“The biggest reason I feel like so many companies in our industry are struggling to find the value in AI is they’re looking at it as just like putting on a coat of paint,” Woodring said. “Like we’re going to take everything we do today, same house, new coat of paint, slap some AI on it and then maybe they’re expecting there’s going to be some big ROI. But this isn’t magic.”
The fix, he said, is not a better tool. It is a willingness to rethink the work itself.
“Without being willing to think, consider, and really embrace new ways of working, I just don’t think you’re going to see the ROI,” he said.
Critical leadership buy-in
Woodring said the process problem and the leadership problem are connected, and the second one is a critical hurdle to clear if true AI adoption is going to take hold in a company.
“I would say it is the single most important determining factor in whether you’re going to be successful with a tech transformation is how much business buy-in you have,” he said. “It’s not just bringing in good tech. It’s about being willing to go all the way into the processes that you have to run your business and be willing to transform them with technology. That’s where you get the real value.”
