There is the theory: that of Californian keynotes or your LinkedIn news feed where everything is fluid, magical and instantaneous.
And then there is the practice: that of Monday morning at 9:00 a.m., when announcing to your teams that “that’s it, AI is coming for everyone”.
Strangely, it is only at the IT department that everyone is happy (except when they think about all the support tickets that will arrive). The rest of the company is starting to worry. Rightly or wrongly, it doesn't matter. But the facts are there, the uncertainty of what their job will be tomorrow is increasing.
The vertigo of AI: between saturation and obsolescence
Why this blockage might some think?
But for me it's a perfectly legitimate reaction. Because AI touches the intimacy of our professions. When we mention the “productivity gain” to employees, the message is often perceived as a disguised threat.
Some hear “if I complete my task in ten minutes instead of an hour, I will be asked 5 times more!” or “we are going to give this mission that I love to someone else because they will be able to do it with AI and I don’t understand anything”.
It is the legitimate fear of a frantic race for profitability, where humans would become simple executors controlled by an algorithm. Added to this is imposter syndrome: the fear of being technically overwhelmed, of not knowing how to “talk to the machine”, where the younger generation seems to master the “prompt” like a second living language.
On the management side, the concern is more pragmatic. We fear data leaks, shadow IT is taking on another dimension, the digital divide is widening with each new technological advance putting employees in more and more difficulty, we wonder what budget to put in place and with what order of priority because everything is going at high speed, choosing whether to develop a tool or wait for AI to be able to do it directly…
In short, decisions are difficult to make and users are in difficulty.
The change curve: from friction to adoption
Implementing AI means accepting that your teams are going through a turbulent zone. The transition from skepticism to adhesion does not happen with the snap of a finger.
Here are the key steps in this AI adoption curve.
Rejection
Typical manifestation
“I don’t need it, I manage my application sorting very well on my own. AI is not going to teach me my job anyway! »
What happens: it is above all the expression of professional pride and concern about the future of its missions or a misunderstanding of the capabilities of the tool. The user perceives AI, not as an assistant, but as a potential replacement or, at a minimum, a judge of the effectiveness of their current methods.
He fears a deskilling of his skills and a loss of control over his work.
Frustration
Typical manifestation
The user tries the experiment, but the AI generates an imperfect, incomplete or erroneous response. The verdict falls quickly: “The tool lacks relevance. It's not yet effective, which is wasting my time. »
What happens: the user often has unrealistic expectations or has not yet acquired the skills necessary to formulate effective prompts. He is in a learning phase where the gap between the technological promise and the concrete experience generates annoyance. This is the crucial moment for targeted training and support, where we teach not only how to use the tool, but above all how to talk to it to obtain usable results. The emphasis must be placed on iteration and mutual correction.
The trigger
Typical manifestation
It often occurs unexpectedly, thanks to a use case that is not only elementary, but above all immediately impactful and without major effort.
What happens: The user realizes that AI can offload a significant mental load and offer them quantifiable time savings. The perception shifts: from a threat, AI becomes a lever of personal efficiency. This moment is often viral, as users share their success with their colleagues, acting as ambassadors.
Reasoned adoption
Typical manifestation
The tool becomes a “silent colleague”, discreet, but essential. It is activated reflexively for specific tasks without requiring conscious thought.
What happens: the user has integrated AI into their daily life. He understands its limits and its strengths, and uses it strategically. The role of AI is now clear: to take charge of repetitive, time-consuming and low value-added tasks to allow humans to focus on the essentials: critical thinking, strategy, creativity, emotion and interaction with other humans.
This is achieving the promise of human augmentation, where the professional's expertise is not replaced, but amplified.
Our mission at Numericoach is to drastically reduce the duration of the first two phases to trigger this trigger quickly.
The Numericoach method to support teams
The era of three-day, ultra-standardized catalog training courses, where we skim over 150 features forgotten the next day, is over. Efficiency requires pragmatism and personalization to your context, your level of maturity, your objectives, your budget.
At Numericoach, it is impossible to have two identical projects simply because each company is different and we love nothing more than adapting!
