Building Your AI Strategy

Learning Objectives Design a phased AI adoption roadmap for your organization Know when to accelerate, pause, or pivot your AI strategy Avoid the most common strategic mistakes in enterprise AI adoption The Four Phases of AI Adoption Most successful AI strategies follow a predictable pattern. Rushing through phases or skipping them leads to expensive failures. Going too slowly cedes ground to competitors. The key is knowing which phase you are in and what to focus on. Phase 1: Explore (1 to 3 Months) Goal: Build awareness and identify opportunities. What to do: Enable AI tools for a small group of enthusiastic early adopters (10 to 20 people) Give them access to ChatGPT Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot, or Google Workspace AI Ask them to document their use cases: what they used AI for, time saved, quality of results Have leadership try AI tools personally — you cannot lead what you do not understand Decision point: After 90 days, you should have a list of 5 to 10 validated use cases from your early adopters and personal experience with at least one AI tool. If you do not, extend Phase 1. Phase 2: Pilot (2 to 4 Months) Goal: Test the top use cases in controlled environments with measurable outcomes. What to do: Select 2 to 3 use cases from Phase 1 with the clearest ROI potential Run structured pilots with specific teams (see the pilot framework from the previous lesson) Establish basic AI guidelines: what data can be used, what review is…