From "We Think We Need AI" to Intentional Adoption: Brian Beck on AI Leadership

Everyone is talking about AI.

Far fewer organizations stop to ask what business problems they're actually trying to solve.

In this episode of Proof Talks, host Ashley Smith sits down with Senior Cybersecurity and AI Consultant Brian Beck to explore why successful AI adoption isn't primarily about implementing new technology — it's about aligning strategy, people, and business priorities.

Drawing from his work advising executive teams on AI, cybersecurity, and digital transformation, Brian shares how organizations can move beyond the pressure to "do something with AI" and instead design an intentional implementation strategy that scales.

He works closely with mid-sized companies serious about turning vague innovation ideas into practical business outcomes. Through real client scenarios, he shares what often gets missed when teams move too quickly from excitement to tools — and why successful AI adoption begins with understanding existing workflows, identifying risk, and defining what success actually looks like.

Ashley & Brian Discuss:

• Why AI isn't an IT project — it's a leadership strategy
• The question every leadership team should answer before investing in AI
• How executive alignment determines whether initiatives succeed or stall
• How governance, cybersecurity, and business strategy intersect and shape AI decisions
• Why successful adoption depends more on leadership, communication, and culture than technology
• How to move from AI experimentation to measurable outcomes

Whether you're a business owner, CEO, executive, board member, technology leader, or simply trying to understand AI's role inside a modern organization, this conversation offers practical insights into leadership, governance, risk, and the strategic decisions that separate successful AI implementation from expensive experimentation.

Brian also explains why so many AI initiatives stall, how leadership teams can avoid common mistakes, and why smart and responsible adoption begins long before choosing tools. 

Connect with Brian Beck

💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/brianbeck73
🌐 Proxurve Solutions Company Website: https://proxurve.com

Episode Time Stamps

00:00 Why "We Need AI" Isn't a Strategy
01:32 Meet Brian Beck
02:50 "Think of Me as the Concrete Guy"
04:17 Where AI Strategy Really Begins
10:50 A Real AI Adoption Case Study
17:04 Why AI Is a Leadership Challenge
20:58 Governance, Risk & Cybersecurity
25:15 What AI Consulting Actually Looks Like
31:01 Measuring Successful AI Adoption
33:26 AI, Data Centres & Public Perception
39:23 Final Advice & Closing Thoughts

Episode Topics

Artificial Intelligence (AI) • AI Strategy • AI Adoption • AI Leadership • Executive Leadership • Business Strategy • Digital Transformation • Cybersecurity • AI Governance • Organizational Change • Executive Alignment • Technology Leadership • Microsoft Copilot • Claude AI • Risk Management

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About the Podcast
Proof Talks explores the real stories, decisions, and lessons behind professional judgment. Through candid conversations, each episode unpacks a real-world scenario with experienced practitioners across business, leadership, technology, and beyond to better understand how complex decisions are made — and what others can learn from them.

Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@Proof_Talks

About the Host
Proof Talks is hosted by AI Visibility Strategist and speaker Ashley Smith. As founder of Show Your Proof, Ashley helps experienced professionals turn their real-world expertise into visible online proof so they can become more discoverable, trusted, and recommended by search engines and AI tools.

Learn more:
🌐 showyourproof.co
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ashleysmithnow
▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@ShowYourProof