That said, even if each project is unique in its execution, there are a few big ideas that I am delighted to share with you:
1st step – Demystify to reassure
We start by re-establishing the facts. No, Gemini is not intended to replace your job and it is not magic. Our acculturation sessions aim to place the tool back in its context: a powerful, sometimes impressive, sometimes limited assistant.
Understanding your weaknesses is taking back control. We test live, we analyze errors; this transparency relaxes the atmosphere and promotes learning.
In the form of a one-hour webinar that can accommodate several hundred people, this is the first step that allows learners to be in a good position to accept the rest of the course.
2nd step – Prove the gain, for them, by concrete everyday cases
This is the keystone of our support: concrete!
Training an accountant in the generation of creative images is nonsense.
We start from the reality on the ground.
Based on job descriptions, trades, the company's sector and all the elements that the company can provide us, we prepare half-day training courses demonstrating speaking use cases to guarantee the wow effect and quickly show the gain they can get from Gemini.
Our greatest victory: we had a learner who cried when realizing how her daily life would be relieved of difficult tasks.
3rd step – Secure practice through repetition
We would have liked to think that investing in training for all the teams would have been enough... but no! Indeed, thinking that giving information through a single channel to a person is enough to train them and make them adopt a tool is heresy.
The real obstacles arise once alone in front of the screen. And this is where you should not let doubt settle in the user.
We then deploy one or more solutions:
- 1:1 Support: individual support, in 1:1 on a 30-minute slot, in visio with an expert where you can present your case. A real safety net that allows employees to dare to experiment without the fear of being judged, it is the most effective method we have been able to test.
- Regular webinars: AI is advancing faster than any other technology that we have implemented in companies to date. Maintaining the level of knowledge is not easy. Our method of regular, very pragmatic, short and interactive webinars can be recorded and made available on your intranet to maintain the emulation around this exciting topic but also the skills of the teams.
- Community and regular communication: by email, in a Google Chat room, in a community (for example: LumApps) or on dynamic displays (for example: Comeen solution), we create engaging and dynamic visuals, oriented tips and tricks to put into practice immediately
4th step – Create an internal dynamic
Cultural change is not decreed by a service note or by a 4-month internal project, it spreads by proof and over time.Two internal dynamic systems can be considered:
- The Ambassadors: these driving employees, we advise you to really pamper them, involve them from the beginning of the project and make them “AI champions”. They are the ones who will share the successes at the coffee machine, who will reassure their peers but who will also have the mission of maintaining the level of knowledge of their colleagues. Training 5 ambassadors for 100 employees on a very advanced level of use and on the capitalization of resources is an excellent investment for your company!
- GSkills : if the human is the heart of change, gamification is the engine. To prevent learning from running out of steam once the training is complete, we rely on GSkills. This solution allows you to transform the rise in skills into a fun and stimulating journey. Concretely, the tool accurately maps the level of mastery of your teams on Google Workspace, the Chromebook environment and, of course, on the new uses of Gemini. The interest is twofold. First for the employee: he comes out of the fog, validates his achievements at his own pace, uses the platform as a user support (we are told in the earpiece that this would also perhaps allow to go the IT support of basic questions), learns while having fun by winning badges and certifications. Then for the company: no more exorbitant expenses in updating the content which is barely released is already obsolete (Google goes troooop fast!), resolved the concern of giving knowledge to all the BUs around the world, treated the subject of “we can not train everyone it is expensive”, finished piloting with the “wet finger”. You have factual data to identify your hidden talents (your future ambassadors!) and offer very specific topics to those who really need them.
Beyond performance: the mental load
In the end, what is the real benefit? Companies talk about performance; we prefer to talk about mental load. A well-implemented AI marks the end of white page syndrome, the end of tedious research in a complex file tree, a fluid and efficient employee experience.
What we bring is not only technology. It is time regained for what your employees were hired for: reflect, create and decide. A prerogative that no AI will be able to take away from them.
It is up to us, companies, employees and Numericoach to implement the most optimized combination to promote the adoption of these magical tools and make the company's daily life more efficient.
