The Adoption Imperative: Unlocking ROI in the Age of AI

Speaker A: Learner is always at the center of the focus. Right. Having said that, I'm predominantly on the learning technology side. Um, this was one of the engagement that I was working. I was a consultant lead probably around like 10, 15 years back. And, um, I was driving their overall learning ecosystem. Futuristic learning ecosystem. Like, how would you look your learning ecosystem from here, from like 2 years, 5 years, and what the roadmap looks like and so on. And that hit me hard in terms of if the learner is not at the center, at the focal of whatever organization does, uh, it could lead to a massive failure, uh, and any digital transformation for that matter.

Speaker B: Huh. Hi, everyone. Welcome to another insightful episode of the digital adoption show Partner Podcast edition. I'm, um, your host, Doug Figueiredo, and I lead GSI Alliances for North America here at what Fix. In this series, we will bring you authentic stories of transformation, innovation and impact told by people actually making it happen across enterprise organizations. And today's episode, it's all about navigating the role of AI in digital transformation, rethinking change management, and understanding how adoption is becoming a strategic lever, not just an IT afterthought. And I couldn't be more excited about today's guests. Joining me is someone who brings a rare balance of deep domain knowledge, technical expertise, and on the ground leadership. Fayaz Nagour is the global lead for digital adoption platforms at Cognizant, and he has been driving some of the most complex digital initiatives across industries. Joining me is someone who brings a rare balance of deep domain knowledge, technical expertise, and on the ground leadership. Fayaz Nagur is the global lead for digital adoption platforms at Cognizant, and he has been driving some of the most complex digital initiatives across industries. He's not just implementing tools, he's helping enterprise reimagine how change happens. Whether it's helping global organizations to build sustainable governance models, embedding AI into their user journeys, or making digital adoption a measurable ROI focused practice. Faiyaz brings clarity that's both strategic and grounded. Faiyaz, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here.

Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you so much, Doug. Um, I'm really super excited and pumped, uh, for this episode and really thanks to all of you within what Fix team and Doug, uh, especially to you. I've been working with you for last year, uh, closely. So it's been like really exciting ride, uh, working between Cognizant and what Fix. Uh, so yes, I lead, uh, the global, uh, adoption platform, uh, practice within Cognizant at a global scale. Uh, and Distiller adoption platform has been very close to my heart because uh, one of the most important thing that drives me there is it's a human core solution where it brings really difference in the way that people uh, equip themselves, reskill, upskill themselves and so on. And I'm a core learning uh, person right from the beginning of my career. So this is very close to my heart. And I would really thank and take a moment to thank my global lead who is Suranjana, uh Das Gupta who is the global lead for digital learning who leads within Cognizant. And she put me in charge and she has entrusted me to take this practice uh to the next level and we are really looking forward to that. And within Cognizant we actually are reshaping the entire stuff. Like we are really focusing on human core solution which is experience led and AI powered solution. So this is uh, a perfect solution for any in app or application based training. So really excited to be here and uh, looking forward for the conversation. Doug, thank you.

Speaker B: No thanks for that Fayas, appreciate that. So uh, let's rewind a bit before we dive in. Your career spans from over two decades of leading digital transformation programs, building strategy playbooks and empowering people through uh, technology. What was the moment where you realized that digital adoption wasn't just a technical problem, it was actually a business problem with the human core?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean um, ever since I started my career within the learning domain, I always been a uh, believer of learner, uh, is always at the center of the focus. Right. Having said that I'm predominantly on the learning technology side. Um, this was one of the engagement that I was working. I was a consultant lead probably around like 10, 15 years back and uh, I was driving their overall learning ecosystem. Futuristic learning ecosystem. Like how would you, you look your learning ecosystem from here from like 2 years, 5 years and what the roadmap looks like and so on. And that hit me hard in terms of if the learner is not at the center, at the focal of whatever organization does, uh, it could lead to a massive uh, failure and any digital transformation for that matter. Right. And we all know that most of us are in the process of uh, transforming ourselves from an organization perspective. And that was a moment where I felt like, and that was a pivotal realization for me. Like you know, if you do not bring empathy, right, communication and highly integrated ecosystem for the learner, uh, that's, that's, those are the, some, some of the components really going to impact towards the workforce transformation, uh, the way that they perform their job daily.