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Proof Talks, where we unpack real-world expertise through the stories, decisions, and lessons that help shape professional judgment. I'm your host, Ashley Smith. Today's conversation starts with a question many leadership teams are wrestling with right now. Everyone knows AI is changing business, but knowing you should do something isn't the same as knowing what to do, why you're doing it, or how to do it responsibly. For many organizations, conversations around AI have traditionally been treated as technology projects or IT initiatives. But increasingly, they're becoming leadership decisions that involve strategy, risk, governance, and long-term business priorities. Today I'm joined by Brian Beck, a consultant who works alongside executive teams to help them navigate the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and business strategy. Rather than starting with the technology itself, Brian helps leaders define the business problems they're actually trying to solve, weigh competing priorities, and make thoughtful decisions before implementation ever begins. In today's conversation, we'll unpack the story of an established mid-sized company that knew it needed an AI strategy, but wasn't yet aligned on what that actually meant. We'll explore what Brian noticed when he stepped in, how he helped leadership shift the conversation beyond just technology, and why bringing innovation, cybersecurity, and executive decision making together ultimately position the organization for stronger, more sustainable growth. Brian, I'm really happy to have you here. Thank you for being here. Welcome to Proof Talks.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Oh, thanks for that intro, Ashley. You're setting the bar pretty high. I'm hoping I'm going to be able to meet it here today.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Hey, well, you know what I appreciate. I think this is such an important topic. And you're obviously working with specific organizations, but so many of these questions and challenges and opportunities apply across the board. It doesn't really matter what sector you're in. It doesn't really matter even where in the world you are. This is such a fast-changing environment. And especially when you're talking about maybe legacy sectors, leadership who normally haven't been having these kinds of conversations or having to dive deep and many times needing to bring in support, like bring in people who know what they're talking about to make sure they make good, grounded decisions. So I'm I'm happy to be doing this. You're the expert, you're the one who does this every day. So I love the idea of just getting in the weeds a little bit, like looking at a bit of the um the micro decisions that come along with the macro and the sort of oversight and risk analysis. And what are we really deciding here? So why don't I stop talking and let's hear uh what you have to say about let's first look at what is it that you're doing? Like what what's your role? What how do you describe what you do? And then let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

I guess the easiest way to be able to explain what I do on a day-to-day basis. You know, if I'm I like to use this particular analogy, it just seems to resonate and makes it simple, right? Think about me as the concrete guy. And so you've got to have that solid foundation at the basis of any technology strategy so that you can build and scale safely on top of it. You can also be agile. If you don't have that right foundation at the bottom, you can continue to build on top of it. But when that foundation cracks, that can be an extensive rebuild or liability. Um, that risk that's associated with it could be significant. So we need to take a look at that first and then ask leadership the tough questions, which goes beyond, as I was sitting in a meeting yesterday, and they flat out told me, Brian, we need AI. And I said, okay, to do what? Something was literally the response. And I've had three of those conversations in the last two days. So trying to help leadership understand that it's not about just doing something, it's about defining what we're trying to be able to solve for and how do we do it? Do I have an ecosystem that's going to be able to support it? And how does this affect the culture of my organization so I can help guide that shift, not just for the people on the front line and the day-to-day, but also at the leadership level. I mean, this transformational all the way through. So let's spend a little bit more time, let's talk about it, let's have a little bit of the tough conversation, it's a little challenging on both sides of the table, and work through to define an end goal so we can measure what we're trying to be able to build towards.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

So maybe we can start a little bit at the beginning. I mean, clearly the organizations that you work with at least know they need help because they've called you. So what tends to spark, like in the case of the meeting you had yesterday, what sparks that initial conversation with you? How do they know that they're ready to initiate like outside support?

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Well, number one, the conversation yesterday was built around a new organization that's just setting up roots here in the state of Indiana, hence the Purdue University that you see on my sweater here. Uh, but since they're developing a new plant here in the Indiana area where they've never had a presence before, they're trying to develop uh solid relationships with organizations like mine that they can trust. But also, you know, we've got to build up that foundation that goes underneath it. So, from a physical standpoint, what does the infrastructure look like? What do we need to be able to deliver for that side of the fence? And then also be able to be that resource on the consulting side of things. Here's what my team is thinking, but what's realistic? And then understanding from a business goal standpoint, we also want to adopt AI into our organization. So give me ideas. Well, first we have to understand how do you work, right? How do you want to be able to define roles for how that's gonna flow through your organization? Is this something that's gonna be new and unique for this particular organization that's gonna be here in the state of Indiana for the first seeds that you're planting here? Or do you want to be able to build on something that's already been founded globally, right? And are we gonna sync up with that kind of thing? How, what kind of effect are we gonna wind up having here? Oh no, this is gonna be self-encapsulated. Okay. If it's gonna be self-encapsulated, then we need to define what workflows look like, how many staff are gonna be here, right? It can't just be, I need AI to do something. Let's get a little bit more into the weeds about what and how we're developing this processes that are gonna go into place, at least generally speaking, right? Because we have to build the place first. But then we can start to define more granularly, great, these are areas where we can complement, where we could start to standardize, where we can start to automate, and that's gonna drive some value for the organization.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

And so uh, you know, when they're a little bit unclear about what sort of integrations they they're thinking might help them become more efficient, more streamlined, more productive. Where where what's the starting point in terms of like helping, I guess, you look inside that strategic side of the conversation, but also like how are you thinking about looking under the hood to see, you know, what re what's realistic, what sort of things can be implemented that where they might, you know, be able to um see value in it sort of right on the way, or like uh I I'm assuming there's always like training curves and things that's so much to think about. So how do you determine those initial like first steps for them to actually take action?

