Patricia Evanno

I can't take credit for the "Demos, not memos" ethos -- I learned it as a volunteer for U.S. Digital Response during Covid. It emphasizes the need to move beyond words and show what you've built. This is especially crucial with AI since there's so much swirling sentiment around it that the term is now a catch-all with no meaning unless you can clearly show it within context. I'm proud that the Maryland Department of Information Technology hosts an AI Community of Practice centered on the idea that AI is for everyone regardless of role, agency, or experience. When you prioritize responsible use, those guardrails give people space to explore in meaningful ways.

41

7 Comments

A follow up on the #Workslop phenomenon from my friend and former colleague Kate Niederhoffer featured on Harvard Business Review This in particular stands out: “Why are people sending colleagues work they know to be subpar? Primarily because they feel stretched too thin, respondents say. As companies have tightened budgets, consolidated roles, and asked employees to take on more tasks without formal role redesign, individual contributors and frontline managers are stretched more than ever. This has left employees psychologically depleted and juggling heavier workloads.” In this context, blanket mandates to use AI—often without the training, agency, or cultural trust to thoughtfully experiment with these powerful new tools—end up encouraging people to use AI performatively. These low-effort, low-value uses demonstrate compliance with directives to experiment, even as they shift the burden of the work onto the receiver. Hence, workslop.” There you have it. Workslop is more symptom than cause and there’s at minimum a correlation between how employees are using AI to the “efficiency meme” they feel coming from leadership. “Do more with less. We know you can—because AI” The result: Workslop From an executive interviewed: “An executive vice president at another company said: “My org is still very afraid that we are not using AI ‘enough,’ so I don’t think there’s any way out but through. The examples that my fellow executives are setting is really pitiful. Quantity and ‘use of AI’ is prized more than quality and effectiveness. I’m looking for another job.” Part of the answers lies in scaling where AI Augmentation is working well. In other words, where Workslop is avoided: “we found that people with a sense of competence and control over AI tools are half as likely to create workslop. There are many ways companies can build these mindsets for their teams, including increasing AI literacy investments, getting employees to share and model the AI practices that are currently hidden in the shadows, or forward deploying AI engineers to help teams effectively integrate AI into their workflows. These kinds of investments will produce a healthy return.” Leadership. Culture. Trust. These are the things which all must be operationalized to fully harness the potential of Enterprise AI integration. A human-centric approach in other words. Good food for thought. Cc Tammy Soares Kim Curley Jason Aitchison Christen Bell, PCAI Sandy Carter Vanessa Perry BetterUp https://lnkd.in/g-zYkfbp

11

3 Comments

This is a #SuperBowl Moment for CEOs 🏈. Eric does an outstanding job outlining how to make the most out of this moment. I've written a 5-Step Playbook that will allow you to be the best a "Gen AI CEO" you can be. Here are 5 steps you can take: 1️⃣ Listen to this podcast. 2️⃣ Check out my piece at https://lnkd.in/g4Bdmj7h 3️⃣ Join the community and engage!

14

1 Comment

Great insights into the evolving role of the Chief AI Officer. The shift from technologist to strategist is not just a title change...It’s a mindset transformation. As AI matures, the real challenge lies in scaling impact responsibly and embedding capabilities into core business workflows. But there’s another layer emerging...Design-led AI adoption. The most successful implementations aren’t just technically sound; they’re intuitive, human-centred, and frictionless. As we move from experimentation to enterprise-wide execution, the CAIO must also be a design thinker, ensuring AI not only works; but works beautifully. Blink UX Mphasis | #Leadership #CDO #CAIO

9

This morning at Microsoft #Ignite, we announced the launch of the Frontier Firm AI Initiative with the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard (D^3), and the inaugural class is here! These 14 companies are working to reshape how work gets done through three emerging patterns: empowering every employee with an #AI assistant, amplifying impact with human-agent teamwork, and reinventing business processes with agents. The Initiative will research human-AI collaboration, upskill global C-suite leadership, and deliver new insights and tools to help reinvent organizations as Frontier Firms. Together, we’ll experiment, learn, and chart the course ahead. One of my favorite stories is Eli Lilly and Company, which is building a digital workforce powered by AI to turn science into medicine for people around the world. Their goal is to use AI to bring medicines to patients faster. That means speeding up every step of the process, from identifying promising molecules to conducting clinical trials to scaling up manufacturing. Read more about the #FrontierFirm AI Initiative here! https://lnkd.in/gAYVqdG4

74