Andreas Welsch: 0:30

Welcome to What's the BUZZ?, where leaders and hands on experts share how they have turned hype into outcome. Today, we'll talk about creating AI literacy and upscaling in large enterprises. And who better to talk about it than someone who's actively working on that? Nico Bitzer. Hey Nico, thank you so much for joining me.

Nico Bitzer: 0:47

Thanks, Andreas, for the invitation. Honored to be here. It's a pleasure.

Andreas Welsch: 0:52

Hey, why don't you tell our audience a little bit about yourself, who you are and what you do?

Nico Bitzer: 0:56

Yes. My name is Nico. I founded a company called Bots and People now around five years ago. I initially worked in management consulting for a couple of years. And there I was Yeah, pretty annoyed by all the repetitive tasks that are going on in large enterprises because people were copying things from Excel and the ERP systems and from the ERP systems into Excel. And I have a background in education. Also a couple of years ago worked as a teacher and I thought, Hey, why not educating people on how they can make their their lives easier with technology and with automation. And this was the yeah, how the idea for bots and people was born. How can we bring technology together with people for them to create more meaningful work and get rid of this copying over Excel to ERP and ERP to Excel thing. And now and that's also why I'm here, I guess. The whole AI. topic has disrupted this automation game because you can do such great things with it and create even more meaningful work with this powerful tool.

Andreas Welsch: 2:13

I'm so excited to have you on the show and to share what you are seeing, what large enterprises are doing in that space. Should we play a little game to kick things off?

Nico Bitzer: 2:23

Let's play a game.

Andreas Welsch: 2:25

You'll see a sentence. I'd like you to answer with the first thing that comes to mind, and why. And to make it more interesting, you'll only have 60 seconds for your answer. So, for those of you who are joining us live, please feel free to put your answer and why in the chat as well. It's always exciting to see what people come up with. So, are you ready for What's the BUZZ?

Nico Bitzer: 2:45

Ready.

Andreas Welsch: 2:47

Awesome. So if AI were a, let's see, what would it be? If it were a band, what would it be?

Nico Bitzer: 2:57

If AI were a band, then it would be Metallica. Just because it's disrupting the industry as much as Metallica has disrupted the music game back in the days.

Andreas Welsch: 3:12

I like that. And you know they're pretty timeless. They've come and gone right with popularity and also reinvented themselves a couple of times. So I love that part. Now, let's jump into it to our questions that we talked about. You know, much like this changing where we're also seeing the enterprise landscape change, the technology landscape change. And I've seen, and you've probably seen that too, many organizations are buying AI licenses and they're expecting their people all of a sudden to be a lot more productive. But then, you know, and it doesn't quite work like that, right? That's not how we've learned to use Office or other tools. There has been a learning period and a learning curve. What are you seeing? What types of companies How do companies and leaders invest in AI literacy? Who realizes that this is important? And why do they think it's important?

Nico Bitzer: 4:06

Yeah, it's a very good question. And for me, it's definitely the enterprise leaders that can invest in the long term perspective and also want to invest in the long term perspective. Because in AI, you have different sort of values you can generate. There's the obvious value, for example, disrupting a whole business model with AI or with Generative AI, which is super important for companies and they can also calculate immediate business cases on it, but there's also all the value that is with the employees by becoming more efficient and by using this wonderful technology to utilize it to make their jobs easier. It cannot be measured right away, of course, and you won't have after one or two weeks a hard return on invest calculation, but there is ways on how you can calculate it in the long run and the leaders that invest know about this.

Andreas Welsch: 5:14

I think that's a great point, right? First of all that encouragement, but also that it does take some time for you to see the return on on this. Now for the trainings that, that we've led together for several large organizations, I've always been super excited. Hey, there are people who want to learn. There are sometimes hundreds of people that sign up for these sessions that these companies make available. And they do want to learn, how can I use these tools? How can I use Generative AI in my line of work? What is it good for? The company policies that I need to be aware of, so I use it in accordance with them. So don't expose the company to some risk. I think there are many, many different facets to it. But what have you seen work really, really well? What kinds of formats do you see work well?