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Yeah, if we pivot to let's say a private equity firm who's gonna be a little bit uh within our time frame, right? Because we're talking about a larger organization that's conceptual, they're just starting to put down roots and we're building it from the ground up. If we go into an organization that's already been somewhat established and they're trying to say basically the exact same thing. We want AI to do stuff, right? But what are those things that's gonna be meaningful for them? In order to be able to do that, the first thing I've got to understand is your infrastructure looks like what? Right? You're in Google, you're in Microsoft 365, you guys are using Macs, you're using Windows, you got some people that are what frontline, they're doing tablets. I mean, how are you guys working within the organization right now? And also culturally, where are you on an adoption curve with leveraging technology? Are you guys more savvy with it? Or are you you have a mixed bag? You got some people that are giving the Heisman, hey, I'm in Indiana, we got the NCAA over here, so Heisman means a lot to us. Or is it going to be, you know, something where technology is fairly new so that we can understand what that learning curve and adoption culture and all that stuff. Once we can understand what that looks like foundationally, right? We have a commitment to go forward and say, all right, I want to sit down with two or three key decision makers and let's spit mall what are the main things that you're trying to be able to solve for with AI. And a lot of times they'll come in and say, I love club. That doesn't solve what we're trying to be able to get to, right? That's a tool preference, not a where I want to be able to get to preference. So where do we want to get to? We have these options that are available to us based on technology culture and some of the other conversations we've had about the organization, right? And this is what you guys do on a day-to-day basis. Okay. So what are some reports maybe that you guys are doing consistently over and over that are due on a regular schedule that requires multiple people across the team to be able to then generate? Is that something that you guys would find value and how many hours is there? Right. And as you start working through that, you start to uncover two or three things that people are really passionate about. This annoys me, or it's just highly repetitive, and it takes a whole lot of time for us to be able to try to put this together. And I've got to send this over to Don, and then Don's got to review this, and it's got to be done this, and then we go to this website to be able to pull this information back. Okay, now we have a use case that we can start to be able to also apply and measure success, how well this is working in the organization, where our goal is to be able to reduce time that provides value back to the organization and allows them to be able to achieve additional results that drives revenue at the end of the year. And if over the course of the last, let's say, one to two years, based on what their growth path has been, it's they typically hire three to four people to be able to continue to scale based on what this process, this existing process, looks like. Well, now you can measure cost recovery by saying, here's how much time is saved, here's how effective the results are going to be expected to be. Now we got to measure what that's gonna look like realistically. And now we project instead of three to four people that we're gonna hire, we're gonna hire one to two. And now we're starting to project out what our ROI is gonna look like year two because the investments that we're making now, right? And as long now we've got a benchmark that we can continue to work towards over a set period of time. Three months, six months, nine months, that we all agree is gonna be realistic to work towards.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Yeah, there's a lot I think we could unpack here. And I think for that reason, what I'm gonna try to do is let's bring it to um a mid-sized organization that you've kind of helped see through from the beginning to the end in terms of like, you know, really some transformation. I know you mentioned there's sort of like a more traditional legacy mid-size organization that you worked with somewhat recently. And give me some insight into their thinking initially uh before you did the deep dive into some of these steps. So I realize we're kind of rewinding a little bit here, but I I find it very interesting as to the like what's pulling them in this direction, what's getting them to think about some of this innovation in the first place.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

