How far have you integrated AI into your team and workplace? You don’t have to do it all at once. There are four levels of AI integration, and you can start small before expanding to bigger and better things. Scaling AI strategically creates value and unlocks opportunities at each level.
At what level are you using AI, and what’s your plan for using it next year and beyond?
Whenever I deliver my Leveraging AI keynote presentation at a conference, I always include an extra “hands-on” AI masterclass afterwards – run over Zoom within three months of the conference. The keynote gives them the big picture, and the masterclass shows them how to get immediate value from AI – whatever their role and familiarity with AI.
I always start these masterclasses by asking participants to rate – on a scale of 1 to 10 – how much they are using AI. Typically, the average is in the 4-6 range, with a few below or above those middle numbers.
When we dig a bit deeper, I find the main reason they don’t have a higher score is something like:
“I just don’t know how else to use it.”
That’s a reasonable response, especially for something as new as AI.
If you’re wondering the same thing, here’s a useful framework. Think of people in your team using AI at four levels: personal, professional, projects, and platform.
Level 1: Personal
Are you using AI in your personal life? Tools like ChatGPT can be incredibly useful, even for tasks unrelated to work. I suggest you encourage everybody on your team to exploring AI at home to help in their personal life.
Level 2: Professional
Next, use AI to enhance your professional role. This isn’t about your core job, but rather the surrounding tasks like managing emails, running meetings, or interacting with people. These tasks are essential but often time-consuming and stressful. AI can reduce the burden and make you more efficient and effective in your professional life.
Level 3: Projects
At this level, AI becomes a tool for your team. These are short-term projects – no more than three to four months – that deliver real value to the team without needing full organisational buy-in. For example, you could use AI to streamline a process or tackle a specific challenge. Of course, you do them within your organisation’s AI policy, but you can still do them independently.
Level 4: Platform
This is the highest level, where AI becomes integral to your organisation’s operations. Think of banks using AI to assess loan applications, insurers using it to calculate premiums, HR departments designing personalised learning journeys for employees, or IT teams using AI to enhance cybersecurity. Initiatives at this level typically need a strategic decision at the organisational level, and it’s where you get the biggest overall benefits.
Broadly, those are the four levels: personal, professional, projects, and platform.
If you’re a senior leader responsible for a department, division, or the whole organisation, you might start thinking about AI at the platform level. But if you’re not, don’t wait until the organisation does something. Look at the other three levels. Encourage people to use it in their personal life first, then in their professional roles, and then create projects as a team.
If you want to know more, I’m running a free public online presentation soon about AI in 2025. This will help you use AI strategically and practically to solve business problems and achieve goals, including organisational and people goals. If you’re interested, register here and invite others in your team and network as well.
