AI + Change Management: considerations

Look, I’ve been kind of quiet on the AI front for Change Management. I’ve never been someone at the bleeding edge of new trends or technology. I’ve still never had a Twitter/X account, I’m not on TikTok, I’ve never owned an iPad, and it was only just last month that I drove a Tesla for the first time. I prefer to live life at the leading edge rather than the bleeding edge, and to wait till something is tried and tested and true before I put my name behind it or sing its praises. So while I’ve been listening and watching all the hype about AI and I do believe it will be a total game-changer for Change… I just don’t know “when”. Just like Agile, I don’t plan to be an AI evangelist - but never say never. When it finally gets to the point of real-value sophistication, maybe I will sing arias about AI. But until that time, here’s 5 considerations to keep in mind. 

Don’t be Chicken Little

Every new technology and trend is touted as the death toll for some job or profession. I’ve heard numerous thought leaders and talent in Change complaining about how AI will steal all the jobs in Change Management. And seriously - AI does write good (albeit generic) communications! Hell, after finishing the writing of my new book "Pioneer Your Career Change", I was out of words and unsure how to structure my book description. So I got an AI tool to provide inspiration and it did a decent enough job in showing me what was needed, even if the wording itself wasn't really me. I wrote my book description using more appropriate phrasing and terms from my previous content, the book itself, and other authors' back cover blurbs to craft something that better suited my writing style and message. While it wasn't AI-generated, it was certainly AI-assisted! If you remember the children’s story about Chicken Little who ran around screaming the sky is falling because a single acorn fell on her head know this: the sky is not falling. Use AI to enhance your work, bring more ease into your day-to-day, and amplify the soft skills you have in Change to add more value to your projects and leaders. We humans have an uncanny way of constantly making more work for ourselves to do every time we bring in new time- and effort-saving technology…

Data isn’t enough

The other thing is that most of the value we bring in our Change Leadership actually comes from us making sense of a trillion data points, sources, conversations and emotions to formulate a view of the change and how to best combat it. Organisations are generally so very terrible at understanding and documenting how they themselves even operate and work, AI has a long way to go to take this critical part of our roles. Case in point - often a person’s role in the Global Address List doesn’t match their employment contract OR what they actually do in their day-to-day work. Trying to use AI to understand the change just based on GAL data won’t work (yet). 

Privacy matters

I’ve been to several webinars and events sharing the challenges and opportunities with using AI and a really big one is that trying to plug your organisation’s private and confidential data into the amorphous machine is massively risky if you don’t have enterprise licenses and security boundaries for data protection. Please be really careful and don’t disclose confidential information - talk about things in general terms without disclosing exact details about staff, operations, finances, projects, etc into AI tools until your organisation has an enterprise service.

Conversations will always take precedence

Even though I harp on about tools and templates, I also am constantly saying it’s the conversations where the true value lies. Yes AI can churn something out in two tenths of a second. But it can’t connect with people on a deep, human level of a cup of chai and make them feel seen, heard and felt. A massive part of Change Management is engagement and that’s why while we could go sit in a room to craft a Change Plan, we choose instead to co-create with our stakeholders for buy-in, engagement, and resonance. Remember there’s so much value in the process, and using AI in the future can help free you up to do more of that good stuff.

Learn from market leaders

The only actual paid course I’ve done so far on AI was Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula Live where he showcased his Launchy.ai tool. I woke up at 5.00pm and sat overnight on the US-time sessions for 12 hours for 4 days straight to learn how to use ChatGPT prompts. Why? Because Jeff is an absolute legend and market leader in the online business world and if I was going to learn AI I wanted to learn from the best. I haven’t yet found another course that I believe and trust will teach me practically how to use AI but when I do, I’ll be making sure it’s from the best of the best and someone who gets real results. In full disclosure, I’m an affiliate partner for Jeff - join my waitlist for his PLF 2025 here

So yes, these are my 5 considerations. I’m sure over time as my Leading Successful Change students start dabbling more in AI and I dip my toes into the water, we’ll start talking about its opportunities and challenges on our Monthly Coaching Calls. The next one is Wednesday 4 December at 6.00pm (Sydney time) and I’ll also be running a special US-friendly bonus call on Thursday 5 December so my American students don’t have to wake up at 2am like I did for my AI course. If you’d like to join us in LSC and set yourself up for an epic 2025 ahead, we’d love to have you join us on the Q&A calls next week.

CLICK HERE to join Leading Successful Change in time for the December Coaching Calls

Lata xx