Companies waiting on AI will fall behind

I don’t believe that every company will survive the transition to artificial intelligence.

Companies that learn how to use AI will move faster, make better decisions, and produce more with the same resources. Those that wait will create a gap with competitors so wide that it may become impossible to close.

AI adoption is here. Are leaders ready to help their people start using it?

The transition has been one of the hardest changes I’ve led at Geotab. Reshaping a company around a complete rethinking of what business is, is not easy. It changes the way people work, how teams are organized, and how leaders measure performance.

Avoiding that disruption is a decision to fall behind.

How we deployed AI to 3,400 employees in one day

We rolled out a custom AI (called GIA) to 3,400 Geotab employees in one day. I believed we would learn more and get further ahead by putting GIA at people’s fingertips immediately rather than designing a perfect rollout.

Every person, from technical and non-technical teams alike, had full access to a secure AI gateway with pre-loaded skills right from their laptops. Within seven days, we had a 97% daily active rate.

Here are six key lessons we learned about getting employees on board with AI.

1. Be the first adopter. 

Leaders cannot ask employees to embrace a technology they have not taken the time to understand themselves. I have followed and tested new technology throughout my career. Using AI personally helps me speak honestly about what it can do, where it falls short, and how it can improve the way we work.

2. Make the first step simple.

Onboarding is the highest friction point of the process in any technology rollout. If the first experience is too complicated, many people will not get far enough to discover the value. In our case, employees could simply type “GIA” and begin. The easier it was to start, the faster people could move from uncertainty to experimentation.

3. Communicate clearly and continuously.

Leaders need to communicate regularly, share concrete examples, celebrate useful experiments, and create opportunities for employees to learn from one another. Our monthly town halls provide an opportunity for employees to hear about and share how they are using AI in their work. I also led a hackathon with over 2,000 participants to help employees build their skills and discover new ways to work more effectively with AI.

4. Measure output, not usage.

AI usage is not the same as business value. It is easy to measure log-ins, prompts, tokens, or the number of employees who opened the tool. But are teams delivering more value with the same resources?

We make usage information available to all employees immediately, including token consumption. Transparency helps people understand how they use AI and encourages responsible, purposeful adoption.

5. Set up guardrails.

Adoption requires privacy, security, data protection, and human judgment. Guardrails should make innovation safer, not impossible. Employees must know what information can be used, what outputs must be reviewed, and when human expertise must take over.

The companies that succeed will understand the risk and establish sensible boundaries. They will keep learning.

6. Do it before you feel ready.

The biggest mistake leaders can make is waiting for AI adoption to feel neat and comfortable.

It is messy. Let the first version be imperfect. Rapid implementation is not optional with technology moving at lightning speed. The companies adopting AI now will outpace their competitors and build the confidence, skills, and adaptability required for a quickly transforming future.

Neil Cawse is founder and CEO of Geotab.