Nico Bitzer: 6:07

Yeah, there's different kinds of formats. I can give a couple of examples and then also we can connect to the first question on how this leads to the business case and gave the leaders an argument on the top level management to do more of these kind of upskilling initiatives. And we've worked with a large telecommunication company in Germany. They upskilled in just a couple of months 5, 000 people in Generative AI. So it was a very basic prompting workshop. So for us, we are also a little bit in a bubble. Probably the people joining this session are intrinsically very interested in AI. But in a large enterprises, there's around 50 percent that haven't tapped into that space yet. And I would say even only 5 to 10 percent are in that space. higher maturity level. And for those people, so for those that are at the beginner level, we offered a three hour workshop that was called a Promptathon where they learned the basic prompting skills with group work. So they came together in small groups. This allowed us also to make it interactive, but still allow over 100 people to join each session, making it a good a business case also for the telecommunication company. And in the end the participants of the workshop reported that they are in average around two hours more efficient per week. So they can save with the things they learned in the workshop around two hours per week, which is then a great thing for the leaders of this company to report back to the senior management.

Andreas Welsch: 7:53

That's awesome. And you know, I just saw it the other day, adding Gemini to their workspace products, Microsoft is adding CoPilot to their M365 products. Yes, increasing the price in some areas, but the idea is that many, many more people will get access to these tools. So I envision that there's also a much for these kinds of trainings. If organizations are asked to pay for these, these AI features, why not invest in teaching people and showing people how to use them? So I think that's, that's going to be super exciting. You know, how, how do you see AI and, and transformation leaders actually getting people to participate in, in these trainings, right? It's one thing to realize, Hey, we have a need. We should actually tell him how we can use these tools. But it's a whole different story of getting them to make time. Everybody's so busy in their roles and in their daily lives that cutting out an hour or carving out two hours here or there might actually seem like a lot. What have you seen works really well for those leaders in these organizations to get people to participate?

Nico Bitzer: 9:05

Yeah, so the recipe is definitely kind of three steps you have to consider as a leader to get this running. And you're absolutely right, Andreas, that's if you plan the nicest workshop, but no one's going there, or if you plan the nicest blended learning journey, but no one is participating, you also won't get the outcome. So communication is half of the work already and get these interests. and the bus up for Generative AI in an organization. The first step of these three is to define a storyline. So you don't want to just go ahead and offer these workshops without a why, without a story behind it. So think what might be the why that motivates and interests those people in the organization to learn about a Generative AI. Is it really? that they're gonna save time afterwards. Maybe that's more a storyline that appears for the top level management, but for them, maybe it's nice to know that they can enhance their work life balance through utilizing Generative AI, that they can do more interesting stuff by getting the more mundane tasks done by the AI. This could be a nice story. And if your company has a very strong mission, for example, to towards a green energy or something where you know that people choose to work for that company because of that mission or vision. This is also a nice anchor to go on why you're using Generative AI and why you want people to learn about it. And then in the second step, you would think of. Sort of an impact analysis. So what kind of target groups have potential to use AI technologies and what kind of messaging do they need to participate at a learning format? For example, we have Now working with a large automotive company with, a few 10,000 employees and they want to upscale particularly leaders. So for leaders, you would use a different storyline to attract them to a learning formats then for non leaders. And then you think of a communication roadmap, though, it's not to, you know throw one message out into the intranet. It should be a communication plan, almost like you would be in marketing. You need to think of several emails or several channels also using the intranet. using Teams groups can be very interesting. Some companies we saw using LinkedIn as an inside out marketing tool. So they even pay for ads to reach the target group within their own company, which I found a super interesting thing. So the creativity is endless here, but the most important thing is to first define the story, get the impact analysis per target group done. And then, you can set up the communication roadmap.

Andreas Welsch: 12:20

Now that sounds like a very thorough plan and easy to remember things. I love that as well. Now folks, if you have questions for Nico about how to set up a training program or when to an external provider, please feel free to put them in the chat and we'll pick them up in a minute or two. Now I'm curious, you've talked about, hey, things started with robotic process automation, take out the mundane work, do the repetitive things with bot. I have a person do the more complex things with AI. How can I use these tools? How can I prompt them? How do they get good results? And what does good actually look like? Now I see a new topic coming in with agentic AI to some extent that gets mixed with the, the RPA messaging from six, seven, eight years ago, you know, have the bots, have the agents do more of the repetitive things. What should organizations be aware of there? Is this already coming as the next wave where companies are looking at this and want to get their, their people trained and should they?