So the first thing was simply excitement about I have one guy in the organization and I'm really excited about using Claude. Okay. That that was literally it. The first conversation we had was hey Brian, we have compliance needs that we need to be able to meet. And we've got some team members that are really excited about CLUD. So uh we want to have a conversation and make sure that we're gonna be able to stay compliant and that it's safe to touch our their 365 shop, make sure that uh it touches our company tenant and data. Like, okay, let's talk about it. So as we sat down and we're having this conversation, it's multiple different leadership member teams that are gonna be on there. All of a sudden, when I asked the simple question of, okay, so what do you want this to be able to do? I want it to automate my emails. So we need to take a look at something a little bit, I think, bigger and meaningful for the organization, right? Those are some things that are already built into Outlook. So we don't need AI to be able to produce that. So it's hard to measure towards what a return is going to wind up being when that feature is already available, right? Has been for years. So let's take a look at are we going to be sorting for? Are we looking for compliance and communications and we need to keep those things encrypted? Are we going to be able to automate responses for? Are we trying to use these for outreach to be able to find and invest in additional property purchases that we're looking to invest in? Or ultimately give me something a little bit bigger, right? Bit bigger thought process here. And it was if I can use Claude Cowork to be able to start creating a lot of these documents or summary that we provide for the investors and the owners of the organization to be able to sign off on yes, this is a good thing. Let's start crafting the deal and what an acquisition is going to wind up looking like and what our profitability is going to be. I'm like, now we're on to something. Okay, now we've got something that's meaningful that we can wind up build towards, we can benchmark against. So right now you guys are talking about Claude, you're in 365. Have you ever thought about leveraging Claude through 365? The security inheritance that it winds up receiving, the workflows, a lot of additional enrichment capabilities that could be available to you. And the response was I want to rip the circuits out of the computer, throw it out an open window, and watch it circuits burn in the middle of the street. That's a little bit of a strong response. I've never heard anything quite like it. So let's just let's focus on what's capable because how many organizations do you guys own right now? All right. And they own multiple. It's over 10 that they own. So the question then starts to become okay, if we want to be able to automate this process, how many of your organizations or team members need to be able to look at this stuff? And the response simply was we need to be able to have multiple different ownership and team members leverage this particular thing and in some of the additional organizations that we acquire. How do I leverage your excitement for CLUD across 14 or 15 different organizations? Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

I there's not 15 of you, but there are 15 different leaders that we have to be able to work with. So let's put those pieces together and let's talk about scalability and security and compliance and put that into play. And so from there, we wound up going in, doing a workshop, and talking about and showing the differences between the two different tools and what was going to wind up being available for us. And ultimately it came down to okay, we are going to make the shift because we do want to touch the 365 tenant. We want to be able to leverage some of the features that are available. We still love Claude, but we love the fact that we can leverage that through Microsoft 365. So we're going to go with the co-pilot solution. And so far, for the most part, I say the most part, things seem to be working well.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yeah, it's funny. I in some ways I want to zoom out, and in other ways, I want to zoom in because I think what I hadn't really thought much about up till you were speaking was this uh the the things that come up when there's maybe specific people inside an organization who have very specific goals and maybe um they have specific ideas about how they want to see transformation happen. And obviously, like if you're looking to scale it, not just within your organization, but if you do happen to touch all these others, if you happen to, you know, have other um um organizations that have workflows connected to yours, like how that all intersects. And so I the the piece I want to, I'm curious about is how you help navigate, like, say the the senior leadership people, you know, if they're being sort of encouraged by folks who are within the organization, and then like tying these conversations in together and then probably still then swinging it back to a bit of like some of the IT people and people who are maybe more hands-on and part of this process. What kind of conversations do you find you have besides the technical stuff? Like besides the actual tooling, how do you get these different people, uh, your clients within this similar organization with maybe different priorities to kind of come together so they're on the same page, they're speaking the same language, they're they understand what the priorities are and where things are going. Like, how do you help? I'm assuming you must help connect some of these conversations in a meaningful way.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Well, meaningful is going to be subjective to the people that we're talking about now.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Sure, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