Speaker B: Yeah, M. I completely agree. Thank you. All right, Fayas, let's paint a quick picture for you. So if you are in the leadership offside dinner, sitting next to a cxo, midway through the meal, they casually ask you, oh, we already spent heavily on enterprise software why we should invest in more digital adoption. Like what fix? So imagine that you're not pitching, just sharing your perspective as someone who's seen that you know, like what works, what doesn't work. What would be your take here? How do you make them see adoption is not a uh, nice to have thing but core to realize their roi?

Speaker A: Yeah, first of all it's uh, very difficult for me to take my eyes off of chicken or uh, steak, but I'll still do my best. Um, jokes apart, um, so that's a very important discussion for me and I always believe in um, make it relevant for any organization, for whoever my customers are that we are talking to. And I start with very high level series of questions and it's very important that we understand their pain points and problem statement. So in this case I really want to dig into like do they really have an adoption problem or what the problem statement looks like, uh, from leadership uh, perspective and where they are looking at it. And if the answer is no, I'll be intrigued to know that how are they, how are they doing it? Which kind of is really interesting, interesting conversation on the side. But then uh, if the answer is yes, I would like to dig around a bit further in terms of what tool that they're using and where they see that a lot of focus or the attention is required specifically on the application training area in terms of like how the process quite often changes with the new trends and technologies and things like that. Once you nailed on that particular problem statement you have to make it very relevant and we bring in an. My perspective is like bring a relevant successful use case or a case study that how have you helped in other places uh, so that they can really, really um, connect with the problem statement. And hey, here is what you're talking about. And the second most important thing is the focus on the ROIs or the value business value realization that you would bring with this particular tool. Right. Because by end of the day you just not uh, implement an adoption tool just to provide training but to weigh uh, to change the way that they are working to make it faster, better, uh, effectively. Uh, you know, uh, the curve that you have for knowledge retention is high and things like that. So those Are some of the use cases if you that can bring in. So in, in, in my story or an elevator pitch, I would really focus on what the problem statements are and what relevant use cases that I am bringing to the table as a value for my customers.

Speaker B: No, that's great. So a question for you. I was reading uh, a report from IDC and in such report they predict that by 2026, 65% of the organizations will depend on ecosystem based transformation partnerships. And what they really mean is like that companies are no longer looking into uh, system integrators just as a delivery vendor. You know, like they want more strategic collaborators, um, people who can uh, co own outcomes, guide change and bring together the right mix of technology people and processes. And I believe that's a big shift in how digital transformation is being approached today. Right. So let me ask you this. So as a prominent leader, you know like in a global system integrator consulting uh, company, you are the very forefront of digital transformation. Uh, and with that beyond just technology, uh, implementation, uh, what's the evolving role of like a system integrator and a consulting firm uh, into guiding clients, their clients, uh, through their most complex digital transformation or change management journeys today.

Speaker A: Yeah. In this context Doug, I really emphasize on the word called partnership and relationship which is very important to go a long way. Right. And to me digital transformation is not a destined destination. It's a, it's a journey that you go through. And while you go through that journey and a lot of things changes demographically, technology wise, culture wise, process wise and so on, um, the way that or the style that we work in, we want to be partners to our customers in their journey and we want to make sure that we understand and share their vision, where they want to be and help them in terms of collaborating what they actually are looking for. And the value that we bring in in partnership is like looking through that long term lens that how impactful that it could be. What are some of the things that they could change, uh, technology wise, operational wise, workforce wise and so on. And it is also important that you have a shared responsibility and accountability with partner. And it's an ecosystem. Right. And when you work with your customer there are specific key stakeholders that come from different divisions. At the same time as an organization, as a partner to our customers, we also bring in that particular workforce and army to make sure that we can help them towards that particular transformation. So I totally agree in terms of the way that we are moving towards is more in uh, people look at us as more in Partnership that can have a long standing relationship, uh, because it has different components in terms of how it is going to transform their lives and for an organization to reach towards that objective, the vision and the mission. And it is just not that you have the change management, you have the governance part of it and then how that experience has been delivered to the customers and so on. So it's more than system integrated. And we have been working in that fashion. I'm um, very close. Um, and my style is like that to work very closely with the customer, to put ourselves into their shoes and look at that thing.