Nico Bitzer: 13:27

Yeah. So in terms of if you, so first for me, I think the conversation is not so much different for AI than for RPA, then for workflow automation, then for, in the end, these are all tools and technologies, tools that get sharper, tools that get heavier, and you can do more with it. And that's why it gets more relevant and talking about it is more than it was back in the days, because these tools are much more accessible. But in the end, it's tools. And what the skills. That are, that you need to use. The tools are actually not how to use Gemini or how to use, there how to use jet GPT or how to use your company's GPT. It's more critical thinking cre creativity communication skills. So even a prompt engineering, which I like to name different when we, when we talk about training people or people learning about it, we would rather say how to talk to an AI, which is communication skills in the end and creativity and experimenting with the tool, but also to always think from your job to be done. So everyone in the organization needs to know what do I actually want to do? Cool. What is my process to generate that value? And how can I utilize the technologies to reach that outcome better, faster, or easier?

Andreas Welsch: 15:08

I love that part, right? It's not so much about the technology itself, but rather how do you work with it? How do you adopt it? How do you bring people along? And that's a great point. Especially if, or as you know, new technology I see there's a question from Joe in the chat going back to your earlier point where you mentioned companies should anchor their, their message in your green company. Maybe you want to say, Hey, Generative AI helps us accomplish them. You have some, some other examples of what you've seen work well, because I think, you know, with Gen AI using a lot of power, maybe there are other examples of values.

Nico Bitzer: 15:47

Yeah. Could be not the best example, but there's people that work in companies where they identify a lot with the mission of that company. And what I wanted to say is that whenever you have such a strong mission in a company, then you can attach the Generative AI story to that one. Of course, with the green story, it could a bit contra, could be a bit contra in indicating with a gen AI using a lot of energy.

Andreas Welsch: 16:36

Awesome. Thanks for clarifying that. Now we're just talking about AI moving so fast, right? And it doesn't really matter if it's RPA or workflow automation or gen AI or genetic AI. How often do you see companies doing these kinds of trainings or how often should they do it? They do that once a quarter, twice a year, once a year. What recommendations would you give them?

Nico Bitzer: 17:03

Yeah. So there is here's also two elements of it. First is that the companies we work with usually have a lot of employees. So there's definitely a lot to do until you have touched with your Generative AI initiative or with your training initiative, all the employees, but there's a lot to do on that end. Of course, and on the other hand, if you break it down to an individual employee, how often that person should do such a training, I think it's not a one off thing. Of course, the workshop shouldn't be done, let's say 12 times a year, but it's rather if someone has done a learning journey or if someone has done a workshop, then it's the mission of the learning and development department or also of us as bots and people to create after that training an engaging environment for the employee to further develop him or herself. You can do that, for example, with one company now, we work together, we do an AI application sprint. Everything is about developing your own use case with Generative AI that goes a little bit beyond simple prompting. And then there's several cohorts that we are doing. And if you complete one of the cohorts, you engage in a Microsoft Teams with other people that complete this training as well. And then you engage in that community.

Andreas Welsch: 18:38

Great point. Thanks for sharing that part. You mentioned cohort. Many different kinds of approaches to learning from in person to online to micro learning cohort based. What are you seeing works well or when do people learn best? When are they most engaged?

Nico Bitzer: 18:58

The best form of learning is called social blended learning, in my opinion. Social blended learning means you blend together different learning formats to a cohort based journey. So you can have, for example, a micro learning to start. Then you can have a live session with your cohort. Then you can get an assignment, you have another live session, and in the end two micro learnings again. That would be an example for a blended learning journey. And the social blended learning means that you do it together with colleagues on real world use cases. So you don't, you know, learn something you cannot apply, but you really take your own use case that you can apply in your own environment and you take that to the learning process and discuss it with the group in the learning initiatives. This would be a social blended learning and it's a little bit of a let's say a bridge between the old world, where everything was very instructor led and people just got sit in classrooms and get the knowledge transferred, to their brains, to a self learning environment where people, are preferring to get the knowledge by themselves. Okay. Intrinsic reading about a new topic and also doing self-learning, like e-learnings, watching videos, or being in a session like we are right now. The reality is that there is people that are already very intrinsically motivated and learn a lot by themselves, but the majority of people still needs this push through a social blended learning to get in touch with the topics. I believe in 10 to 20 years, we will shift much more towards this self learning initiatives and approaches.

