The only time I’ve run out of petrol is while driving through an oil refinery.
Back in the day, there were Fiat Uno pool cars on the refinery for driving around the site. As contact engineer on a unit over a mile from the office, I had the keys to my own Fiat Uno. Nominally, it was still a pool car but the keys were in my pocket and we all know possession is 9/10th of the law.
With a daily mileage of between 2 and 6 miles a day, you can survive many days with the orange fuel light on. I’d kept lending the car to people thinking that they might fill it up. But no joy. After all, they were only going a mile or two – why detour to the on-site petrol station?
So, when I set off to my morning meeting in the Poly Plant control room, I’d finally accepted that I had to get fuel. Only to run out half way there.
Cue some swearing. A little walk to the petrol station. A walk of shame with a petrol can. (How come so many people appeared at that point and not when I’d “broken” down?). A drive back to the petrol pump to fill up properly. And just about make it on time to the morning meeting.
What’s the moral of this story, if it even needs one?
Just because you’re surround by fuel doesn’t mean your car won’t run out.
And stretching this to a metaphor… Just because we’re all surrounded by AI, doesn’t mean we’re getting any benefit from it. Buying some licenses isn’t the same as people using them. The refinery had millions of litres; none of it was in my car.
AI isn’t going to magically adopt itself into your processes. A tool bolted onto every function doesn’t shift productivity.
My advice? Start with one, or maybe two, areas that the business really cares about. You’ll probably know already what these are as they’ll link to the business strategy. And have your teams explore how they might use this exciting tech to unlock something new.
By all means bring in your tech vendors. If you’re worried about them bamboozling you, invite me and the team in to facilitate. We treat AI as an ingredient, not a meal and drive the room to outcomes not features. We also get amazing feedback from tech vendors once they’ve been in the room as they hear first hand from customers about their real challenges.
If you’re feeling like it’s too early in your journey for a pit stop, then I have a short diagnostic to frame the most important next step. Message for info.
This essay first went to subscribers of The Hard Part, my weekly newsletter. The Hard Part about adopting new digital tools and AI is almost never the technology, it’s changing the way people work. Never more than a 5 minute read: helen-dawson.kit.com/the-hard-part