Waiting on AI? Your Competitors Aren't.
Waiting feels so safe, doesn’t it?
I know. I love trailblazers too. I love the ones that set the bar, take the plunge, jump with both feet. They get in early, get their hands dirty and help to set the pace for the rest of us.
That’s not to say that I’m a follower – no such thing. But, sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know, and it feels, well, safer to wait.
Let’s let the tools improve a bit. Let’s see what the bumps in the road are. Let’s wait until next quarter.
Or my favorite: Let’s PLAN. Yes! That’s what we can do. Plan. Watch, wait and plan.
But are you planning? Or just delaying what you need to do to stay competitive?
Your team needs to understand AI and waiting and ‘planning’ won’t get them to be the confident, empowered, productive and competitive powerhouse they are waiting to become.
Because right now, your competitor is laying into it hard. And if you don’t stop planning and start doing, you’re going to be left in the dust.
Yikes.
Everything comes at a cost
It’s certainly not a perfect science yet, but we can clearly see the benefits of AI. The challenges and pitfalls are there too. But ‘planning’ for the time when it’s chef’s kiss ready, is just costing you. Don’t believe me?
Each day that you delay the learnin’, you lose productivity. You’re postponing your team’s ability to create momentum and find ease in their workday.
Have you ever tried to learn something way later than your peers? Here’s an example. Waterskiing. Kids learn to fall down, pop up, fall down and try again so quickly. They have less fear and very little in the way of a barrier to learning. When you are an adult learning to waterski? Well. It gets infinitely harder. You’ve got preconceived notions, internal limitations, and yes, fear (maybe rightfully so). You might not ever be particularly good at it, even if you love it.
Same with these AI tools. The longer you wait to learn it, the fewer skills you’ll master. You’ll fill your head with those same preconceived notions, internal limitations, and yes, fear. You might stay dry (hopefully), but this is the only difference in learning to waterski and AI adoption at a later stage.
Meanwhile, your competitors are embracing it, outpacing you and moving forward. Rapidly.
The gap grows over time, but quickly, until it becomes a moat with a raging river. One that you can’t even cross by waterskiing.
Breakdown what’s behind this lag
As we mentioned, there are a few reasons behind your hesitation:
Fear
Fear of doing it wrong. It’s probably the #1 fear that stops us from doing anything.
Fear of being replaced. Can it take over your job? Not if you are driving the tool and it’s not driving you.
Fear of looking inexperienced. Well, duh. Of course you’re inexperienced! You’re learning, remember?
Confusion
Unsure where to start. There’s a lot of noise out there, and rather than dig through it all, sometimes it feels safer to just wait.
Too many features. Chats, bots and agents, oh my! Where do you even start??
No clear use cases. Who’s doing this like you are? What are YOUR needs? How would we even know, right?
Lack of Coaching
Training is often one-and-done. You know how we feel about this. Repetition creates confidence and drives adoption. Period.
No reinforcement. Again, repetition. You have to do this over and over and over in order to become proficient and master it.
No real-world guidance. You might be struggling to find the expert that ‘gets’ you. And I get that too. Believe me.
All good information, but what do we do?
Put the planning to rest and take action. You aren’t just flipping the switch on licenses. You’re working with your team to begin to build confidence, develop habits, apply AI to their actual work, and see value quickly. When you hit those goals, momentum happens.
You don’t have to be experts on day 1. You do need to see some of the really cool, impactful, basic wins that AI can serve up. Things like better (and faster) meeting summaries, a helping hand with email drafts, improved document creation (what a time saver right there!) and stronger research and preparation.
This is how adoption grows naturally and supports your team where they are.
Not starting is not helping you. The risk of waiting is far greater than the risk of starting.
Just like waterskiing.