Despite spending a pretty penny on AI technology, many companies aren’t having much luck getting their workforce to use it.
After discovering that its own employees were timid about using AI in the workplace, enterprise software giant Workday spearheaded a program to encourage adoption. Ashley Goldsmith, Workday’s chief people officer, recently spoke with HR Brew about that initiative, and how her own team is using AI.
Adoption boost. Internal research revealed that Workday employees weren’t using AI tools because they weren’t clear on the appropriate use cases. So Workday launched a program called “Everyday AI,” through which it encouraged employees to use and experiment with AI, and learn how it’s already being used within the organization.
To start, Workday held a company-wide meeting in April that CEO Carl Eschenbach opened by discussing his own AI use. Then, Goldsmith said he gave the floor to employees, who shared how they use different AI tools. Workday intentionally focused the event on employee experiences, as they thought these would do more to engage and inspire than a more general training.
“With that, we saw this huge adoption and real enthusiasm,” Goldsmith told HR Brew. The company has also encouraged adoption in other ways, including leveraging a peer recognition tool for AI use, and providing managers with resources (such as prompt cards) to help them gamify AI use within their teams.
