Latest / The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers / 🎙️ Reality Bytes: Productivity in 2025 – New Insights on AI, DEX & Adoption (Exclusive)

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🎙️ Reality Bytes: Productivity in 2025 – New Insights on AI, DEX & Adoption (Exclusive) · The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome it change Makers to the Deck Show with Tim
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Flower and Tom McGraw.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Hello, everybody. You know what it is. It's the Deck Show,
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: show within a show, It's reality bites, and it is
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: an extra special episode because it is one of thost
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: episodes where we unveil, where we launch, where we announce,
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: where we investigate and analyze a brand new next thing
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: for report. This one is the two part report called
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: It's New Mandate the Science of Productivity. That's the name
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: for both of them together, listeners. Part one, which we're
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: going to be looking at today, came out just last week.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: It's called Transformation, Driving Adoption, Productivity and Change in the
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: AI Era. The report is based on exclusive survey data
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: by our partners, our regular collaborators, I should say Van's
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: and Borne. It's a survey of over a thousand senior
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: IT leaders asking them about how they feel about navigating
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: AI transformation and turning that technology into measurable business value.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: I really think across these two parts, and we'll get
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: into the second part when the second part is launched
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: in just a few weeks time here on the show.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: But that second part, but across both parts, I think
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: it really touches upon a lot of issues which which
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: we're hearing customers talk about, we're hearing analysts talk about,
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: We're hearing all kinds of conversation around and really excited
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: to get into it. We are joined today by Sean, Dina, Meghan,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: and Oreana, so minus Tim almost for full reality by
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: its panel. Tim is still sleeping off his dex World tour,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: of course and having some well earned PTO. But Sean,
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: let's get to you first of all, because we're very
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: lucky in that you are the author of this fantas
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: plastic report and of course helped shape the survey from
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: the ground up. So first of all, Sean, tell us
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: about the motivation behind launching it. What was the intention
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: and why now?
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Sure thing? Yeah, so I think a couple of factors
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: came into deciding to come up with a survey. Obviously,
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: in the markets nowadays, there's a lot of unpredictability. You
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: have AI always kind of being introduced each year with
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: new promises, but also just the way that the economic
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: markets are happening right now, there's a lot of focus
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: on what does it mean to be productive? And it's
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: one thing that we've talked about before in the past,
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: but we really wanted to shape a survey around that theme.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: And then I mean selfishly as well just for us,
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: I think we have a lot of cool features with
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: our product that can speak to that. So the timing
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: was right to do it now just internally with the
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: next link, but as well as kind of externally with
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: what's going on in the world.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: And that concept that you just alluded to show and
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: what the two reports together go under the ban of
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: the science of productivity a bold idea. What does the
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: phrase mean in the context of this research.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Sure, yeah, So I think there are like a couple
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: central tenets to what we found with the data. So
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: there's a big focus and excitement for AI. There's a
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: big focus also on digital adoption i T shifting to
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: really make that a central tenet of what they're doing
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: in the future. And then of course digital employee experience,
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: something that you know, we've always talked about and is
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: always central to pulling the pieces together. But really, in
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: order to stay competitive in the future a miss that
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: backdrop of change, i T kind of has to rewire
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: its strategy and it has to become a little bit
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: more scientific with its approach and what it means by productivity.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: So that's kind of how we coin that term. And
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: I think one thing that kind of you know, makes
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: it obvious, but they the leaders that responded to the survey,
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: they came back ninety seven percent of them say that
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: improving digital productivity is the key mission for it. Obviously,
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: it's a big change from like years ago when probably
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: their key mission was, you know, dropping tickets or lowering
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: their MTTR things like that. It's clearly shifted over the
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: years and really indicative that the times are changing.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: I could sneak in an extra question, what do you
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: see that connection between the themes of this part one
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: for report adoption and AI specifically with that theme of productivity,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: how do you see that connecting?