Speaker B: Yeah. To really understand you know like their challenges and like brainstorm with them the solutions. Right. So and think about that. Like how's the ideal from your perspective? How's your ideal dynamic between a system integrator consulting company and a client, uh, change in this past like 5 years regarding digital transformation.

Speaker A: So when you get started with your customer, you have to be there in their entrusted circle. Like there are different types of circle but you get into that circle in terms of like when you, as I said, when you share the vision, when you have a shared responsibility and accountability and so on. Even if a partner comes in as uh, just a system integrator, I think the way that it is evolved is people bring in different experience and expertise from different walks of life. And now the change that I'm seeing is like the customers are really uh, opening up to say that hey, what do you think about this one? And probably that might not be my forte. Right. So some other team is working on those things. What's your perspective? And so on. The reason that is happening is that because organizations are really focusing on uh, shift in culture, shift in mindset and those are adoptions that uh, an adoption actually helps the people to equip themselves through that particular journey and actually focus on whatever organization, the transformation that they are going through. They are really, really focusing on a very, very positive change that needs to happen at a long term perspective. So it's like more in terms of focusing on the cultural shift and mindsets that I would say it.

Speaker B: No. That's great. And can you share a scenario where you know like your role change from just like a um, like leading an implementation to something more um, as like a um, strategic disruptor for a client, for example.

Speaker A: Yeah. And this is very interesting to me also and um, um because um, I saw a lot of it was a long project of transformation. I was brought in only to say that hey, here is a problem statement and in fact here is the View, not even a problem statement. So I went there for like three months to do a small consulting engagement and say that hey, like you know, what do you want? And things like that. And I ended up like to realize them. Here is your problem statement. And to do this you need to put together a futuristic architecture of the learning ecosystem so that you understand what are the different components of it. So I was just a consultant lead, but then gave them the roadmap of it like oh okay fine. And that was like uh, very highly appreciated. And then I got involved and it like kind of, I know ventured into like multi year program. We formed a big team and so on. The ask was like. And then I realized the ask was like changing them from traditional way of learning to completely modernize the way that learning happens in all uh, components of it. Right from the design, right from re strategizing it, right from developing the content, delivering it, the experiences, the performances, the ongoing support that needs to be performed. So, so the whole nine yards of the learning from a 360 degree view was completely reimagined. And I would say like, you know I entered as like small consultant lead where I just wanted to make sure that okay, you, we understand the problem statement here is what. But then it ventured out to be a multi, multi year where uh, I had to walk them through and help them through the journey, implement it and roll it out and things like that. So that was like very interesting case study for me.

Speaker B: That's great. So basically for ah, an executor of a plan during this execution you realize that there were some loopholes there that you need to fix. Uh and then your role become more like a strategic advisor. Uh that's uh, very interesting.

Speaker A: Very much. Yeah.

Speaker B: So uh, when I talk to some of the strategic enterprise leaders like uh, value uh realization and ROI means very different things from different teams. Right. So while it might be measured uh, upon uh, uh time and ticket reduction, business leaders are starting to look at things like employee enablement and customer satisfaction. Especially because you know like when you take too long to you know, enable m an employee, you know like that's money that you leave on the table. Right. So um, from your perspective, how uh, are leading organizations and your customers ah truly measuring the holistic success and impact of their digital transformation or change management initiatives in this rapidly changing environment. Especially you know with AI coming in. Yeah.

