Forget Productivity: Here Are 5 Strategic Shifts That Drive Real Ai Value

5 days ago

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

Measuring productivity intends mounting KPIs that show value.
Working harder pinch AI doesn't ever mean moving better.
Focus connected beardown partnerships that show clear benefits.

Proving the worth of AI is much challenging than it sounds. A CIO precocious explained to maine he'd proudly told his CEO that nan organization's Microsoft Copilot implementation had saved nan mean worker 30 minutes a day. The CEO's consequence was curt: "So what? How are unit utilizing that clip to nutrient thing valuable for nan company?"

The CIO admitted to being somewhat flummoxed. The lesson, he said, was that each professionals who want to utilization AI must show really their implementation produces real, tangible benefits, not conscionable a simplification successful nan clip it takes to complete a task.

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So, really tin professionals move a desire for worth into existent productivity gains? Here are 5 ways to create awesome productivity boosts from your AI projects.

1. Concentrate connected business outcomes

Bernhard Seiser, VP of digital, data, and IT astatine AOP Health, said his statement introduced Copilot and ChatGPT a twelvemonth ago, and group KPIs to measurement success.

"The first one, of course, was adoption. OpenAI told america take is precocious successful our organization, truthful it's heavy used," he said.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's genitor company, revenge an April 2025 suit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights successful training and operating its AI systems.)

"But past nan usage does not really show you a lot. I mean, it could beryllium for email penning successful nan extremity -- occurrence should beryllium tied to nan result and nan effect of what you do to your products and interactions pinch customers."

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Seiser told ZDNET that's wherever nan 2nd KPI comes in: moving pinch nan remainder of nan business to specify a database of challenges and measure nan benefits that AI brings for each usage case.

"I deliberation that's a amended metric than conscionable purely looking astatine nan take rates," he said.

Now, Seiser said he wants to create a productivity-focused attack for individuals crossed nan organization.

"I deliberation it will go moreover much important erstwhile we analyse nan usage cases and do a thorough investigation connected really beneficial gen AI is for helping retired pinch nan circumstantial usage cases, because location you will spot overmuch amended effect connected nan business," he said.

2. Determine nan operational benefits

John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP expert astatine Gartner, said it's important to beryllium skeptical astir suggested AI-enabled productivity benefits.

"I promote group to usage jazz hands erstwhile they opportunity productivity, because, for nan astir part, group say, 'Hey, productivity is going to spell up. Productivity is wonderful.' Nobody ever defines what productivity is," he said.

"We really had a study consequence from astir 2 years agone that showed nan little capable a institution was to measurement nan productivity that came from their AI project, nan much apt they were to opportunity that location was awesome productivity that came from their initiative."

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Lovelock told ZDNET that successful professionals find astatine nan commencement of nan task really nan exertion will amended operational effectiveness.

"The illustration that I thin to spell to is email," said Lovelock, referring to nan implementation of gen AI devices successful administrative areas.

"If personification sends retired 100 emails a day, and is seen arsenic a very productive worker, are you much productive if you nonstop retired 125 emails, aliases if you nonstop retired 80 emails that don't confuse people, aliases 40 emails that don't origin nan full institution to spell into an email thread hell?"

3. Cooperate tightly pinch others

Ewa Zborowska, investigation head astatine IDC, said tight practice betwixt nan IT section and lines of business is important to achieving value-generating goals.

"You person to finance AI somehow, and budgets will often beryllium shared," she said. "There will beryllium a co-ownership complete definite solutions, truthful making judge that you activity together, understand each other, and person KPIs successful spot that thief you understand whether you're smartly spending money is going to beryllium important."

Until now, Zborowska said companies person often directed AI spending to tech-related areas, specified arsenic cybersecurity and package development, wherever patient processes are successful place, and a batch of information is fresh for AI projects.

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Now, AI is progressively being applied to operations, customer service, marketing, and back-office functions: "Almost successful each areas, customers opportunity that finance often will double complete nan adjacent year."

However, her firm's investigation pinch tech elephantine Lenovo recovered that arsenic galore as 94% of European CIOs expect to spot a affirmative ROI from their AI initiatives, and Zborowska told ZDNET that beardown partnerships will beryllium captious to success.

"Our face-to-face in-depth interviews pinch CIOs confirmed that nan attack has changed, and it has had an effect connected really integer leaders are perceived wrong nan company, because IT professionals are now viewed arsenic a partner for business, not conscionable group who make judge that servers are moving and email is OK."

4. Let group show superb stories

Richard Corbridge, CIO astatine spot master Segro, said his statement evaluates enterprise-grade AI solutions successful a matrix, wherever projects are assessed and prioritized based connected apt costs and imaginable savings successful position of money and time.

Corbridge told ZDNET that an important constituent of this process is letting group trial nan tools.

"Let group who want to effort AI get their hands connected it, truthful they tin commencement to person a look, and they go nan biggest fans retired there, who've had a ace and tin talk to others astir their experiences," he said.

"It's fascinating erstwhile you put a bunch of professionals successful a room, and you've sewage nan cohort who person tried AI and deliberation it's great, and nan cohort who are still a spot terrified of it, they soon get FOMO because of those who person tried it and sewage thing retired of it, alternatively than nan different measurement around."

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Corbridge said that professionals who use from AI tin thief show its worthy to others.

"Once you've sewage AI, and group person seen nan value, it's difficult to effort to return it disconnected them," he said. "So, let's get nan superb stories retired location truthful that nan different group tin spot what this worldly is going to bring."

5. Embrace nan watercooler chat

Like different manufacture experts, Gartner's Lovelock said that AI mightiness springiness group a spot of other clip backmost successful their time -- and that's not needfully a bad thing.

"The simplest productivity gains are apt going to beryllium 'latte productivity,'" he said. "Yes, you're going to prevention immoderate clip and effort, and nan worth to nan institution is you're going to person nan clip to spell get a latte now."

While nan CIO I mentioned earlier encountered a CEO who required clear, measurable benefits from an AI implementation, Lovelock said executives who don't spot nan worth of other downtime could beryllium missing a trick.

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"When group are 8 hours head-down, you don't person a firm culture. You person group approaching burnout. If you springiness them half an hour, wherever they tin get a latte and bask nan institution of their co-workers, there's worth successful that," he said.

"So possibly you're saying, 'How do you measurement nan occurrence of AI?' And you tin say, 'Hey, we gave group backmost half an hr a day.' That would beryllium nan measure: AI reduces unit and anxiety. In short, nan worth of that half an hr is different for each organization."