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So, I mean, obviously a lot of the AI
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: tools that we're seeing can help with adoption problems, and
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: we've kind of pointed to that throughout the survey, But
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: there's also stuff that goes beyond the technology when it
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: comes to just kind of managing people and communication. And
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: I think that's what is going to set up nicely
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: in Part two, which I won't reveal too much, but
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: there's going to require some management changes or possible mergers
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: between people and not just inside it but outside. So
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: it's it's kind of a cool survey because it gives
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: you a wide scope on the problem and kind of
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: points to different aspects just from like the I TSM world,
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: but as well as just kind of a people management perspective.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: And we should we should emphasize the listen shown via
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: the authenticity a few surveys. I mean, obviously we we
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: sense and suspect there's a story we want to tell.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: There's a story we expect that the industry to reflect
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: back to us to some degree, But there's always that
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: that that lovely sense of anticipation where you don't know
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: what the data is going to be. You don't really
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: know what you're going to find out. And on that point,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: what were you most surprised about by it, by this
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: data when it when it finally came back to us.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Were there any sort of concrete disconnects or contradictions that
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: really stood out in particular?
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, personally, I think when you're writing it and probably
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: reading it, I hope the most interesting parts for me
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: are the kind of the gotcha moments. We don't try
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: to be sneaky with these surveys, but you know, we
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: set up questions to try to understand the logic behind
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: business leaders, and there were several of them in terms
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: of kind of overestimating one's decks or how to calculate
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: one's ROI one stat that really pointed to this contradiction
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: or a gotcha moment, as at ninety four percent say
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: they can prove the value of new investments, and then
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: later on the survey we found out that ninety three
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: percent came back and said they struggled to identify underperforming ones,
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: so underperforming investments, which is kind of contradictory in that regard.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: And then as I actually have another one that I
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: didn't really know or I suppose, like you know, maybe
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: the Tim Flowers of the world would know this, but
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: I didn't. But one of the stats is that sixty
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: nine percent agree it would definitely change SaaS providers more
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: often if the cost of adoption were lower. So it's
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: almost like they're being strong armed to kind of stay
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: in certain relationships with SaaS providers and just because of
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: the fear of a high cost then carry out an
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: adoption project, which was pretty interesting.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: To me, and one of the sort of themes that
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: underpins the report, and I think we'll kind of run
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: through this discussion quite kind of conspicuously, is that of
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: digital dexterity. Why do you think this emerged as a
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: central thread across these themes in part one and through
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: through AI, through adoption, through productivity, And I think you
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: just touched upon something was relevant to it in that
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: idea of the cost of adoption when it comes to
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: sort of being held hostage if you will buy by
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: your apps.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure. So obviously, like getting a digital project
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: or new software in play is a lot of work,
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: but then it comes down to the people and how
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: comfortable they are using it. So I think digital dexterity
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: is like a real lynchpin and kind of holding this
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: whole thing together. So new technology they're only beneficial if
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: like employees are actually using them. And as simple as
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: that sounds, a lot of the IT leaders admit that
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: they can't entirely solve that part of the equation, so
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: there's a big emphasis on that and focus. Ninety five
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: percent agree that that's a big part of success to
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: the organization, but only forty seven percent came back and
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: said that their workforce today is ready to adopt digital
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: tools at scale.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Fantastic. It's a it's a great piece of workshop. Thank
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: you so much, Ariana. So we were circulating this new
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: report a pre release copy last week to say that
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: everybody got a chance to read it, to look at it,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: to gather their thoughts and their takes of this record,
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: and you report back. We've been doing some in depth
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: qualitative research on if I recall correctly AI adoption, do
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: I have that right or realize that?
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I've been really focused on AI dexterity for all
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: of the reasons that Sean has mentioned, right, Like, we
• 9:17
  Speaker 6: know that this is a press and concern for our customers,
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: so we're trying to make sure that we are going
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: to be giving them the tools they need to do that.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Well, So interested to hear more about it. How long
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: has the project been going on, what's it involved? And
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: I guess you can flow into your findings as naturally.
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: As you like.
