. But getting
Speaker 2: copilot on your desktop very much a human problem. So
Speaker 2: saying the why and really making sure that people understand that,
Speaker 2: I mean understand viscerally understand, like we actually care about
Speaker 2: our staff, we care about your job, and you're doing
Speaker 2: a lot of you know, standard stuff that could be
Speaker 2: done better by AI. Let's get you doing the smarter things.
Speaker 2: So yeah, when that's actually framed as a people problem,
Speaker 2: then people do resonate and they go, yes, this is good.
Speaker 2: I am actually on board with this. The other thing is,
Speaker 2: don't just give the tools and say that's good enough.
Speaker 2: We've had quite a few teams who when it's got
Speaker 2: a wonderful interface, this chatbot gonna interface where there's a
Speaker 2: prompt spot and a go button and a plus buttoned
Speaker 2: upload a couple of files, like, it's wonderful and simple,
Speaker 2: but it doesn't tell you how it's actually going to
Speaker 2: work and how you should work with it. I'm sure
Speaker 2: you've heard of people who have a microwave, but all
Speaker 2: they do in the microwave is they use it for defrosting,
Speaker 2: or people with expensive thermo mixers who only make smoothies
Speaker 2: out of it, and things like that. Ais are just
Speaker 2: the same. There are quite a few people out there
Speaker 2: who know two or three things to do an AI
Speaker 2: and that continue doing those two or three things. But
Speaker 2: it's onthing touching the surface of what it can achieve.
Speaker 1: I find that the most common thing I hear from
Speaker 1: leaders that I meet with is you know, people are
Speaker 1: using it for their emails and stuff, and I just think,
Speaker 1: oh gosh, like that's that's not good. And then I
Speaker 1: also find that it can also actually reduce productivity when
Speaker 1: people are doing that, because inevitably they're just putting in, oh,
Speaker 1: communicate this these three dot points, and then they'll get
Speaker 1: a really lengthy and wordy email that is clearly written
Speaker 1: by AI, and then the recipe recipient or the recipients
Speaker 1: then have to waste their time reading a potentially quite
Speaker 1: a long email just to get the three bullet points
Speaker 1: that were originally put in. So, I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: another example of how if people are not trained in AI,
Speaker 1: you're actually going to pretty much kill off any productivity
Speaker 1: benefit that you think AI is going to give you.
Speaker 2: And the other problem with AI being overused, particularly with productivity,
Speaker 2: is if I just get my AI to write three
Speaker 2: dot points and it writes a big document or a
Speaker 2: big email, you'll then use AI to summarize it, and
Speaker 2: so then it's going to be organizational Chinese whispers where
Speaker 2: no one's really going to understand what everyone's talking about,
Speaker 2: and so you will not get productivity with that. So
Speaker 2: then the next part is showing people how they can
Speaker 2: actually use AI in a productive way. So how it
Speaker 2: can help you to ID eight, how to be more creative,
Speaker 2: how you can get it to review your work and
Speaker 2: make your work better, How you can help it with
Speaker 2: your problem solving, or as we've talked about before, organize
Speaker 2: and plan your day and break down your tasks and
Speaker 2: things like that. So using there's a buddy and an
Speaker 2: expert rather than just your email running slave is so
Speaker 2: much more productive organizationally. But people need to be shown this.
Speaker 1: What else deleters need to do to get their teams
Speaker 1: ready for AI?
Speaker 2: One is technology, So just simply buying take copile it
Speaker 2: as an example, which a lot of companies do. Buying
Speaker 2: copelet throwing it in into saying you go and now
Speaker 2: maybe some training, which is great. Absolutely yes, do the training,
Speaker 2: but technology wise is not alone, particularly if you're going
Speaker 2: to plug it into your systems, your email and your data.
Speaker 2: So if you are going to allow your AI to
Speaker 2: be able to search documents, you get massive productivity benefits.
Speaker 2: So I can then say, hey, help me with these
Speaker 2: three documents, will help me find that thing or tell
Speaker 2: me about everything we've done with client X. So power
Speaker 2: is amazing there. However, you don't lock some things away.
