Five Critical Insights for Effectively Operationalizing AI

For the past two years, I’ve been on a mission to understand AI and its impact on business.

I’ve taken courses, attended conferences, connected with experts, and immersed myself in AI literature, reading a wide range of books from some of the most respected names in the AI space.

It’s been an exciting journey, to say the least, and it’s been one that’s reshaped my view of what’s possible for businesses.

When generative AI burst onto the scene in late 2022, nearly every organization started from the same point.

Sure, there were companies that had early access to tools like ChatGPT, or had integrated machine learning into their products years before, but for most part, the race to operationalize generative AI inside organizations began for all of us at about the same moment.

Six months ago, I launched two new services at Thrive to help businesses put AI into action.

The first, the AI Foundations Workshop, offers a quick, hands-on overview, equipping teams to start immediately realizing AI-driven efficiency and productivity gains.

The second service, the AI Adoption Accelerator, is a four-week program that guides organizations through a customized framework for advancing AI adoption.

It includes four modules: AI Readiness, AI Governance, Advanced Prompting, and AI Roadmapping. This high-touch, structured approach helps teams deploy AI effectively and systematically.

As I’ve taken businesses through each of these services, there have been five themes that have surfaced time and time again.

With that in mind, here’s what to expect on your on AI transformation journey.

1. Expect to cultivate (and continue cultivating) an AI-First mentality.

The concept of “AI First” is one that I’ve been thinking about since the very beginning. I originally wrote about it here, and since then, I’ve been revising and refining my definition of what it means and how to apply it.

Ultimately, there isn’t a single definition of AI First, because it means something different to every organization.

But it’s important to understand that AI First is a mindset, and it’s a mindset that you’ll need to adopt and articulate for yourself and your team.

AI First is also an approach—an approach that ensures that you view everything you do as part of your job as an opportunity to do what you do better, faster, smarter, or more efficiently with AI.

You may ultimately decide not to use AI, or the solution may not work in the way you had hoped, but an AI-First mindset ensures that you “bring AI to the table,” as Wharton professor and AI expert Ethan Mollick puts it.

Because it’s only then that you will find the use cases that truly move the needle for you and your organization.

2. Expect to commit to the effort for the long term.

AI transformation takes time.

There’s no getting around it. This is partly because any sort of organizational change takes a while to properly take root, but it’s also because generative AI is moving so quickly.

Frontier models are constantly adding new features, your existing tech stack is constantly adding new AI capabilities, and what seemed like a panacea one day seems completely obsolete the next.

This is normal.

It simply means that you have to continue systematically working through your AI strategy.

Hold your AI Council meetings, set your benchmarks, assess your vendors and tools, work through your pilot programs, capture and record your value.

You’ve built your process and agreed on your plan. Commit to it for the long term, and only deviate when it’s absolutely necessary.

3. Expect progress, not perfection.

I got sober nearly twenty years ago, and one of the first things I heard in the rooms was that I was aiming for “progress, not perfection.”

That lesson has served me well over the years, in all sorts of situations, and this one is no different.

Not every effort is going to be a success. Not every dollar you spend on an AI tool is going to create ROI. Not every pilot project will work.

That’s okay.

The idea is that you learn and adjust. Take note of what works, and what doesn’t, and document it.

Share what you learn with your AI Council. Perform an after-action review. Loop in your executive sponsor. Make the results public within your company. Mobilize your knowledge. And move on to the next initiative.

Progress isn’t always linear and it’s never going to be perfect. Internalize that, and move forward anyway.

4. Expect pushback.

The nature of AI transformation is that it’s going to be more uncomfortable for some people than others.

This is true of every change, and should come as no surprise.

But when it comes to AI, we’re dealing with a technology that has wide-ranging implications on both business and life, and the concerns can range from existential to ideological to theoretical.

It’s important to remember that all these concerns are valid and important and you shouldn’t feel the need to push back against any of them.

Instead, acknowledge the concerns and move on to team members that embody more curiosity than closedmindedness.

Curiosity is the key attribute of an AI-First mindset and the characteristic that will take you the furthest on this journey.

5. Expect everything to change—often and repeatedly.

The rate of AI adoption at this point in its lifecycle, according to a recently published paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, is faster than both the internet and personal computer.

This means that funding, tool development, and frontier model improvements are happening at breakneck speed.

This also means that what you needed a bespoke solution for yesterday, might become a frontier-model feature tomorrow.

This can be beneficial or frustrating, depending on how you look at it.

The important thing to get right at the beginning of the AI transformation journey is your governance structure and benchmark framework.

It’s your systematic way of making decisions, which should be in accordance with your AI policy, that will allow you to react to these changes in an objective way.

If you get the fundamentals right in the beginning, you’ll be able to handle even the most disruptive changes with tact and grace.

—

The journey to AI adoption is challenging, but it’s also incredibly rewarding.

By embracing an AI-First mindset, staying committed, aiming for progress, navigating pushback, and adapting to constant change, your organization can turn AI from an abstract concept into a real driver of growth and innovation.

If you’re looking for some help along the way, reach out today.