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: Sure, Yeah, so this has been my main focus over
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: the past few months. I've been working with a lot
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: of our different project managers and if there are customers
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: listening to this, I'm sure a few of them will
• 9:45
  Speaker 6: have been part of those conversations because we've been speaking
• 9:49
  Speaker 6: to a lot of different customers about their challenges their goals,
• 9:52
  Speaker 6: as well as a number of people who aren't customers
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: of ours. We interview people in a lot of different
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: roles because one of the things that Sean mentioned right
• 10:03
  Speaker 6: is that a lot of this stuff isn't just happening
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: in the traditional IT rooms that we're used to. It's
• 10:11
  Speaker 6: issues that touch on some different parts of organizations. So
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: we've been really trying to understand what does that look
• 10:17
  Speaker 6: like in practice, who's involved, and what do they need
• 10:22
  Speaker 6: in order to drive the adoption of AI to get
• 10:26
  Speaker 6: to these productivity improvements. And also that's one of the
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: biggest challenges too that I've heard, is that there are
• 10:33
  Speaker 6: so many teams involved that it does require breaking down
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: traditional silos and being able to cross collaborate with different
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: groups that have different goals.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: What is the expectation for how this process of coming
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: digital disruption looks like as compared to previous waves, and
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: how clear do you think the expectations are around it
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: in terms of the types of applications, the types of
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: impacts it makes, and the types of different professional impacts
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: it makes in different areas of the business.
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: I think one of the things that I hope people
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: find comforting is that some of it will be the same,
• 11:16
  Speaker 6: It's just going to be applied in a new domain.
• 11:18
  Speaker 6: So one of the things that I've heard is that
• 11:20
  Speaker 6: organizations are leaning heavily on their existing processes for evaluating
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: tools for getting things implemented. But the ones that are
• 11:28
  Speaker 6: really most mature are the ones that have dedicated change
• 11:33
  Speaker 6: management teams that can really tackle the challenges that we've
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: been hearing about and talking about also in general. Right,
• 11:40
  Speaker 6: in previous episodes, we've talked a lot about how massive
• 11:44
  Speaker 6: textacs are nowadays. Right, organizations have so many different types
• 11:47
  Speaker 6: of software. That's something that's translating to AI as well. Right,
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: organizations don't have an AI tool. They have a variety
• 11:54
  Speaker 6: of SaaS tools, many of which have AI plus potentially
• 11:58
  Speaker 6: a dedicated gen AI. A lot of them even have
• 12:01
  Speaker 6: more than one gen AI focused on productivity. So that's
• 12:07
  Speaker 6: part of both the benefit and the challenge is that
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: we have existing processes for this, and none of those
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: challenges are going away that already exist, They're just being
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: applied to a whole new domain. Actually, there's a great
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: quote somebody said, I need an AI for my AI
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: because he's managed this as a CIO who is managing
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: so many different AI tools, and so that's the kind
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: of thing they need, is that cross visibility, the ability
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: to also tackle the human side. Right. So, some of
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: the other big challenges that we've heard and that are
• 12:41
  Speaker 6: reflected in these surveys as well, is how do you
• 12:45
  Speaker 6: address the human side of change And that's where having
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: dedicated teams can really help. But there's a lot of
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: different ways to tackle that. Some of them are building
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: AI to be more human centric, helping people upscale that's
• 12:59
  Speaker 6: a perennial topic, but also understanding and addressing people's reservations
• 13:04
  Speaker 6: and fears around AI. I think that part is really
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: unique because it is culturally a very novel concept. Yes,
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: and a lot of the people I've spoke to are
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: trying to figure out how do we understand what prevents
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: people from adopting not just from a technical perspective, but
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: from a human perspective, because people can have the right tools,
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: but if they don't use them, you're not going to
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: get that value improvement.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Totally and around you know, ninety four percent in the survey,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: I believe that business's success over the next three years
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: does depend upon its ability as a business to adapt
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: to and to ultimately use AI technologies effectively. This is
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: a qualitative difference in the impact of this particular form
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: of technology. You know, you couldn't have said I would
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: suggest the same thing about teams or about out do
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying? Like communication tools which help
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: the business run a bit more movely are different to
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: tools which will help the business compete. And I wonder
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: if you have a view on what this means for it.
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah, So I would say. One of the great things
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: about having conversations with people, and one of the reasons
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: why we always use a combination of surveys and interviews, right,
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: that's why we do this kind of research in parallel,
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: is that there are certain nuances that are harder for
• 14:27
  Speaker 6: people to I think talk about in a way that
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: it's hard to put it in a business pitch, Right. So,
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: one of the things that I keep hearing in conversations
• 14:38
  Speaker 6: is there's a lot of hype around AI and we
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: don't want to be left behind, but there's often a
• 14:45
  Speaker 6: lack of clarity and how do we actually get to
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: value how do we get beyond Oh, this is a
• 14:50
  Speaker 6: neat little productivity improvement to actual value impacts because I
• 14:57
  Speaker 6: think in a lot of organizations it is currently a
• 14:59
  Speaker 6: little like teams, right, it just makes your life a
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: little bit smoother, improves convenience. So how do we channel
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: that into making sure that we are really getting these
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: big value improvements? And so how do we sort through
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: hype which is very real and not get left behind?