Speaker A: So you are actually right on spot. And ROI means uh, different for different teams and leaders. Uh, but the way that we are seeing and you know all the, all the Forward thinking leaders that they have. They want to blend this qualitative and quantitative KPIs together. Like you know how adoption rates successfully transforms into productivity gains. Uh, some of the qualitative insights that brings in from an user um, interaction or a behavioral analytics, uh, or an experience analytics that they kind of perform over the application and how well they are and so on. Like how it empowers and drives uh, the successful change uh across the organization. And given that AI is playing such an important role basically it gives a lot of ability to um, understand, have uh, an actionable insights and clearly provides that pavement in terms of like where my workforce is lagging and where more attention is required or what they, what they are good at and so on that can be really, really capitalized on that and so on. Uh, and specifically from an ROI perspective I think like the classic example would be roi from the same uh, initiative. A business might have a different ROI and it might have a different roi. Right. So we can talk about the examples. But uh, that that's how I kind of see. And it is, and it is very important that you correlate, you make it relevant and you cater to all the needs of those key stakeholders. It is just not you catering to business but also to the IT people or also to the HR function or whatever it is going to impact.

Speaker B: No, I completely agree. So uh, what challenges the organizations face in moving beyond traditional ROI metrics and how do they overcome them?

Speaker A: What uh, I've seen in the uh, overall uh, in this particular initiative is like we define the digital transformation uh end state or not I wouldn't say instead but then digital transformation, how it needs to look around like what the objectives and the goals are and what the transformation plan looks like and so on. And we also put together a plan and a KPI metrics to um, measure it uh, in terms of employee engagement or customer experience. But these are like really tightly connected. And what happens is sometimes we lose the um, you know, actionable insight or we lose the meaning that it needs to transpire into a different component to it and we lose the integration um, between these KPIs. Uh, it's very important that over a period of time I think digital transformation is one of the greatest example because it is just not technology. It's also the culture, it's also the mindset, it is also the business processes and I know workflows and things like that. You need to have a measurement framework which is very agile, which is kind of a plug and play framework that allows you to Plug in. Hey, here is the qualitative feedback, here is the quantitative metrics and here is the adoption analytics, uh, how those business impact metrics are really going to play an important role to transform your workforce. And this also helps in terms of like you know, um, cross functional collaboration between, between different department divisions and the ROI that reflects in specific thing. It's a collation of all of those things that you bring in uh, from an operational efficiency standpoint as well as an organizational strategic growth standpoint.

Speaker B: And how do you quantify improvements in areas like employee satisfaction, customer experience or agility and tie them back to the digital transformations or change management efforts?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean you have various um, different types of measurement framework and so on. Right. So I can talk about on and on. But then the most important thing from an architectural perspective you need to try back that metrics like you know, uh, NPS scores or surveys or user interaction analytics that actually captures the sentiment and behavioral aspect of a learner or a user uh, through the digital transformation phase. Because you need to know that how those are transforming for a person and track back to those adoption rates where uh, a person is able to perform any activity in a much more effective proficient way. Uh, it could be like it is a day to day job for that person or it could be like providing continuous improvement thought process to that particular activity and processes and so on. Or it could be like this is where something I'm lagging behind. So the key factor to this one is to establishing uh, the baseline metrics uh before transformation is planned out. But it is very important that you have some mechanism, some strategize it, that you have a continuous measurement mechanism uh across human uh, interaction as well as the uh, operational dimensions which are like how the technology plays an important role in this overall adoptions.

Speaker B: Thanks a lot for that perspective Fayas. So we talk about that success often varies by team but user adoption remains as the most consistent, consistent indicator of impact. And with what fix organizations have been seeing up to 60% boost in feature adoption with just a few months of implementation. And this increase often correlates with reduced support tickets and faster onboarding and also higher task completion rates across departments, making a strong signal of transformation success. So in your experience what's the biggest barrier to actual digital adoption that you observe in large enterprise? And how can they truly bridge the gap?

