AI value starts when leaders redesign the work

An AI demonstration can show that a tool works, but leaders need to know whether it will improve business performance once it enters day-to-day work. That question turns attention to the surrounding process, where promising pilots can lose their impact.

An AI pilot can make an individual task faster while leaving the wider process largely untouched. People may still follow the same handoffs and repeat the same checks while working towards the same measures. The tool gets used, but its effect on business performance remains limited.

In this video, Adam Hofmann, co-lead of Elixirr’s AI capability, argues that to turn AI capability into meaningful value, leaders need help leading in the new era and their people need to adapt to the technology.  In his view, getting beyond pilots depends on whether leaders are willing to change how people and processes work.

For leaders, the challenge is to rethink the work itself. Which steps could an AI agent handle, and where are human judgment, direction or approval still needed? How should roles and processes change when those capabilities become part of day-to-day operations?

Those decisions need to involve the people who understand how the work gets done today. Giving them another tool without changing the process may produce useful efficiencies. Redesigning the process creates an opportunity to improve the outcome that matters, whether that is speed, quality, cost or capacity.

The test is what changed after the pilot, from the way work flows and the decisions people make to the results the business can measure.