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: So finding that balance, threading the path between big claims
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: and not missing out on big improvements.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I mean, look, we've got a with a
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: digital employee experience show, We've got a certain a certain
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: biased perspective. But it is it is easy to see
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: how in that dynamic that you describe whereby you want
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: to be organizations want to be judicious about their investment.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: They don't want to jump too soon, they don't want
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: to be too slow either. The kind of visibility of
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: at DECKS offers becomes a potentially quite kind of significant
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: tool for it teams. I always expect nothing but completely honest,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: completely honestly and objectivity from you. However, Ariana, you think
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: that's the case, to what extent would you agree that
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: this is so? And maybe how does DECKS have to
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: evolve to really deliver full value in this area in
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: the next few years.
• 16:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah. So the thing that immediately came to mind when
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: you mentioned this was the stat in the survey around
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: how it sometimes struggles to get buy in from other
• 16:31
  Speaker 6: parts of the business. The survice there was like sixty
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: eight percent. So this is a challenge and this definitely
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: reflects some of the things that I've heard in conversation
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: is that you've got a lot of different teams that
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: have end goals and different mindsets about these types of problems.
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: Right So, I think a big chunk of getting everybody
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: on the same page and actually getting to digital dexterity
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: is about understanding all these different agendas, right, Like it's
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: very easy for us to think of the company as
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: a single entity, but it's not. It's a collection of
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: people and different people are just going to be having
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: really different experiences with AI when there are so many tools,
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: when there is such a range in quality. So how
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: do we get that to those real world outcomes? Well,
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: first you have to understand what are the real world
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: outcomes that these different entities require. And I think the
• 17:26
  Speaker 6: organizations that manage to build a culture where trial and
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: error is safe and there are you know, good sandboxes,
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: good collaborations. That's where they're going to really discover how
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: to do that.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Fascinating. So glad you happen to be serendipitously conducting those
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: interviews as we were developing this survey. Areona fascinating stuff, Megan,
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: I know we don't have you for too long today, sadly,
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: So let's talk a bit about digital adoption specifically, another
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: key been running throughout the survey. First of all, let's
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: be really concrete and give it and give a definition
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: of what we're talking about in this context, because adoption
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: can be a bit of a sort of a broad
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: and amorphous term I find.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: And first I just want to say, Oriana, it's always
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: such a pleasure to listen to you talk of this podcast,
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: even though I know I'm also on this podcast, but
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: I always say things around like yeah, that too, that too,
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: So I'm probably going to be echoing you in some
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: of my answers here, but always just so Enciphlon, it's
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: so funny you're doing that same research at the same time.
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: I know, so great, But okay, So adoption, adoption is
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: it's essentially the kind of like unspoken need underpinning a
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: lot of what you and Oreana just spoke about. Right,
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: it's a concrete strategy and then also tool set that
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: a business can put in place to help their people
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: adopt or be able to use the technology that's being
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: given to them. So it's one thing to just kind of,
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: you know, put in place a new technology, maybe your
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: host a zoom webinar for everyone, where you run through
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: what the tool can do and then you say, have
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: at it. Right, that's not going to get everybody using
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: the tool. That's going to cause a lot of problems.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: People are going to have challenges, they're going to run
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: into roadblocks, they're not going to know how to use
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: the tools. They're going to slow down and overtime, like
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: your business productivity is going to slow down.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: So adoption is taking a more.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: Proactive approach, whether it's a strategy or a toolset, to
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: put the tools in front of your people and the
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: trading in front of your people so that they can
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: use the technology you're providing to them kind of as
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: soon as possible.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: And I think maybe some effort echoes between sort of
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: your points and oreon As will come out here but
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: the report does make clear there's a connection between adoption
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: support and successful AI rolouts and enumerated a number of
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: reasons that AI rolouts presents certain kind of in a
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: kind of cultural adoption challenges to people. What's that you
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: ever report and what are your thoughts on this?