Speaker A: So I mean there are common challenges and there are little uncommon challenges that actually digital adoption provides. Um, you know, um, enables the learner or the user to make their work better or they perform their Activity on a day to day basis, much better. Couple of things like which are very common in change world where adoption plays a very important role is like lack uh of awareness, resistance to change for application or performances and things like that. The technology stack got changed and all those stuff. Acceptance towards demographical uh differences uh that you may have within the organization and things like that. And you have all of this and soft skills where the change management plays a very important role and things like that. The uncommon thing. I think what digital adoption really really captures well with regard to the life cycle of a learner is what's in it for me. I play a specific role and for this role an application has like 100 features but then not 100 features are relevant for my day to day activity might be only 20. Right. So that role based small learning nuggets makes a huge impact for the learner. And just in time. I am performing certain things I need to know right now, right away that makes an impact in a learner life cycle right now. I want to know something like that right now. The ongoing support like I was learning about this like three months back. Let me search for it. These are some of the uncommon things uh, which digital adoption platforms really captured very well and those are some of the barriers that it kind of actually negated through uh the, the the uh DAP tools that brings in like what fix that brings in real clarity uh in terms of how this particular going to thing going to impact in their day to day life life. So that would be my perspective to it.

Speaker B: No, great perspective. And how do you differentiate between users having to access a tool and truly adopting as part of your of their daily workflow? I guess you know we always face you know like uh, uh this type of issues you know like at some point in our lives. Yeah.

Speaker A: So one is um, I think it's beyond tools also. Right. It's also a cultural impact towards uh the overall adoption that we bring in. Right. So actually the true adoption shows uh up in day to day workflows where users leverage uh these tools to solve problems. And in this case it would be like the DAP tool uh what fix plays a very important role where any user would want to improve productivity bringing relevance to their job and performance and also to contribute to the overall ecosystem, how they can help their peers, how that interaction can be built in and uh, DAP analytics also play a very important role in terms of identifying those components. Because me as a learner I can go in and say that hey, where are the places that I really really need to find focus. I really do not have to focus and which are the parts of my daily workflow and so on. So it's tightly integrated into an ecosystem where human and technology play a very integrated fashion. And uh, that's very impactful to differentiate some of those, uh, perspectives.

Speaker B: Oh, great. So let's change the subject a little bit and focus on AI. Uh, so AI is everywhere, right? So in every conversation that, you know, like I participate nowadays, it's all about AI. So AI is definitely no longer just a buzzword. So it's a boardroom priority. And while the excitement is real, uh, I've also seen like a mix of like, expectations.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Uh, so some people view AI as a silver bullet for every challenge. Others still see like, as too complex or reserved for large enterprise. So the reality though is that it's impacting, uh, business already and it's being felt across, uh, organization of all sizes. But in reality, most of the value comes from how it's applied to the ground level. Right. How people are actually using their, uh, uh, AI and if they're using. Right. So I would love to hear from you, what are the myths about, uh, enterprise A.I. that you wish every business leader would stop believing right now?

Speaker A: Yeah, I think this, this question is also kind of become a very common, as you said, like it is not a buzzword anymore. Uh, it's a boardroom excitement. Uh, it is even the perspective has become very common that AI is not here to replace. To be really honest, like even I believe that, because what AI does is compute real, real complex problem. Right. But the strategic point of view, the decision making is still with the human. So AI is a component that actually enables. So the way that we have is like technology is the backbone of business, but AI is the enabler of technology today. Like, that's how it's kind of, you know, encompassed towards it. So, uh, everybody should in some capacity, in some role that they play today. Like the way that today the word has been changed to, you know, from search to Google. Did you Google that? You know, you don't say, did you search that? Right. So similarly, it is going to impact in each and everybody's life. And when it does that, we need to have some level of understanding and we can actually look at as an, uh, AI as a companion than a replacement that needs to be there. Right. And the second piece to that one or second piece to that component is like, we can create very quickly applications and images and content generation and things again, of course. Yeah, definitely. No doubt about it. It's going to be like really quick and uh, quick things. But how do you bring value? How do you uh, you know connect different components? Uh even if it is application or different content generation things that has happened, basically those are the data that needs to be collated somewhere. Build a strategy, build uh, you know, uh, strategy to deliver an experience, LED design kind of a thing uh where based on this it enables human to make the right decisions. Right. It does not brings value by, in itself. But when we take that you have to mix it up, you have to compose it with the human element of it and that's where you can bring the value. So some of the myths actually this also gets into the cultural level. That how you uh, nurture your culture over a period of time because it is there, it is going to stay and it is going to impact. Right. We cannot shy away from that but we need to be with it. But the myth is like is that going to replace. No, I just need to augment my or I just need to reskill or upskill my level so that it helps me. AI helps the human. That how it needs to be done. So that's my perspective of the uh. AI is very important. But then learners still sits in the fulcrum or the focal of everything.