But absolutely. I mean, usually the first step that that I'll do is sitting down with the executive team, right? Separate from the technology team. I want to have the technology team inside the room, but initially we need to have leadership in alignment. Where do we want to go? What do we want to do? Because leadership over the years has gotten so used to, right? Cybersecurity, when that was a thing without AI, it was that's a technology problem. So I want to understand what I need to be able to do because I've got bills I got to pay and I want to make sure that my liability is going to be minimized and my exposure is going to be minimized. That's really my main concern, right? Outside of that, from a technology standpoint, you've got it, or my particular team member that I've got has got it. AI is a different conversation. I like to tell people when I walk in, AI is not an IT challenge to solve, it's a leadership strategy to implement. So we need to define and align AI initiatives along with your business goals. When we can understand what that is going to wind up looking like, now we start developing the use cases. Now that we're all on board with what that looks like, let's get technology in the room because they are a part of this conversation and they need to be. They have a significant role in this. AI is going to run on the technology platform, but we've got to make sure that technology and leadership are talking. And there is typically, not always, but there is typically going to be a misalignment with what technology is looking for. They're very focused in most cases. And this is not disparaging, it's just a reality. And all sides need to work well together to make a successful organization move forward. Technology, leadership, sales, all of it. They all play a role and they all have strength. But when we're talking about technology, it's typically very this is what is in front of me, and I need this to work well, right? Leadership is focused to I need to build a business that is today, tomorrow, and three to five years down the road. And I've got to have staff development and conversations to help to support that and have the right people, right? It's different priorities, it's different perspectives. With AI, we've got to bridge the two and develop that gap. Yeah. Or close that gap. Yeah. So we're all walking in lock step. Yeah. So typically two separate conversations, bring everybody together. Now we got alignment and off we go.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Yeah. I'm curious too how much of this is happening sort of at the governance level as well. So besides just like the senior executives, um, depending on the type of organization, the folks who are really involved in sort of the oversight of the organization. If a CEO is looking primarily at, you know, profitability as an example, but hasn't had the uh expertise or experience to understand the risks that might come, how are you seeing those types of conversations evolve or not evolve at that sort of more governance level? And like, are you finding yourself having to talk to these people about like not just the mechanics of say cybersecurity, but like, have you determined your appetite for risk, for like hacking, or do you have insurance? Or do you like what's your policy on ransom? Like these scenarios that could come up. You know, it in my mind, I I picture, especially with some of the more traditional organizations, that these may not have been conversations they were as involved in as maybe they should have been. And now with these new implementations, there's all this other risk that you know could be coming up. I'm speaking too much, but I'm just curious like uh how are you seeing that side of the conversation happening or not happening with these sorts of small medium businesses?

SPEAKER_02 21:04

Yeah, it's absolutely has to happen. And that's why we typically like we just did a leadership summit out here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and it was C-suite executives only that were invited here so that we could make sure that we were having the right conversation with the right people. And the good thing that I'm seeing is that the C-suite is very interested in AI and learning about it, right? Cybersecurity, they're typically like, yeah, I don't want that. I don't want to talk about it. I got it over here. We've been doing this for 30 years, I've got it under the hat. When you start talking about AI, they're really excited about what AI can do for their organization. So as soon as you get that aspect of things going, it's like, oh, okay, yeah, nope. It's absolutely, I mean, it is a force multiplier for sure, but it's also a risk multiplier. And when you throw that in, they're typically like, wait, what? How is that? Well, here's some of the things that Can do right. And it's incredible with the potential that it has. But at the same time, because of that potential, you got to realize just like in nature, everything's got an offset. So here is the offset to it. And again, think of me like the concrete guy, right? We need to understand the foundation so that we can then allow you to have the cool things, do the cool stuff that helps you realize the potential of what your organization can achieve, leveraging the tool when we're intentional about what we can do. You start using terminology along those lines. You don't get down into the technology, the zeros, the ones, the how's your firewall? What's your routing look like on your VPN? What's going to go? That they're going to tune out. They're in la la land, right? But they're everywhere. But you start focusing to the risk factor, the potential for growth, scalability, all of a sudden they're like, explain that to me a little bit more. Well, you know, your cyber insurance policy also needs to be a component of this. And that's going to be a component of cost that's going to be coming in from discussions I have with cyber firms. That'll be a thing next year that it's no longer going to be that gray area in the liability policy. Now they're going to start to further define it and they're going to put those guardrails and frameworks around it. Where if we don't have these practices now, you're going to have to have them later. And it's always more expensive to react to something than plan for something and build it into the budget and be strategic about implementation over time rather than I have to do all this now, right? Your costs go up exponentially. So let's let's take a look at this. Do you guys have a usage policy? What? Exactly. So let's talk about what are going to be tools that are going to be acceptable in your environment and why. All right. Now all of a sudden we could start to craft that. And then once we have that crafted so that we can educate the staff about what they're going to be able to use, we need to be able to then implement the technology side of that to mirror it so that technology can enforce what people have been educated on and agreed to. Now we start building strategy and communication. And we can start to exemplify what we need to be able to provide. And by the way, when you do those things, AI can do so many incredible things. The quality of the data becomes so much better. Workflows become so much more accurate. Human in the loop must always still be there, at least in 2026, right? It's still 2026, Ash. Yeah. So we still have to have the human in the loop as of 2026. Maybe it's a slightly different discussion in the next few years. But right now, today, we have to be able to have that. And that requires staff training, requires cybersecurity foundation, quality of data, garbage in, garbage out. Remember the philosophy, garbage in, garbage out. And AI doesn't fix bad data. It'll use bad data and still give you the most confident answer on the worst data ever. And you don't know what the quality of that response is going to wind up be, right? It's going to be variable.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