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a big one, right.
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: The ninety six percent say digital adoption support needs a
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: boost to help employees adapt to AI. And one thing
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: that Oreanna said that I was like, oh yeah, I
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: hadn't concretely.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Thought about that, but it was absolutely correct. Sometimes I
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: think when we're.
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: Having conversations about AI, or maybe non technical people, we're
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: just thinking we're talking about the check GPTs, right, the
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: co pilots, But.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: There's AI and everything.
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: Every tool you open up is like, hey, do you
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: want to use my AI thing? And I think you
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: have to remember also, like Orianimous saying, the human behind it,
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: some people in your workplace are going to feel very
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: excited about all this new AI being put in front
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: of them, and every time a piece of hey do
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: you want to try our new AI copilot, they're going
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: to say yeah, and they're going to start interacting with
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: it right away, and they're going to figure out how
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: it helps them move through their day more quickly. But
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: then you're also going to have the people who are
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: resistant to it, who are whether it's you know, they
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: oh AI is going to take my job, or simply
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: you know they were the last person to get an
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: iPhone and that they're also going to be the last.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Person to use AI. Right, Like, there's just some people who.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: Don't adapt to new technology quickly, and those people are
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: going to need a different strategy and a different approach
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: to get them to start employing AI and understanding the
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: ways in which AI is going to help them, you know,
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: do their job more quickly and more easily. So I
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: think that's where that digital adoption support needs a boost,
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: right You not only need more or maybe new approaches
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: to digital adoption support because AI is a new tool
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: and new function functionality, but you need that more. You
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: need to be able to do that more personalized approach
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: at scale if you want to have AI sort of
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: impacting the productivity of all teams across your business.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Across the business, where do you see organizations typically falling
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: short when it comes to adoption, tooling, timing, training, all the.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: Few above I think it comes back to that sort
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: of that personalized approach. I think a lot of times
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: organizations may take a one size fits all approach to adoption,
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: or they rely on the documentation and the training that
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: sort of comes with the tools that they're onboarding. But
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: you know, sixty one percent of it, we found this
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: in the survey too, say that there are just too
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: many users for them to support adoption adequately. So that's
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: that personalization at scale, right. If you feel that you
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: have too many people to support, it means there's too
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: many unique needs and you can't sort of adapt to
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: them and to what they need. But actually, if you
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: know if you can have the right tool in place
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: that can add on to the adoption that comes with
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: the tools that you're putting in place, I think you
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: can you can create those sort of slightly more personalized
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: experiences where you can put tooltips in place for your
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: employees to use. You could have a pop up window
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: that shares documentation that they might need in that moment.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: You could have a writing assistant.
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: That shows them where to write and write, so it
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: meets them kind of where they're at in the moment
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: as they're trying to use the tool and kind of
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: can help address that. You know, there's too many people
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: for us to help.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Here's a classic chicking a question for the megan. Do
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: you think adoption builds digital dexterity over time or is
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: deck sterity a pre work? Is it for good adoption?
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: I have a strong feeling on this and I hope
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: it will make if there's anyone listening to this, which
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: probably not.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: I think our audience are very technical people. But there's
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: anyone in the audience.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: Who's like, I don't feel like I have good digital dexterity,
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: I find new tools difficult to use.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: I don't think you were lost, cause I think that
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: good adoption builds digital dexterity over time. But I think
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: that the emphasis on that is good adoption, right. Is
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: it a thoughtful adoption strategy one that comes from a
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: cross functional team.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Also what Orianna was saying.
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: Earlier, where you communicate with the business owner of the application,
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: you communicate with different user groups to understand their needs,
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: and you provide the tools, the tooltips, the guides, whatever
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: it is. However people want to learn to give them
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: the tools so they can feel confident in using the
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: technology given to them. I think that the human brain
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: is a beautiful, beautiful thing, and it's far more plastic
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: than we realize, no matter how old we get. So
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: we all have the ability to learn how to use
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: the software supplied to us. We just need someone to
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: teach us in the way that makes sense to.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: Us, beautifully said, thank you so much, Meghan. And last,
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: but certainly not least, it's a resident. AI s a
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: ninety six percent if the surveyed agreed that AI will
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: significantly transform how their business operates within three years. The
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: report stipulates that we could be on the verge of
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: the most intense period of digital transformation ever seen. We've
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: heard from Marianna on this side, from hitting interviews, but interviews,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: but from your experience working with digital Workplacete, does this
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: feel true?
