A Practical Guide to AI Adoption

Generative AI tools have been making headlines for the past two years, capturing the world's attention and, if we’re being honest, causing many of us to panic. Perhaps the most famous example, ChatGPT reached one million users within just five days of its launch. Yet, despite this rapid uptake, widespread AI adoption has not followed the same explosive trajectory. In this article, we’ll explore the challenges of AI adoption and provide practical suggestions you can implement in your work immediately.

The Challenge of AI Adoption

Digital transformations often emerge in response to new technologies, fundamentally changing how we operate. Over the past 50 years, significant advancements—such as personal computers, the internet, mobile phones, social media, and streaming services—have continually replaced older tools with new ones. Pre-Netflix, remember going to Blockbuster to rent movies? The technology fundamentally changed the “how” (streaming) but not the “what” (watching a movie).

And herein lies the challenge: AI doesn’t replace anything directly. Instead, it introduces a whole new way of thinking. Adopting AI requires changing our behaviours but change is hard. To complicate things further, many current conversational AI platforms, like ChatGPT, often resemble Google in appearance, leading us to treat them as Google replacements. But while Google helps you find existing information, AI tools like ChatGPT can generate new ideas, content, and solutions.

The thinking here is influenced by Conor Grennan, Head of GenerativeAI at NYU Stern School of Business. Conor produces a bi-weekly newsletter that I highly recommend, sign up here.

You don’t need to be tech-savvy to be proficient with AI but you do need to be curious and open-minded.

Practical Suggestions

Instead of asking, “How are we going to use AI?” we should ask, “What problem are we trying to solve?” By focusing on these problems and leveraging AI’s unique capabilities, we can drive innovation in meaningful ways that align with business goals.

Here are a few practical ideas to get you started…

NOTE: The following suggestions can utilize any of the conversational AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.

Trend Analysis: Task ChatGPT , Claude, Gemini (your pick!) with identifying emerging trends in the industry or local market, providing insights that can inform your strategic planning and innovation efforts. Remember, you’re meant to have a conversation so don’t stop at the first response. Go deeper, and ask more questions.
Visitor Analysis: Analyze guest surveys and feedback to quickly summarize insights and trends and identify gaps in service offerings. You may even do this using third-party reviews from sites like TripAdvisor.
Competitor Analysis: Research and summarize information about competitive experiences, providing insights into their marketing strategies and unique selling points. Brainstorm how you might position your experience in response. Watch this video for some great tips for writing prompts.
Content Creation: Leverage multiple conversational AI tools in brainstorming sessions to generate creative ideas for marketing campaigns, new partnerships, and visitor engagement strategies. Different tools will produce different results, which means more ideas are generated!
Content Personalization: Implement AI Assistants on your website and social channels to tailor information and drive audience engagement. Check out Destination Toronto’s new AI Assistant on our website or social channels, and ask us any questions.
Training & Development: Create your own GPT to manage new staff member orientation, training materials and FAQs. OpenAI produced this guide to creating your own GPT.