Building Organisational Confidence in AI

Are you looking to empower your team to lead digital transformation?

With the AI Transformation Pathway, your team will bridge the gap between technical teams and business impact because they know how to advocate for AI, lead responsibly, and turn ideas into digital products.

The reason transformation fails in 70% of cases is due to employee pushback. Typically, transformation efforts are led by the execs and senior leaders who set the overall vision. But less than half of teams include employees – those professionals who sit on the frontline, speak to customers and colleagues every day, work your processes step-by-step, and spot the tiny improvements that would have a huge impact on the business. 

Giving employees a seat at the table and empowering them to get on in the best way they know how is the first step to transformation success.   

When you trust your team to get on and let go of ultimate control, you encourage a bottom-up approach to collaboration and problem-solving. You still set the compass through the overall vision, but it’s up to the team to decide the best path to achieve that vision of success. In the process, this helps to reveal new, different, or better ways of solving challenges, reduces risk, and secures buy-in from across the organisation. 

5 critical success factors for digital transformation

According to McKinsey, “developing talent and skills throughout the organisation is one of the most important factors for success in a digital change effort.” Transformation success is 3x more likely with the right digital talent, because organisations:

1. 2. Build capabilities for the workforce of the future
2. 3. Empower people to work in new ways
3. 4. Give day-to-day tools a digital upgrade
4. 5. Communicate frequently via traditional and digital methods

Interestingly, within this winning criteria, there is a distinct lack of deep technical skills being required. While these are needed for successful transformation, soft skills and business skills are of greater value because they ensure the right change is pursued and ultimately accepted. It’s why three-quarters of organisations struggle to achieve and scale value from their AI transformation, because the focus until now has been so heavily weighted towards deep technical skills.

But you don’t need to be a data scientist to lead with AI.

AI has changed the way organisations think and operate, so we need to change the way we approach transformation to prioritise the development of different skills:

Strategic thinking

Those involved in transformation need the ability to develop a vision for transformation, which focuses on impactful change which aligns with the overall business objectives. That requires business acumen to understand core processes that can be enhanced with AI. As well as a customer-centric mindset to determine what changes improve customer engagement and satisfaction.

Effective communication

With the vision in place, it’s essential to communicate what change is happening and why, and the role individuals have to play in it. Now, everyone feels like they’re on the change journey together – rather than have it sprung upon them at a big unveiling. Also, it’s about engaging different stakeholders, the ability to manage up, as well as down, and collaborating effectively across different business functions.

Data Proficiency 

An understanding of AI technology is necessary, but deep technical skills are not essential, because you can add those from your technical team. What’s more important is a strong knowledge of data, analytics, and cybersecurity principles, like data security and privacy. Data skills support strategic decision making, ensuring the team makes informed choices, can measure progress, and, when necessary, adapt their strategy.

Adaptability

Environmental factors continue to hit your business from all directions, which is why your team needs to be flexible to course-correct when necessary. There’s no point continuing to head towards a goal that ceases to be relevant, and your people need the strength to adapt or kill initiatives. Also, they need the freedom to experiment and fail, learning lessons along the way and sharing that knowledge with others to ensure continuous learning across the business.

Change Management Expertise 

Finally, proficiency in change management methodologies means the process runs smoothly, because your team knows how to handle objections, anticipate blockers, and build excitement for what’s to come. Of course, this is also largely dependent on project management expertise to ensure the team delivers what it promised on time, to budget, and with tangible ROI.

Investing in Apprenticeships to Stay Ahead

To empower your teams, apprenticeships are the best learning pathway to balance technical, soft, and business skills, ensuring your organisation approaches AI transformation in the right way.

At Cambridge Spark, we set the gold standard. We’re always first to market with courses that develop new skills. To date, we have generated £350m+ in ROI for our clients. And our learners achieve a 99.5% pass rate with 70%+ distinction/merit grades, compared to an industry average of just 33%.

With each programme, learners gain access to our online learning platform, EDUKATE.AI, which requires no IT set-up and uses real datasets in a sandbox environment, so learners can practice their skills to accelerate training outcomes. We also invite them to join our community of 4,000+ learners and alumni. And the great news is that our programmes can be funded through the apprenticeship levy.

Upskill your team through our AI Transformation Pathway, and we’ll develop their critical skills in AI literacy, ethical leadership, agile delivery, and product innovation. It doesn’t matter whether individuals are just starting their AI journey or looking to enhance their skills; this pathway has you covered.

The pathway covers 4 programmes, which build on acquired knowledge over time:

AI Champion (L3) develops skills to effectively identify, implement, and champion AI technologies, such as Microsoft Copilot, across your organisation.

AI Transformation Specialist (L4) enables your team to master the skills to leverage AI responsibly and drive accelerated business outcomes in the AI era.

Digital Product Manager (L4) embeds the importance of delivering customer value by developing user-centric digital products across the entire product lifecycle.

AI Leader (L5) equips your leaders with the skills to execute on the overall vision, manage your AI transformation, drive responsible AI, deliver ROI, and build AI literacy.

Discover AI for Every Role

In this webinar, we take a deep dive into the AI Transformation Pathway, so you can learn how to empower your team to lead successful transformation projects.

Watch on demand now

Alternatively, our team is always on hand and ready to answer any questions you may have about our development pathways, apprenticeship programmes, and building a future-ready workforce. Simply drop us a message.