AI for KM: Unlocking the future with a human-centric focus
Stay focused on the human side of technology
New technologies often require employees to change the ways they work, collaborate with others, search for resources, and more. These changes aren’t always welcome, especially when established tools and ways of working feel comfortable and employees have already been asked to make a lot of other changes. KM will need to keep a continual focus on the human side of technology to help employees understand why change is necessary, convince them that new tools will help make their lives easier, and provide them with the resources they need to make the change. Fortunately, many KM teams have the tools and skills to help drive human-centered change in their organizations— or they at least know where to find them.
Change management is the most important skill to develop
For the past 4 years, respondents to our “Knowledge Management Priorities and Predictions” survey have identified change management as the most important skill for KM professionals to develop right now. For our respondents, change management is a more important and more urgent set of skills to develop than design thinking, problem solving, and even data management.
1. Structure and resources: The budget and staff, methodologies, and assessment approaches that support change management
2. Roles and responsibilities: The roles and responsibilities involved in guiding employees through change
3. Communications: The approaches and tools used to explain change, collect feedback, set expectations, and cultivate support for change
4. Training: The organized activities an organization uses to impart information, change behaviors, improve performance, or attain new skills
5. Engagement: The emotional connection an employee feels toward their organization as well as the tactics and approaches the organization uses to build and assess this connection
6. Rewards and recognition: The formal and informal incentives that encourage employees to change
Change management isn’t just about breaking down resistance to change. It’s about helping employees gain new skills and preparing them for an environment in which they will increasingly be expected to use complex tools and technologies as part of their daily work.
For example, a trend known as citizen development means that some organizations are now empowering non-IT employees to create and use their own automation and AI applications. Getting sustainable value out of this approach means being thoughtful and deliberate about how tools are introduced to employees— not simply dropping new tools on their laps and setting them loose. KM teams that excel at change management add significant value to their organizations when they set the stage for these tools and approaches.
Change management for AI
If your KM team is helping your organization implement AI or other new technologies, we recommend that you do the following:
• Build a business case. It’s critical to ensure that there is a valid business case for AI and to work with your organization’s leaders to develop use cases to experiment and learn before implementing AI broadly. Implementing technology simply because it’s new and “everyone is doing it” is not a recipe for success.
• Find a sponsor. Support from an influential leader or leaders is critical for securing resources and driving change from the top down.
• Engage employees early so they can give meaningful input and help to shape the ways in which the technology will be used. Employees are more likely to accept changes that they help to create.
• Provide tailored, two-way communications for groups of stakeholders impacted by change that offer opportunities for employees to ask questions and express concerns.
• Train employees on how to use new technologies—but don’t stop there. You should also train leaders and equip them with the right resources to guide employees through change.
• Reward and recognize employees who are embodying the change you need to see.