Feel the fear and do it anyway
A proof of concept won't make the fear go away. Put AI into real work, small enough that you can catch mistakes and put them right.
Most people are nervous when their job changes. Fair enough. They know where the current mess is; the new mess could be anywhere.
AI adds a nasty twist. It can get something wrong while sounding very sure of itself. If your name is on the service customers get, that's a good reason to pause.
I still reckon we have to put it to work. Another proof of concept won't do it. You can make a demo behave by choosing the questions.
The trouble starts when someone else gets a turn.
That's the bit people try to avoid. I understand why. It feels like a leap of faith, because it is one.
Make the leap smaller. Start where a mistake is easy to catch. Let the AI draft an answer while a person checks it, then try it with a small group.
Decide in advance what would make you stop. Know who will turn it off and how the old way comes back. Check whether it helped anyone before you widen the release.
Some changes are two-way doors. If you can turn it off and put the old process back, stop treating the decision like a marriage proposal. For the one-way doors, take your time.
You won't get out of the proof-of-concept trap by making a nicer demo. Put something small into real work. See where it falls over, fix it, and do another one.
We took that approach when we put generative answers in front of Xero customers in 2023. It was properly scary. We were still learning what this technology would do when real people got hold of it.
A year later, Google's AI was telling people to put glue on pizza and eat rocks. It did a fine job of showing why we'd been nervous.
We went anyway. Now we have years of experience with real customer questions and real outcomes. We'd have none of that if we'd waited until the fear went away.
After a few of those, the fear gets more useful. You know what a mistake looks like and who has to sort it out. Confidence comes from dealing with that, not from another meeting about whether you're ready.
Even then, someone has to say, "Right. Put it live."
Feel the fear and do it anyway.