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: Absolutely, We're seeing a real shift here. AI isn't just
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: another wave of change. This time it's re shaping the
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: way work happens. And IT teams are no longer just
• 25:17
  Speaker 7: supporting the systems. They're really redesigning experiences. So they are
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: doing their best that, like you said, ninety six percent
• 25:26
  Speaker 7: are enhancing the digital adoption support and they understand that
• 25:30
  Speaker 7: it's very essential to help all employees to actually adapt
• 25:34
  Speaker 7: to AI, which act, which reflects in real life what
• 25:37
  Speaker 7: we're facing on the ground. Transformation is accelerating super fast,
• 25:42
  Speaker 7: and it's deeper and more strategic than ever before. So
• 25:45
  Speaker 7: totally agree with that.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: I guess just to develop develop that theme. What stood
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: out to you about how IT leaders are thinking about
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: digital transformation in the AI era, maybe as against areas
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: of digital transformation, but maybe just in its own right.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Is it distinct from previous waves?
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: However?
• 26:07
  Speaker 7: Correct, it's very different because this time it isn't just reacting,
• 26:12
  Speaker 7: which finally they are leading. They're focused on business value,
• 26:17
  Speaker 7: not just the implementation or just plug and play of
• 26:20
  Speaker 7: the applications or systems in place, and ninety four percent
• 26:24
  Speaker 7: believe that their success over the next three years depends
• 26:27
  Speaker 7: on the adaptability or the ability to use AI technologies effectively.
• 26:32
  Speaker 7: They're thinking about user experience, they're thinking about adoption and
• 26:36
  Speaker 7: ROI differently than they used to be in the past,
• 26:39
  Speaker 7: and there's a huge emphasis on AI's role in productivity
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: and IT leaders are becoming real partners and driving the
• 26:46
  Speaker 7: business growth instead of just being reactive and cost center
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: as it used to be perceived in the past.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Excellent and you'll view on how digital dexterity fact is
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: into this transformations. The degree to which it is or
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: is not a critical success factor.
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: It's one hundred percent. AI is only as powerful as
• 27:09
  Speaker 7: the people behind it who are using it, right, So
• 27:14
  Speaker 7: that's why, like earlier mentioned ninety six percent, they really
• 27:17
  Speaker 7: believe that improving digital adoption is important for the digital
• 27:22
  Speaker 7: dexterity and helping employees become more confident and adaptable with
• 27:27
  Speaker 7: technology is the anchor, like Sean and Oriana highlighted earlier.
• 27:31
  Speaker 7: Without it, even the best AI tools are going to
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: fall flat, right, So we need to first look at
• 27:37
  Speaker 7: the people behind the technology and people who are behind AIS.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: Amazing, and I think that is everybody here who talks
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: to people out there in the digital workplace can attest to.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: These are big preoccupations at the moment. If you're interested
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: in how your business is preparing for AI transformation, if
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: if these topics are significant to you, if digital adoption
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: is a significant priority to your digital workplace team, we
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: absolutely encourage you to download this report and to prepare
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: for part two of it as well, which we'll pick
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: up again in a few weeks time. Here on this
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: very show. But there is a link to the report
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: of course in the show notes, and I should stress
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: I should stress it's completely free for you to own,
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: download and read, so please do check it out. Please
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: do let us know what you think of it, and look,
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: thank you so much everybody for your contributions to this
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: discussion Oriana. We would love to have you guests on
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: the decks Hub to hear some more about this research
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: that you've been doing. I think that would be a great,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: great addition to this kind of to this season of
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: AI transformation content and full leadership. But we're currently kind
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: of embarking on so you should connect to with Sean
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: after the show, and just remains for me to say
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: thank you so much everybody, and we'll see you soon.
• 29:03
  Speaker 7: Bye.
• 29:05
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• 29:19
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• 29:26
  Speaker 6: Thank you so much for listening,