Andreas Welsch: 20:55

Now, I've experienced this in corporate. Maybe several of you who are listening and watching are experiencing that as well. There are a lot of mandatory trainings if you work for a business that you need to complete. You know, depending on the size of your company, it might be around export controls, it might be around sales process, it might be about software development processes, and safety, security, new tools, what have you. So, how are you seeing this social blended learning? Improve retention of the knowledge, because with all the previous ones that I mentioned, a lot of times it's, yeah, let's, let's click them through, let's get through them quickly, get the certificate. Yes, I've done it. Thank you. And let me move on with my daily work and job. How could a social blended learning change the retention?

Nico Bitzer: 21:40

Yeah, it changed. It changes a lot because you not only get the knowledge, but you also apply. the knowledge, and that's a big, big difference. There's a super interesting effect when we do these social planet learning journeys, engaging people in real world use cases. They usually feel in the beginning a little bit uncomfortable because they are used to just getting knowledge in a session and to do a check mark in the learning management system. So in the beginning they feel a bit uncomfortable because it feels a bit more like work, you know, not like a seminar where you drive and you get some cookies and a coffee and then you drive home, but really doing something, but in the end the feedback is always, Hey it felt it was more exhaustive than normal trainings we are doing or other trainings we've done, but we really got something out for our daily work. And this is the, I think the main. Task of learning and development and on offering such things. It's not an employee benefit. It's a necessary tool to get people into our current time, basically, and not being left behind as a company.

Andreas Welsch: 22:57

That's an excellent point, right? You might very well have these ambitions at the senior leadership level, but when you push it as a one way street, kind of training instructor led lectures, you might lose people or you certainly lose people.

Nico Bitzer: 23:11

Yeah.

Andreas Welsch: 23:11

I'm also curious because I feel a lot of organizations might feel that pride, right? We know how to do our trainings. We know what our people need. We're the experts in our industry and in our business. We don't need any other help, right? We, we have a great instructional designers, we have subject matter experts in the business that we can work with, with an external provider. What can external providers deliver that goes beyond L&D teams and instructional designers that you might have in the house?

Nico Bitzer: 23:43

Yeah, so we have seen companies setting this up internally that took a couple of months. And with an external provider, you can actually start within four to five weeks because you have all the communication materials, you have all the concepts ready to go. You also don't need to, do the very exhaustive alignment between the subject matter experts and the learning and development department. Because in companies where they are specialized on getting people trained in a generative AI like we are, we bring both worlds together. And then that's why we are very fast in setting this up. This is one major reason. And then of course also you get the outside in perspective because sometimes you can be a bit stuck with the internal view on things. And if there's a company from, with the outside perspective, I can bring some fresh wind into the game. That's the second I think really a good point why external provider could be a way to go.

Andreas Welsch: 24:59

I've seen that as well in work that even if you can have the experts It's a different weight if somebody from the outside, you know, even shares the same information, right?

Nico Bitzer: 25:10

And actually, Andreas, I want to just adding one point. So these experts, the AI experts in your company are probably at the moment one of the most important people in the whole organization. So should they not create value for the organization? In their role as AI experts and build stuff brainstorm large scale use cases, and go in a room with your C-level and think how to disrupt the business model with AI instead of training people to get more efficient.

Andreas Welsch: 25:47

That's a very valid point as well. So make sure you don't utilize your most precious resources where it moves the business forward. And for learning and development, there are other experts that can help you do that, as well, upskill your people. Now, Nico, we're getting close to the end of the show, and I was wondering if you can summarize the key three takeaways for our audience today.

Nico Bitzer: 26:07

Yeah. The first key takeaway for me is, start with the why when you go into rolling out such learning initiatives. The second one is make it a social blended learning and then measure your impact to report a positive business case.

Andreas Welsch: 26:29

And I think on the last one, right, you can do that with surveys. You can ask people, how did you experience the training? How has your proficiency changed? You mentioned that the time savings, I remember that was one of the things we asked participants to. So there are definitely ways to make it tangible so you can show that, that progress to your stakeholders. So that brings us to the end of the show. Nico, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing your experience with us today. It was great having you on the show.

Nico Bitzer: 26:58

Thank you, Andreas. An honor to be here.

Andreas Welsch: 27:01

And folks, for those of you in the audience, see you next time for another episode of What's the BUZZ?