Where do I start?
The last thing any marketer needs in 2025 is another massive transformation project. We talk a lot about all the frontier AI stuff, because it’s the future of customer experience and that’s exciting! But in reality, most marketers are simply asking, where do I start!?
Excitement not exhaustion
Consulting firms are billing billions in AI revenue, selling 6 month long analysis projects. But success stories are scarce, and most of these large scale engagements are failing to produce. Buyers are burnt out, fatigued and confused, as the big bang approach stalls under its own weight.
The truth is you don’t need to convince the entire company. You need to start with one or two results that make everyone else pay attention. You need to show value, demonstrate promise, and get the buy-in that helps evangelise AI. You need to build excitement, not exhaustion. That’s how real adoption starts and how you begin to earn trust in AI.
Momentum
Effective change is about creating and sustaining momentum. Generate impact by starting small with a focused pilot tied directly to a single use case and simple business outcomes. Iterate fast with user feedback. AI systems work in partnership with real humans, and that comes with friction, legacy, and emotions like fear, pride and denial. Start from the ground up, working with these people to build momentum, trust and enthusiasm.
AI is Agile
Speed and simplicity wins. Don’t bring traditional enterprise methodologies to something that fundamentally requires experimentation, iteration and often failure in order to learn. You can’t waterfall your way to GenAI adoption.
Agility is everything. Humans and AI often don’t behave the way you expect, so real learning and progress comes from testing with real users. The faster you iterate, and the quicker you get real user feedback, the more likely you are to succeed. Setting your sights on the frontier is important, but learning and building from the ground you’re actually standing on is essential.
Value Creation Teams
I started in the 90s with Ford Motor Company in their brand new “Internet & New Media” department, effectively a Value Creation Team. Despite a very traditional corporate culture, Ford were way ahead on the digital adoption curve, investing heavily in the future of the internet way before broadband, smart phones and Google.
My team operated with a remit to explore models and use cases across the business, outside the usual constraints of day-to-day operations. It wasn’t ‘move fast and break things’ by any stretch, but it was about operating with a pilot mentality, open to explore, uncover unknowns and re-imagine how everything was done. It laid the foundations of what became Digital Transformation, and Ford reaped the benefits, accelerating their digital capabilities while others stayed still.
Startup agility + Big Org depth
Success isn’t really about whether you are a startup or a big organization. It’s about how you work. Larger companies can pair startup agility, with long term strategic thinking, using agile methods and value creation teams to explore fast moving pilots.
Start small, learn fast, scale what works. Get comfortable with fast iteration as a way to learn and uncover unknowns. Test and learn with real users as a way to reimagine and redesign new ways of working with old use cases. It’s a mix of a startup agility, and big-org domain depth. Think in short 6 week cycles to discover, test and learn. Don’t start with a big presentation, get to build and test quickly, because that’s where the learning is.
Key principles
Momentum:
Start small, learn fast, and scale what works to get moving and generate momentum.
Human change:
Don’t try to convince the entire company, instead focus on one or two results that make everyone else start to pay attention.
AI is agile:
The faster you iterate, and the quicker you get real user feedback, the more likely your are to succeed.
Value creation teams:
Pilot projects to experiment, explore, and reimagine use cases and operating models.
Get comfortable with uncertainty:
Pair startup agility, with long term strategic thinking, using agile methods to move fast and uncover unknowns.
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