Speaker B: No. Thank you for sharing your perspective and I actually uh, completely agree with you and I have been working in technology for quite a while and I see uh, people, some of my colleagues using multiple AI tools to help them on the day to day activities and some others not necessarily using it. So I truly believe that um, uh the AI uh came you know like as a tool to help us to become operators and use this to. Towards our advantage. Right. So with that you know can you, can you share some real uh, world example where the, this myth that you were talking about led an organisation, an organization ah, astray or caused significant setbacks?

Speaker A: Yeah, one good example or a example that I can think of is like um, good old school days tradition kind of a thing. Everything was binders, papers and then it kind of digitized in documents and everything and all right. So even when the AI pieces comes in we uh have a process of like just uh coding an example like FAQs like you know have those documents in place so that we can understand better and things. No doubt about it, like fantastic, really great. Um, but if I put AI training chatbot and say hey can I get an uh, know how to perform this particular activity? That's going to throw up like you know an FAQ document or a Guide document or things like that? And would you have the same knowledge retention? Would you have the same, uh, you know, forgetting curve? Uh, would you have the same level of impact and effectiveness and proficiencies? Might be and might not be because in most cases might not be because the moment you look at the document, you perform the activity and get going on that one. But digital adoption brings in a different flavor to it. You are putting that particular platform on top of the application so that it is available for you at any point in time. And the search is made so relevant to your role, to your skills, to what you perform. And those kind of, and just in time kind of a thing really, really addresses those things. So where we kind of implemented this training chatbots with the FAQs and like you know, multiple repositories that it is getting connected, of course it is great. But then, um, having DAP implemented that brings real business value in terms of effort, in terms of productivity and in terms of dollar values that you can save.

Speaker B: Yeah. And what is the most like challenging aspect of dispelling this myth once it's ingrained in the company's culture?

Speaker A: Um, to me the most important thing is mindset. People have this resistance, uh, or as I said, uh, the lack of awareness and so on. Right. Um, the most important thing from a cultural standpoint is uh, while you shift the mindset, do they have the right collaborative culture, fail safe proof environment where they don't have to worry about it, they still feel vulnerable about it, but failure is learning. Right. And what are the tools that has been provided to all of them to make their uh, day to day life, that work that they're doing to make it much better and proficient and effective. So there are different components to that one. So while you talk about culture and bringing certain changes in the organization, uh, you need to understand the mindset of the demographics and at a global scale that you bring in as part of the culture, create that collaborative culture, uh, you know, that people can be, feel safe in terms of like whether they want to try and learn more and things like that. And also provide the appropriate tools to them so that they share the vision of the organization and they see their vision or the aspiration that they're moving towards it because that needs to tie back. It's just not organization. But also my personal aspiration is tied back and that you move on.

Speaker B: Great. And what would be like uh, a tangible advice that you would give them to shift their perspective?

Speaker A: Um, the most important thing that from my perspective is to have a human, ah, Led AI environment. Because I said AI is not going to go, it's going to stay with us, it's going to make our life only better. Um, that mindset needs to be changed, right? But there is a heavy investment or real focus on how to create that human led environment, right? Uh, human AI collaboration is really, really pivotal to an organization's transformation or success because human can really focus on creativity strategy, uh, decision making. Right. And um, AI is here to really, really focus on uh, data intensive tasks, ah, that has like really complex problem statement with more than one problem statement with different uh, permutation and combinations and then provide certain perspective to it. But still that uh, it makes humans life better to understand in a readable format and to understand that particular data insights and make those decisions um, based on the strategy that. So my advice, or rather my perspective is to have that uh, encourage people from a perspective of like this is a human led AI environment. AI is an enabler for us.

