Forum Discussion
The very first organizational adoption of AI steps ... your experience!
I've been reflecting on what I'm hearing about nonprofit AI adoption from leaders in the early stages of the journey. That critical first step is to understand and listen to staff concerns about how AI might change their jobs and other real or perceived concerns.
* Fear of job of obsoletism due to “offloading” tasks to the AI - that their job might go away or be revert from full-time to part-time contract work.
* Discomfort over the rapid pace of change and perceived steep learning curve while being overwhelmed with current workloads.
* Worry about the impersonal nature of AI, which might diminish human interaction and decision-making in professional settings.
* Concerns about losing their sense of purpose and job satisfaction.
Once people put their hands on the tech, they realize that some of these are a perception. I've also heard concerns at this stage - something along the lines of "It takes too much to experiment, I could just write the **bleep** email myself in less time." I think that is more about habit change and acquiring a new skill.
What concerns are you hearing and how have you addressed them?
8 Replies
- Working for a youth-serving organization that focuses on workforce development, the fear from staff is often around economic disruptions and what this means for the young people we support. At the end of the day, most staff have come around when we recognize that we aren't going to turn the tide on this. By embracing AI, we can better support young people and better understand and prepare for what's coming.
- Love this story! Just curious how you helped staff make the mindset shift? What did your organization's leaders say or model that helped?
- Our EVP of Programs is a tech enthusiast so that helps. He is also speaks English as a second language and has been open with the power of AI to provide feedback on his communications before he sends them, so that goes a long way. I've also tried very hard to have all of the example use cases be presented by staff from across the organization rather than from me as the Digital Development Director. That has required seeking out colleagues from Programs, BD, HR, etc., and asking them to show off for others how they are using AI in their work. This way the endorsement is not coming from me, but rather from peers.
All good questions. As you know Beth_Kanter, I recently posed a question to this community regarding these very concerns that someone in our organisation expressed. I will say that some of the responses to that post I shared with her and it seemed to help. I sincerely thank the community for that.
The rapid pace of change is something that no one has really brought up but admittedly, is something that I personally am concerned with. How do I keep up to ensure that I can keep our organisation ahead....or only slightly behind?! As an IT Director, I have so much on my plate as it is -- not a complaint, just a fact -- that I find it difficult to stay on top of it...and I am unbelievably keen to do so out of interest and for...survival.
Another thing that can get added to this list is the avalanche of resources around AI: awareness, literacy, usage, programming, not to mention the sheer number of AI tools (which ones does my organisation need?) the list goes on and on. Where exactly does one start with all these resources? And there are more disseminated every day, if not every hour it seems.
And finally, another concern (aka, complaint): crikey, everybody has AI and they are all too happy to tell us they have it, which begs yet another question: what are they calling AI really? Some of what I have seen has existed for a long time, but now is being touted as AI.
A bit of a rant, but some legitimate questions there.Thanks for your thoughtful reflection. And, I hear you about the pace of change and challenge of keeping on top of technology. Keeping up could be a full-time job in and of itself and we all have other work we do.
I have developed some simple but efficient systems for personal knowledge management so I can spend an hour per week "keeping up."First there is input - finding and curating what to read. I've identified a small number of people on LinkedIn and newsletters who follow the tech sector very closely and I follow them. I also participate in few online communities like this one where I can ask questions or read topics of interest. When I find something that I might want to read later, I pop the URL into my note taking app.
I set aside 30-60 minutes a week to read links and articles that I've captured in my note-taking app. (Or you could just use a word document) For process, I do a quick scan and then zero in on the most important ones for a closer read and discard the rest. Knowing that I don't have to save or read everything helps me reduce the stress of FOMO. After I've been tracking a topic for a while, I read articles to see if there is a new information or view on something and just read and capture that.
I also use note-taking apps to capture what I want to refer back to and have the notes organized by topic. Because as part of my work I do a lot of training, I might create https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bcz5lkUsvgEnH85JflfDIRHLs26RwMiYxyWu_ECjHH0/edit based on my notes to share during a training.I've found that having personal knowledge management helps me keep up without it being a time suck. The hard part of carving out 30-60 minutes a week for learning when there is so much one's to do list, but I tell myself I'll do better quality work if I invest in continuous learning.
And sometimes, so weeks are really busy with other stuff, but I give myself permission to have "JOMO" joy of missing out and if there is something really important, it will surface again.
- @katelyncwhitaker I have been talking about the story of spreadsheet adoption nearly 40 years ago. When it launched, it automated the job of accounting clerks who used to manually list all the costs and up them up. That task was disrupted, but they were trained to use the spreadsheet. This freed up time to think more about the implications of financial analysis. Today, there are many more accountant jobs than 40 years ago. If we look to past examples of new "disruptive technologies," and the impact - perhaps we can be less fearful.
- I really resonate with your last few points! The most common question I get is "Aren't you scared of AI?" It takes time to get people onboard with new technology, but I would argue implementing AI into our lives will be easier than learning social media or adopting smart phones. People are right to be skeptical of new tech and how it will be used, especially in our world of scams and misinformation. We will need more digital literacy than ever! But once people start using AI tools, I think the abstract free with dissipate. I agree it will be more about habit change and acquiring a new skill than actual resistance to technology that will make our lives more efficient.
