AI Decision Making: Choose What Deserves Your Team's Time
Good AI decision making starts with a reason to act that you can explain in terms of your own business. Decide what an idea would improve, what it asks of the team and what evidence would justify taking it further.
A competitor's announcement can give you a reason to investigate. You still need to decide whether their choice fits your customers, your priorities and the work already underway.
AI FOMO is the fear of missing out on what others appear to be gaining from AI. Treat that feeling as a prompt to look, then assess the opportunity on its merits before committing people or money.
A useful place to start is with the team's own ideas. They may have spotted a way to reduce admin or improve a customer conversation. Ask them to show you the work they would change and explain the benefit. You have something specific to assess, even if the idea first came from outside the business.
Compare the benefit with what the team takes on
Consider an AI tool for sales preparation. The opportunity might be to bring customer history together so reps spend less time searching and arrive better prepared for calls. That is a reason to investigate the tool beyond the fact that another business uses it.
Include the time needed to learn it, check its output and change the current process. Compare that effort with the improvement you expect. Decide what the team can make room for alongside its existing commitments.
Keep the decision small enough to learn from. If the case looks promising, back a test with a clear result and review date. If the value is unclear, name what you need to find out before committing more time.
You can keep an idea open without turning it into another task this week. Equally, you can choose to put more support behind AI work that is already helping the team. Getting more from an existing choice can be a sound reason to leave a new option alone.
Make the reason for moving your own
Before you commit, consider whether you would back the idea if nobody else were talking about it. A clear answer helps you explain both the opportunity and the effort you are asking for.
AI leadership includes deciding what will get your attention. Give your team a reason to move that holds up inside your business.
Find your AI Altitude to see where you stand across yourself, your business and your team.
