Boost AI Adoption: Strategies for Reluctant Employees
In a recent survey by Howdy.com, one in five workers felt pressured to use AI when they weren’t comfortable using it, and one in six admitted to just pretending to use it. This discomfort is understandable. It’s tough to scroll through LinkedIn or read tech news and not see something about how AI is changing the way we work, and potentially replacing humans.
Substantial top-down pressure from executives and managers also encourages AI use because of the potential productivity gains. According to the same survey, 75% of employees are expected to use it at work. That kind of pressure can make utilization seem scary.
Why Might Employees Be Reluctant to Use AI?
In addition to being fearful of change and nervous about pressure from the top, there are other reasons why employees may be avoiding AI, such as:
- AI tools don’t produce high-quality work
- AI tools take more time than the usual way of doing things
- People have inadequate training (which can lead to poor quality results and a time suck)
There is also a good reason to stay silent about not wanting to use it. Your workers could appear noncompliant with instructions and questioning the technology management has decided is good for business.
They may not even be wrong. Managers and executives can be sold AI solutions based on their promises rather than their usefulness. The people in the trenches discover the flaws once these solutions are used in regular operations.
Add in the fact that the job market isn’t performing well right now, and you have a perfect environment for people to avoid or fake AI use without telling their managers.
Once you identify the why, there are several ways to help drive adoption.
How to Tackle Communication and Adoption Roadblocks
The first thing to address is why employees don’t want to use AI. The following three requirements must be met for successful adoption:
1. Adequate Training
It isn’t enough to tell employees to start using a solution, even if you think it is easy. In the case of AI, things like prompt engineering and refinement have a learning curve. Encourage your staff to make time to learn, and provide support.
They could set aside half an hour per week to learn about AI solutions. In most cases, free courses, like the ones Google has created, are accessible from the solution provider.
2. Clear Adoption Roadmap
If there are specific tasks for which your employees can use AI, you have to spell out those tasks clearly. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy document, but you should encourage each department head to develop specific processes where AI could help.
For example, if you want social media posts created with AI and edited by a human, your marketing team needs that direction in writing. Employees often feel more comfortable following a written guide than verbal instructions.
3. Plan for Non-Adopters
With any new technology, you will have people who are not interested in adopting. The last thing you want to do is single them out. You’ll need to set up one-on-ones to discover their reasons and see if they can be addressed by modifying the solution or with more training. They may need to be sold on AI, and that’s not hard. AI users reported less burnout, and 84% of workers felt more productive using it, according to the Howdy.com survey.
That covers the adoption process, but communication is key throughout. Your people have to feel like they can come to you if the output they are getting is low-quality or they’re facing challenges. Make sure there is a pathway for open and private communication.
A help desk ticket, for example, is likely accessible to other team members and, therefore, not the ideal channel for submitting feedback. If something about AI use is making an employee uncomfortable, they will likely prefer to send their direct manager a Slack message.
Let’s face it, not all AI solutions are perfect, and there may be kinks to work out that only your employees will find. The more you know about their struggles, the more likely you are to address them and empower your team with confidence.
Monitoring AI Use and Technology Solution Adoption
When rolling out new AI solutions, Prodoscore can help identify which employees are catching on and who may be struggling.
As an employee productivity monitoring solution, Prodoscore was built to visualize tool utilization and adoption. Our data shows that AI users are inherently more productive, with more active working hours and greater daily activity. In some cases, simply deploying Prodoscore can improve AI adoption rates because employees will feel encouraged to use more of the business tools available to them.
Prodoscore is not about surveilling employees' activity but instead about making employees active participants in the process so they can identify opportunities to improve and grow.