So we got to develop that consistency.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

That typically, when you start to throw that down, it draws a conversation, it draws interest, it draws questions. Next thing you know, CEO, CFO, they're starting to talk like, hey, we got our approach this a little bit differently than we thought about before.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

So just to make sure I have a good understanding, I I can appreciate that depending on the organization, depending on their goals, their budget, where they are in terms of like their maturity, um, this answer is gonna be different. But what what does it normally look like in terms of how you are engaged? Like if someone's calling you from the beginning from like, hey, we know we need this and we don't even really understand why or what we're gonna do to um, you know, understanding the strategy, unpacking it, making decisions, and then starting to roll things out. How does that engagement with you look? Are you meeting with them like monthly? And like, is this something that typically you'd expect to see over like X amount of months? Again, I understand there's variables, but I'd love to understand how a typical scenario might work with how people would work with you and how you work with um these companies, especially this is a small mid-size business.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

I mean, it's gonna, and that's a great question. And to be honest with you, you're the first one to ever ask me about what that process looks like. It's always just so how do you do it? And you you talk high level, right? So typically it's gonna be an initial conversation that's just gonna be framing what it is you want to do or how specific or how general, or is it gonna be literally like we were talking about earlier? I know I need to do something, I just don't know what. Okay, why do you feel like right? Have those conversations because this is gonna be a commitment and you're driving transformation through an organization. You cannot be half in, half out. You can't harshly start this and decide to go this direction. You're either in, you're not. And if you're gonna be a little bit on the fence about it, now's not the time because more than likely, all of a sudden, we're gonna get disengaged for whatever reason, part of the way through, and that's not successful for anybody. Waste of time for me is special. So let's make sure that we've got alignment and we've got commitment. Usually establish that through the initial conversation, and then from there, that's gonna help to guide us on okay, we've got like a three, a six, a 12-month type of engagement that we can spell out right now for what this is gonna wind up looking like and the focus areas that we need to be able to engage in and result that we're gonna be looking for during that period of time. So now we can start to set up, we need to be able to set this up on a monthly basis because we're gonna implement certain components. We want to be able to have that check and balance. We need you on a retainer to be able to call you or do this or come in and let's reevaluate if I see something going off the rails, or if we're gonna be providing the cybersecurity foundation underneath this because it needs to be rebuilt, and then we're doing the AI consulting on top of it to be able to guide the organization. Well, we're gonna be engaged with them on an ongoing basis, on a much more regular basis. And sitting down, say after the first initial conversation, two weeks later, measure, check, balance, implementation, continued leadership discussions, strategy discussions. Now we set another one for two weeks later. After that, how are we measuring along this way to make sure that we're continuing to move forward on the benchmark? By the way, the implementation, this is where the other projects are coming in, because it's gonna be it got to be aligned with the enablement on the AI side, right? And then from there, it's gonna be determined, okay, on a monthly or on a quarterly basis, we get back together because now we're starting to monitor usage on the back end. We can't see and we don't want to see what people are asking the tool. What we want to be able to measure is adoption and effectiveness. If we can see that we've got a high rate of adoption, that's a great thing. Let's make sure that what we're doing, we continue to build on it, provide some kind of communication and supportive reporting that helps leadership understand. And when you're in an environment like a Microsoft 365, right, you got Viva Insights, which can be a you really useful tool to be able to help provide visibility to management on leadership levels all the way across the board. Also to us to be able to help to guide them. The other thing is monitoring the quality of the interactions with how people are responding or feedback that they're getting to be able to use the tool that assists them in their job or that particular function that we're looking for and towards. So now that we've got engagement, we've got quality, now we can start to back off a little bit because that organization should be maturing to a point where you've got excitement, people are expecting to do this, you've started to develop the culture, leadership is really communicating on a regular basis, and you're developing scalability as well because of those factors. If you don't see adoption, then it's a more intense schedule or more rigorous schedule to help drive that adoption through the door. If we're continuing to see low quality of data, we've got to start to be able to identify that early because the results are poor. So that means that people are gonna have more of an excuse to continue to push it off, push it back. I don't like this, I want a different tool, right? You got mutiny on your hands. We need we need adoption, not mutiny. So let's find that root cause and let's go and address it as quickly as possible. So if you get it early, bite it in the butt early, you continue to have an opportunity for success and adoption. And the quicker you can get to adoption, the quicker your ROI is starting to become and realize. And to your point, yeah, it is gonna vary along the way a little bit, but it always starts with initial conversation, executive leadership conversation. And then from there we can determine what the uh the rigor of the schedule and the project is gonna wind up looking like. That'll dictate out every three months, every six months, 12 months, whatever that looks like.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Yeah, I mean, obviously, this is such um a dynamic thing in terms of like the possibilities and what what organizations can do as the technology continues to advance. One of my questions was gonna be around like what success has looked like um and what you think it can look like with the clients that you've worked with. And what I heard you just say, I think is like adoption in and of itself is probably one of those key metrics. Is there anything else besides adoption that you've seen that really signals, okay, this organization's like really made a transformation?

