Organisations should introduce artificial intelligence by asking employees to use it to solve specific workplace problems rather than simply instructing them to “use AI”, technology expert Eb Novak has said.

Novak, a solutions engineer at HiBob, said organisations would see greater value from AI when employees were given clear outcomes to achieve using the technology.

Speaking on Asaase Radio’s Townhall Talk on Friday (14 August), she said businesses should identify practical problems and allow employees to experiment with AI to find solutions.

“Find a problem that needs to be solved and ask them to go solve it with AI,” she said.
According to Novak, simple AI prompts could produce immediate results, but organisations should recognise that meaningful workplace applications could require more time and experimentation.

She cited examples including succession planning, learning management and analysing HR metrics alongside business outcomes.

She said she had encountered a case where someone built an entire learning platform without coding experience in less than three weeks, describing such practical outcomes as the kind of developments that could demonstrate AI’s value to employees.

Novak said organisations were still developing best practices for AI adoption because the technology was evolving rapidly.

She noted that AI had changed significantly within a short period, with numerous major releases emerging within weeks.

“There’s not a magic bullet,” she said, adding that organisations were effectively learning alongside the technology.
She therefore encouraged businesses to build cultures that were open to experimentation and learning rather than waiting for a definitive standard operating procedure.

Novak said organisations should also establish guardrails around which AI tools employees could use and what information could be entered into them.

She said organisations needed to balance experimentation with data-security considerations.

The expert also described AI as more than a conventional software tool, saying she viewed it as a “second brain” that could work alongside human users.

However, she stressed that humans must continue to exercise judgement and verify AI-generated information.

“AI can’t do everything,” she said.