WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.460 As you roll out changes, you want to be hearing, 2 00:00:02.460 --> 00:00:05.255 listening to your stakeholders, getting their feedback, 3 00:00:05.255 --> 00:00:09.342 and then working with them to improve the entire design of the product as you go 4 00:00:09.342 --> 00:00:11.052 through its entire life cycle. 5 00:00:11.052 --> 00:00:13.304 Ben, Vikram, thank you so much for being here. 6 00:00:13.304 --> 00:00:14.848 This first question is for you, Ben. 7 00:00:15.098 --> 00:00:19.936 How do you bring employees along for the journey when it comes to embedding AI systems? 8 00:00:19.936 --> 00:00:21.271 I think that's a great question. 9 00:00:21.271 --> 00:00:25.692 And I think first is early. Getting rapid iteration on these things, 10 00:00:25.692 --> 00:00:29.404 both in terms of concepts as well as how the solution is working to make sure that 11 00:00:29.404 --> 00:00:32.115 you're addressing the things that are impacting their day to day. 12 00:00:32.115 --> 00:00:35.160 And then as you deploy, making sure you have champion networks 13 00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:39.080 and peer learning in a way that they can adopt them that fits into the rhythm of 14 00:00:39.080 --> 00:00:41.750 work and using these processes to continually improve. 15 00:00:41.750 --> 00:00:44.586 These things are iterative, and we keep improving as we go forward. 16 00:00:44.586 --> 00:00:47.547 Vikram, at Cisco, how do you think about cocreating AI 17 00:00:47.547 --> 00:00:48.923 solutions with employees? 18 00:00:49.257 --> 00:00:51.885 Yeah, that's a great question, because the one thing that we have 19 00:00:51.885 --> 00:00:57.182 learned at Cisco is that AI is more a human-centered change than a technical one. 20 00:00:57.182 --> 00:01:02.854 So it's really important to involve the stakeholders or your customers in the entire process. 21 00:01:02.854 --> 00:01:06.691 And what we are doing is in basically designing AI with the folk, 22 00:01:06.691 --> 00:01:09.277 with our stakeholders, rather than for them. 23 00:01:09.861 --> 00:01:13.531 And what that does is it turns AI from being a tops-down change across the 24 00:01:13.531 --> 00:01:15.825 organization to one that's more collaborative. 25 00:01:16.076 --> 00:01:19.829 So it builds more trust as well as empathy as well as partnership within the 26 00:01:19.829 --> 00:01:20.455 organization. 27 00:01:20.663 --> 00:01:24.125 So we do this with all our stakeholders, particularly in customer experience, 28 00:01:24.125 --> 00:01:26.211 which it's the organization that I'm part of. 29 00:01:26.211 --> 00:01:29.672 We work with our renewals, and we understand their pain points, 30 00:01:29.672 --> 00:01:34.302 we understand their use cases, and we also design what "good" looks like. 31 00:01:34.302 --> 00:01:36.346 And it's not only important to do this upfront, 32 00:01:36.346 --> 00:01:38.890 but it's also important to do this through the entire life cycle. 33 00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:41.351 As you roll out changes, you want to be hearing, 34 00:01:41.351 --> 00:01:44.979 listening to your stakeholders, getting their feedback and then working 35 00:01:44.979 --> 00:01:50.068 with them to improve the entire design of the product as you go through it's entire life cycle. 36 00:01:50.068 --> 00:01:51.444 That's what I would say. 37 00:01:51.444 --> 00:01:54.989 I think that's something—cocreation is what builds trust and makes the, 38 00:01:54.989 --> 00:01:57.700 I would say, the change sustained over time. 39 00:01:58.034 --> 00:02:00.286 Ben, how should companies be balancing 40 00:02:00.286 --> 00:02:04.040 productivity with AI and also enhancing the employee experience? 41 00:02:04.833 --> 00:02:08.253 We need to put employees at the center of this transformation. 42 00:02:08.253 --> 00:02:12.757 AI and productivity are both at all-time high in quarterly reports and 43 00:02:12.757 --> 00:02:14.634 earnings, you know, discussions. 44 00:02:15.093 --> 00:02:19.597 And so I think there's an element of how do we humanize this change and focus on 45 00:02:19.597 --> 00:02:22.684 what's going to be driving their employee satisfaction. 46 00:02:22.976 --> 00:02:27.897 At BCG, we look at: how do we eliminate toil and drive joy in the process. 47 00:02:27.897 --> 00:02:32.360 And so as you're driving the cocreation, it's really about focusing on the things 48 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:35.572 that are going to improve their satisfaction but also correlate with the 49 00:02:35.572 --> 00:02:38.241 productivity and the value that we hope to gain out of these solutions. 50 00:02:38.241 --> 00:02:40.618 Vikram, what advice do you have for other leaders 51 00:02:40.702 --> 00:02:43.413 that are in the midst of their AI transformation journey? 52 00:02:43.413 --> 00:02:43.788 Sure. 53 00:02:43.788 --> 00:02:45.081 I would say it's three things. 54 00:02:45.081 --> 00:02:47.292 One, we talked about the cocreation and that's 55 00:02:47.292 --> 00:02:49.210 really important to sustain the AI change. 56 00:02:49.544 --> 00:02:54.299 The second thing that I would talk about is around getting the data right. 57 00:02:54.299 --> 00:02:57.969 And it doesn't have to be right upfront, but getting the data improved over time 58 00:02:57.969 --> 00:03:00.471 using a number of different ways is important as well. 59 00:03:00.805 --> 00:03:02.932 And the third element I would talk about is learning. 60 00:03:03.141 --> 00:03:06.269 Learning we have learned is one of the key enablers for AI. 61 00:03:06.519 --> 00:03:10.315 And so we do this through structured learning programs like things like AI for 62 00:03:10.315 --> 00:03:12.734 Everyone, as well as the belt certifications that 63 00:03:12.734 --> 00:03:15.320 we have, the white belt, green belt, and black belt. 64 00:03:15.528 --> 00:03:18.198 But we also have a lot of unstructured learning, 65 00:03:18.198 --> 00:03:21.868 which is things like playgrounds as well as places where, you know, 66 00:03:21.868 --> 00:03:25.914 employees can connect with each other and basically learn from each other. 67 00:03:25.914 --> 00:03:27.832 That peer learning is what really helps. 68 00:03:27.832 --> 00:03:30.752 So I think it's a blending of that learning as well as the cocreation. 69 00:03:31.085 --> 00:03:35.423 I think those are key things that I would emphasize for any organization trying to 70 00:03:35.423 --> 00:03:36.049 roll out AI. 71 00:03:36.925 --> 00:03:38.009 Thank you, both, so much. 72 00:03:38.176 --> 00:03:38.801 Thank you so much.