Gartner's recent survey reveals a promising reality: 65% of employees are excited about the prospect of using AI at work.
This enthusiasm presents a valuable opportunity for HR leaders and heads of operations to strategically embrace AI technologies, enhancing business value while fostering a collaborative workplace culture.
Despite this excitement, many organisations face challenges in effectively deploying AI. A critical finding of the Gartner survey, which involved nearly 3,000 employees, indicates that 37% do not use available AI tools, primarily due to their peers’ hesitation.
This points to an underlying issue—executives often rush AI implementations without adequately considering their impact on employees.
Eser Rizagolu, senior director at Gartner HR Practice, sheds light on this: “Often AI deployment decisions are being made without any involvement of HR. This leads to poor adoption, misaligned expectations between employees and executives, and ultimately, organisations not realising significant business value from AI.”
To offset these challenges and maximise the potential of AI investments, Gartner recommends that Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) adopt three pivotal actions. First, reframing AI governance to encompass not only compliance and security but also the employee experience is paramount. This new focus will facilitate a smoother transition as organisations integrate AI technologies.
Secondly, CHROs should identify digitally curious and collaborative employees to pilot AI tools. This cohort can act as ambassadors for AI within their teams, encouraging broader adoption. Employees can be segmented into four archetypes to target their unique strengths—Consumers, Communicators, Coordinators, and Creators—maximising the effectiveness of AI deployment.
Thirdly, to secure employee trust and enhance AI’s adoption, CHROs must co-lead governance initiatives. By collaborating with digital workplace, security, legal, and business units, HR can ensure the responsible use of AI tools while actively managing the potential impacts on employee experience.
To prove the value of AI augmentation, HR leaders must coordinate with business units to draft collaborative employees for the proof of value (POV) stage of AI initiatives. This pilot phase can provide critical insights into how AI can enhance workflows and improve output quality.
Once AI use cases have been rigorously stress-tested and meet organisational needs, CHROs will need to survey employees involved in the POV to gauge improvements in productivity and engagement.
“To achieve high employee adoption and effective use of AI solutions, CHROs and their teams should segment employees by adoption attitudes and behaviours,” Rizagolu notes.
In summary, embracing AI technologies wisely can propel organisations forward, transforming excitement into practical, value-adding initiatives that resonate across the workforce. By placing HR at the forefront of AI governance, organisations in Southeast Asia can pave the way for a thriving, AI-enhanced future.
