Social networks are burning with promises of success through AI: miraculous prompts to multiply sales by ten, scale exponentially, all in five hours with ten commands. Before each of these messages, the reactions of the audience—thirsty for success—are shocking.
And it is surprising that almost no one questions whether these evangelists of success have really applied their formulas to themselves, for their own benefit, or whether they are simply selling foam.
Now let’s look up from the screen and look around. In contrast to this bubble on social networks, there are few companies that are applying AI in their daily lives, beyond the small experiments carried out by those who enjoy technology and show them off in the hallways. At this point, it is surprising that The impact of AI, largely free, has not gone further.
What is missing to take the leap and integrate the use of AI into everyday life, the same way we integrate the use of computers at the time? The incentives are clear, and so are the fears of change.
And in these scenarios, what usually works to move from saying to deed, to turn possible conversations into tangible realities, is a good concept: clear, simple, friendly, that anyone can make their own with some ease.
History is full of examples of these transmuting concepts. In the United Kingdom, eating habits changed fundamentally when Tony Blair spread the concept “5 a day” through all mass media: five pieces of fruit and vegetables a day to change your health. A number, a clear pattern, an achievable goal.
Another example is recycling habits, which were anchored as a routine through the three colored bins that you could place under your kitchen faucet and transfer to equivalent containers on the corner of your street. Color recycling transformed complex social behavior into something a five-year-old could understand. Success came from concrete architecture: clear rules, easy-to-remember colors, omnipresent infrastructure.
Another recent example is the dissemination of strength training, in the gym and at home. We simply came to understand that, instead of exercising with endless and confusing routines, we needed half a dozen exercises, specifically designed and repeated in long series for about twenty minutes.
In the business world, examples abound as well. The Agile method simplified decades of project management theory: from rigid, linear processes to a simple, spiral methodology, with short sprints and regular retrospectives that facilitate continuous innovation.
And the Business Model Canvas condensed all the complexity of designing a business plan into a nine-block matrix that fits on a single page.
What do all these concepts that change complex realities into practical routines have in common? None require being an expert. They are viewable, shareable, actionable. They transformed mass behavior because they reduced complexity and pretentious foam to their essence.
With AI, that architecture is missing. Today, only 2.9% of Spanish SMEs currently use artificial intelligence, despite the fact that 70.7% recognize that it can free them from repetitive tasks. The gap between perception and adoption is abysmal.
In a large number of companies, the “list of things to change with AI” is too long and looming, there is a lot of fog and a lot of frothy, thorny talk. In general, the introduction is happening organically, almost underground, thanks to employees who are updating others, applying changes to improve their own quality of life.
The hallway and gossip function as the main irrigation system of ideas. And this informal run-run is what ends up permeating the strategy, without a concept that orders this change, the transformation is being painful and unfocused. The frame of reference is missing. The colored recycling bins applied to AI are missing.
There is no need for more webinars on the wonders of AI. A clear, visual, memorable concept is needed on how to integrate AI into the organization. A framework that allows AI to be taken out of hallway conversations and one-off experiments and turned into a work model that naturalizes it.
Something as simple as: “These are the five areas where AI should be in your dashboard and these are the ten concrete steps you can take with your team that everyone will understand.”
The exponential value of AI skyrockets when its implementation becomes part of managers’ control panel, and each function understands what it needs to start doing and how to do it in a coordinated manner.
And, above all, when everyone finds a compelling reason to start with those changes today, taking the necessary steps as clearly and naturally as possible.
The leap from foam to substance will not be made by sellers of magic formulas on social networks. It will be given by those who are capable of doing with AI what “5 a day” did with nutrition, what colors did with recycling, what Agile did with project management. Turn complexity into clarity. Chaos in method. The threat in everyday opportunity.
There is the real thread: A single simple, clear and friendly concept will be what uncorks the change that we are all waiting for.
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