‘AI is going to take my job’; ‘I feel like I’m being left behind’; ‘What will my job look like in the future?’ These common fears might sound familiar. We hear these concerns all the time when managing clients’ AI projects. Given the speed of AI rollout in our working lives, it’s not surprising people have concerns. However, these fears are creating resistant workforces and slowing down organizations, and they need to be addressed.
Our blog will examine some of the roadblocks to AI adoption and provide some practical solutions to beat resistance and fear of AI in the workplace.
Behavior change in AI
The majority of tech rollouts will require a level of behavior change such as having to learn a new system or a change in process and this is even more true with AI projects. Change often brings uncertainty and it’s easy for those managers to make assumptions about what is stopping their employees from engaging and being on board with the proposed changes. For leadership, the benefits are often very clear, the context is known, and they have a level of understanding and familiarity with what is being proposed. However, people are complex beings and it’s not always easy to know what is causing your workforce to be so resistant to the behavior change you are asking of them.
This can lead to change management strategies that are misaligned with the actual blockers, leading to a lack of adoption, prolonged timelines, and increased spend. To address these challenges, we encourage our clients to use the COM-B model to more accurately understand blockers to behavior change associated with your tech rollout, and in this instance specifically for AI.
Introducing the COM-B model to tackle AI resistance
The COM-B model identifies three key components (capability, opportunity, and motivation) that are at the heart of behavior change.
Capability: Upskilling employees to reduce fear of AI
Capability refers to an individual’s physical and psychological ability to participate in an activity. Do your employees have the knowledge, together with the mental and physical skills required to engage in the desired behavior?
For AI, this is most commonly relevant in relation to a lack of understanding or training on how to use AI effectively. Although many AI tools may seem super intuitive to those leading these types of programs, it’s important to understand the knowledge base of those who will be impacted. Crucially, upskilling people on how to ask the right questions or use AI outputs is a skill that is often overlooked in this space.
Opportunity: Creating an AI-friendly work environment
Opportunity relates to external factors that make a behavior possible. This could be a physical opportunity, for instance, how easy it is for someone to access AI within their day-to-day processes. It could also be a social opportunity, for example, how common is AI use, role modeling from leadership etc.
Motivation: Encouraging positive attitudes towards AI
Motivation refers to the internal processes that can influence decision-making and behavior. This can be reflective motivation, which requires planning, thought or intentionality, or automatic motivation involving habits and emotions that an individual may not be aware of. Highlighting the benefits of AI, creating incentives for the desired behavior, and exploring deep-rooted fears and beliefs can all help with this element of behavior change.
Using COM-B to overcome AI resistance in your organization
Use the COM-B model to better identify the current blockers within your organization (or whatever the specific desired AI behavior change is) and then target change strategy and interventions to overcome those challenges.
Ask yourself the following questions: Do my people know when AI can be most effective (psychological capability)? Is it hard for them to access the right AI tools on their laptops (physical opportunity)? Is there an inherent mistrust of AI amongst my teams (automatic motivation)? By identifying the blockers your teams are experiencing, you can understand how best to land your AI behavior change.
If you need help implementing AI, managing change or taking a people-first approach, get in touch.