Speaker 2: I could say how much is Amantha being paid? Or
Speaker 2: where was the last HR problem last month? And things
Speaker 2: Things you don't want to go public can go public
Speaker 2: in all least within your organization. So when you get
Speaker 2: to place these organizational tools in, make sure that your
Speaker 2: data people have had a look through it and we're
Speaker 2: protecting things like staff data, company data, customer data, privacy
Speaker 2: and all those kind of things in the way that
Speaker 2: we need to as for our company and policies.
Speaker 1: So just a summarize for leaders, you really need to
Speaker 1: be thinking about what do I need to do to
Speaker 1: help my team be AI ready. We've talked about three
Speaker 1: main things. Firstly, the why, make sure you and your
Speaker 1: people are really clear on the why you are doing this. Secondly,
Speaker 1: make sure you are building capability AI and getting the
Speaker 1: best out of to augment your thinking and save hours
Speaker 1: as well. On the productivity front, it's not necessarily intuitive
Speaker 1: and in fact looks you can do some things, but
Speaker 1: often when people just use it out of the box,
Speaker 1: it's actually creating more work for other people due to
Speaker 1: AI slop as opposed to saving time and hours and
Speaker 1: improving your thinking. And then finally, make sure with whatever
Speaker 1: you're connecting it into that you obviously are thinking these
Speaker 1: things through and not releasing people's salary details for example.
Speaker 2: And as a bonus point here, I'd say train your
Speaker 2: changed leads, which might be your team leads, it might
Speaker 2: be dedicated to change leads to be able to help
Speaker 2: people to fit AI into their workday. So I'm writing
Speaker 2: a report every week, get the change lead to help
Speaker 2: me to figure out how I can get AI to
Speaker 2: help me to make that report writing task a lot faster,
Speaker 2: a lot more simple. So that's the showing people how
Speaker 2: to use every function on the firma mixed kind of problem. Now,
Speaker 2: the thing is that often me is just a regular
Speaker 2: staff member. I'm not tapped into all those things. So
Speaker 2: as far as what the capabilities are, the best practice,
Speaker 2: how to plug it into these tools and things like that.
Speaker 2: So having the changed leads who have first off been
Speaker 2: through training themselves and additional training, like we offer proper
Speaker 2: change lead at training, but make sure that they know
Speaker 2: more than just which button to press. It's more about
Speaker 2: how this tool can help people in their workflow. That's
Speaker 2: where the real benefits come in. Because simply saying you
Speaker 2: can use it to help you write documents is great.
Speaker 2: Showing them how that document can be written or changed,
Speaker 2: or analyzed or or brought into a whole bunch of
Speaker 2: things is the valuable part. So those change leads and
Speaker 2: being able to work with people so so important to
Speaker 2: be able to get productive in the organization, and also
Speaker 2: in a way that people feel supported.
Speaker 1: If you are listening to this and thinking, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: I've not done any of this yet, I am a leader.
Speaker 1: Give me and I drop us a note. We are
Speaker 1: helping companies with these kinds of challenges every single day.
Speaker 1: There's an email address in the show notes and we
Speaker 1: will see you next Monday. If you found this useful,
Speaker 1: please help us spread the AI love and share it
Speaker 1: with someone who you think would benefit from knowing what
Speaker 1: you now know. And if you're ready to really start
Speaker 1: mastering AI, check out Inventium dot ai. We help individuals, teams,
Speaker 1: and organizations turn Jenai into a real work superpower, saving
Speaker 1: ten plus hours a week and staying future ready without
Speaker 1: the jargon or overwhelmed. Thanks so much for listening and
Speaker 1: we'll see you next time on how IAI. How IAI
Speaker 1: was hosted by me Amantha Imber and Neo Applan. A
Speaker 1: big thank you to Martin Imba who does our sound editing,
Speaker 1: and Jim Rubio for production support, and thank you to
Speaker 1: John Kilby who composed the theme music.