Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA) Guidebook

10 AI Systems and Organizational Change Management

Organizational Change Management refers to changes in an organization’s structures, systems,
strategy, or culture. These changes are often implemented as part of an overall plan to achieve
strategic, operational, or financial goals.

Challenges of AI Systems Driving Organizational Change Management

The most successful organizations proactively manage organizational changes, using strategy to
drive all decisions and a pre-defined implementation plan that encompasses the stakeholder
analysis, training, and project management needed to be successful. Implementing AI systems
brings a unique set of challenges to any organization.

• Clearly understanding the present and near-term capabilities, constraints, and

limitations of AI systems is the first step. Unrealistic expectations for AI system “magic”
dooms many projects before the first data set is identified or model designed.
• Access to sufficient data, the ability to access many kinds of data in many different
environments, operating systems, and databases
• The ability and effort needed to curate - clean, standardize, de-duplicate, and prepare
large data sets
• Defining appropriate performance targets often requires reconciliation among
competing views of what is important to the organization
• Discomfort with the application of AI systems to what has historically been knowledge
work, especially as roles incorporate more decision-making
• Fear of staff displacement
While standard organizational change management approaches – e.g., keeping employees
informed, involved, and aligned with the crucial business need for the change from the start –
are undoubtedly beneficial, these challenges demand additional consideration and mitigation.

AI-Centric Change Management Approach

To define a change management strategy, an organization defines the goal end state, who is
responsible for implementation, how implementation will occur, and how success will be
determined. Organizational change driven by implementing an AI system is no different, but the
end state may be less familiar to the management and staff. Organizational structures may be
significantly reduced in number as AI systems and RPA bots accomplish administrative work.
Existing staff can acquire new skills and be deployed in new positions, taking on more policy-
oriented and strategic roles, or focusing on tasks that were previously understaffed. Clearly
defining the new structure, roles, and responsibilities, while taking full advantage of the
increased data flow and quality is essential to deriving all the available value from these new
technologies. AI-centric organizational change management is likely to require even more time

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