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Rolling out additional use cases. So if you can, when you get the adoption and you've been able to prove the use case, right? Now you're able to move not just from let's say you started with the sales team and you've proven that now your activity is going up, quality of leads is coming up, you got more interactions and outreach clients, you've got better feedback, maybe with customer service type of things. Okay, now it's time to start moving over, and now we're in the operation side of things. And sales now starts to become almost a champion for you. Man, this has been great, this is fantastic, right? That continues to drive adoption. And when you start also hearing, Brian, we need to move faster, we're seeing some like, okay, okay, we we did it well this way because your organization and the messaging that you did that's driving excitement, which is awesome. But we've got to manage expectations, don't go off the rails. And it's not to try to extend an engagement, it's to make sure that they're not continuing to jump back to where they thought they were over there and get them to a point where they can become sustainable unto themselves, right? So that you don't have to be engaged every 30 days, every 45 days, whatever that happens to be. You want to see them grow with success. Yeah, and you want that to become part of their culture. And then they can take that part over. And now you're only there to be able to help provide guidance when necessary, kind of thing, because they've proven they can handle it.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Very cool. Well, this is fun. I have honestly, this has unpacked a lot of um or sparked a lot of questions that I could ask you, but we're we're sort of running low on time here. So I I really appreciate um you providing some insights into the thinking behind, you know, not just how to think about AI adoption, but how to do it responsibly and strategically and thinking about all the other things that come along with it. One thing you didn't mention uh in your story was just how um a number of your clients or people that you just hear about that are starting to like ask these types of questions, um, they're often seeing like data centers being built up in their communities. And that in and of itself is like prompting them to think, okay, this is real, this is happening, we need to be doing something. And so um, if there's anything you want to add to that, but I just think that it's an interesting arc to go from wow, these data centers are coming into our areas and we've got to start using tech. And then the the final sort of results is that they become more efficient. And so maybe you can bridge a quick little like from beginning that that real uncertainty to like some real tangible, exciting outcome that a company you've worked with has seen, just like a tidbit that uh showcases that journey.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

