I was late to ChatGPT.
When it launched in November 2022, I noticed it, thought it was interesting, and got back to my day. I was running a digital program and managing the technology operations, I had a full agenda, and while it looked interesting, I did not see it as urgent.
Roll forward to October 24, six months into a new role that I really sat up and took an interest. Early in ‘25 it took a week-long immersion at MIT for message to really sink in. Not because I walked out an AI expert, but because one line kept being repeated until it lodged itself in my head: AI won’t replace you, but someone using AI will. That sat with me, not only due to the potential impact on my own career, but also due to the potential impact of my colleagues. I felt I had a responsibility to them to understand the potential threats and opportunities.
Come the middle of ‘25 and I had been using it extensively, in my work and personal life. I was starting to understand what I was dealing with. Performing black hat reviews on digital updates to the board. Stress-testing options. Turning messy notes into something coherent. Some days it was magic. Some days it was rubbish. But the pattern was clear. When I used it well, it removed the nose from my day, let me focus on more important activities. Importantly I was using it as a coach and mentor so I was learning faster than ever as well.
I am the GM of Digital at a critical infrastructure organisation. We don’t have the luxury of taking on high levels of risk. So whilst I could see enormous upside of Generative AI, I was also well aware of the heavily regulated, and risk averse, environment we needed to operate within.
I often reflect on my slow start, I wonder whether I have missed the boat? Am I now too far behind to catch-up? But I don’t think so, the capabilities of AI are enormous, but safely scaling those within critical infrastructure is not about the capabilities of the technology. It’s about how you people adopt them, how you embed them in your business processes, how you the data that fuels AI is accurate, and how you govern to ensure AI is operating within your risk appetite.
You haven’t missed the boat. But the boat is moving and gaining speed. Watching it from the dock is no longer an option. Your first step isn’t a strategy or a platform. It’s you, using these tools on your own work, every day, until you have formed your own view.
That’s where this series starts. Everything that follows came after my decision to making sure we were safe to scale.