In Indianapolis, we have the uh the privilege of almost being like at the intersection of the US and the Midwest adoption, right with the high speed. So we've got fiber lines that are running all over the place, which on one hand is great. Um, and you get construction all over the place, which on the other hand is great for them, not great for travel. But you you also spark a lot of other conversations with organizations because they do see data centers are coming in, right? And you get a lot of people in the neighborhoods that are pushing back and they're saying, no, I don't want this thing here. And that comes down to lack of strategic communication and preparedness for you know what this is going to look like, the benefits that's gonna be there. Don't just try to sneak this thing under the wire. They've tried that a couple of times out here, and that didn't go well. And so those data centers aren't coming in. But in further communities, further more rural communities, where they're actually coming in, where Google's building the, I think it's a $2 billion data center, Microsoft's building a $1 billion data center. There's another one that's gonna be going in in West Lafayette. You know, the question about power and how do we handle the power needs that's going on here? And there's multiple different solutions that are being thrown around. But when you hear about things being thrown around to solve a potential problem that is going to exist, that doesn't create competence, right? From a business standpoint, they're excited. Ooh, we're gonna have faster internet, we're gonna have better processing power, right? Or you could be my son and you can say, I'm gonna I got lower ping on Fortnite. There's all kinds of benefits that wind up coming into this potentially, but you've got to be thoughtful about this is what we're gonna do, this is how we're gonna do it, this is how it's gonna benefit you. And let's show the community overall what the benefits are going to be. Don't allow them to let the imagination go crazy and how much water is going to be used on this, and I'm not gonna have drinking water, right? That cannot, or you know, you're talking about environmental impact, which is a very real thing. So if you don't come into this with well-thought-out plans and understanding the culture of the people, especially here in the Midwest, everybody knows everybody kind of culture, right? It's it's kind of a tight-knit community, especially in Indiana. You got to come in and have a plan and be thoughtful about how this integrates with the culture of the people that this thing is gonna be going in with the benefit of it, but don't just build it for today. Build it for today with a plan for down the road. We understand technology evolves and it changes because that's another thing that people are thinking about, right? I've got, well, my phone's around here somewhere. Oh, it's back here. So my phone that's now holdable, right? This technology was Star Trek 15 years ago, right? 10 years ago, not that long ago. So they're looking at data centers saying if technology continues to get that small but more powerful, and I can carry around this thing and use it longer because the battery life is better, more efficient energy usage. They're looking at these data centers going, why? In 10 years, what is this thing gonna look like? Let's think about that. Let's talk about that. Businesses are excited that they're gonna come in, it's gonna create efficiency, faster internet, all kinds of pipelines that are gonna wind up being able to support all kinds of growth. Fantastic. But the people are the ones that are using it. You got to connect both those ends, and that also helps to drive adoption. So a lot of people are against it just for the simple I I I've heard this over the last week, probably at least daily. Brian, I don't want to use AI because the environmental impact. Okay, all right. Well, what I understand the concerns. So, what would help you understand that better? Well, I don't want that data center in here, right? It's not rational responses, it's not responses that are coming through that are thoughtful, that provide solutions. It's just an emotional reaction to it, which they're entirely entitled to because they weren't provided with a comprehensive strategy and they weren't provided with a plan. They were provided with a uh oh.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:37

So let's focus. Let let's update the messaging just like we do with leadership. And that's why you have certain conversations with leadership, and it's a comprehensive conversation based on what their concerns are. Let's do the same thing with the people, with all those people in the community. Let's let them understand this is what it is, listen to their concerns and try to bridge that gap.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Yeah. Well, hey, uh, I think that's an opening for a whole new conversation too. I appreciate your insight. And I do think you clearly not only have your finger on the pulse with the like the innovation, what's happening, what the implications are, but also the human and cultural side of all of it and how it all connects. You're there, your boots on the ground, not just in the businesses, but in the communities. And so, you know, this it does speak to regardless of people's opinions about any of this stuff, it's it's all kind of happening and the importance of being informed and figuring out, you know, what are the actionable steps and what are the things we can all do. And and back to the business side, how do we start talking about this technology in a meaningful way rather than just in sort of general terms and whimsical terms? So I I really appreciate the conversation. I'm gonna um make sure that the audience has links to your website in the show notes. I think I'll link your LinkedIn because I have that. Um, is there anything else you'd like to leave the audience with, whether it's parting words or more information on how to find you or or or what to maybe connect um with you on?

SPEAKER_02 40:09

Yeah, I appreciate it. I mean, the best way to connect with me would be through LinkedIn. So, Ashley, if you're already going to share that out, I think that's the best next step. Feel free to reach out to me, questions, comments, anything along those lines. Uh I love being able to interact with people overall. And if I could be a resource to be able to bounce ideas off of, happy to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Yeah, very cool. Well, thank you. Thank you, Brian. It's been such a pleasure to talk to you and everyone listening. Thank you for joining on Proof Talks, where we unpack real world expertise. Hope you will join us again. If you're listening on audio, please make sure to subscribe. We're also on YouTube. So head over to the video if you're interested in that. And otherwise, everyone, take care and have a wonderful day.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

Thanks, Ashley.