Speaker B: No, that's great. And uh, as AI continues to advance and the conversation around AI adoption and reskilling is becoming more critical than ever, L and D teams are now being asked to evolve just as quickly, right? Uh, so in fact according to the World economic forum, by 2025 nearly 50% of the employees will need reskilling, especially in areas like data literacy, ethical AI use and prompt engineering. So that puts a lot of pressure and opportunity on learning leaders. So from your perspective, like what are the most critical um, uh, new competencies that L and D functions will need to foster right now to ensure a future ready workforce?

Speaker A: Um, yeah, that's a great question actually. So to me the very first thing that comes in, and I think we would have all seen at an organizational level for us, right, uh, AI has brought in very uh, good things. At the same time it comes up with certain uh, baggage of it which we need to really be careful like security and safety. Uh, that's very important. So you need to understand how AI can also play a role in other side of it so that you're aware of and how do you keep your environment safe. So AI safety training is very important. AI security training is very important that L and D should focus on uh, some of those things. Right. And uh, another specific thing is based uh, on that, how compliances and the processes have been evolved uh, over a period of time. Uh, and then how it is impacting your, not specifically more on the role, but not very specifically on the organization side of it. Right? So uh, how you equip yourself with those of Things And LND should also focus on some of those common angles of compliances and processes that AI brings it to it. And because of AI there is a lot of changes in the regulatories or compliances or the processes or the workflows in different industries and things like that. And then the pieces where you really focus on your specific role and skills, how AI can really help you to uh, perform your job better. It could be your digital adoption platform or it could be your micro learning or it could be your adaptive learning and all those stuff that comes into play. Uh, and I think over a period of time LND will also call different names as we go on evolve. Like for example there will be AI, uh, you know, coach integrator or curriculum integrator or gen AI, uh, training specialist and things like that. I'm just throwing out certain names and where we need to be really creative about like you know, how you bring in the learning domain expertise that is tied with your uh, AI capabilities that needs to be done from a domain skills perspective that you can uh, really play a, ah, very important role.

Speaker B: Great. And is there any specific roles or departments where you see the greatest uh, urgency for these new AI driven competencies?

Speaker A: From my perspective it spans across like be it hr, be it, be it compliance, be it finance, be it security. So uh, the level or the percentage varies. Like uh, technology is really heavy because it is very heavy because every solution can revolve around it because we are really focused on the automation part of it, making life better, making uh, things faster and things like that. So that kind of cuts across. Right. And uh, AI skills and competencies in itself needs to have an architecture where as I said, like there are certain skills that you need to have at a certain safety, security level that you need to understand. You need to understand how AI is going to impact your compliance or ethical uh, awareness of IT and things like that. And then what's the roles that you want to play. So um, from a skills and competency perspective, um, there are different levels where what is in it for your particular role and how it is going to impact. So spans across every division in the department but the percentage involvement is of us.

Speaker B: Yeah. And how would you recommend like L and D teams to stay ahead of the curve in identifying emerging uh, AI related skills that are needed for their

Speaker A: jobs, uh, increase your uh, you know, awareness on the technology, um, and be um, more tech savvy? Because when I see um, the learning roles, right, really heavy, focused on uh, the content creation, the design part of it, but the the technology sometimes takes a little uh, backseat and all those stuff. Now all of those things have coming towards more in the front to help design better experiences and design better delivery modalities and things like that. Right. So I would say make more tech savviness, bring more tech savviness and rework on the skills and competencies for each and every learning uh, uh, roles that we have. Specifically on the you know, uh, the design and development side of it. Like for example as I was talking about uh AI integration leaders and experienced architects, uh gen AI training specialists, digital uh, fluency coaches, uh, you know, so curriculum manager in AI. So those are the aspects that you can bring in really if you can, if you can embed those skills in those particular roles. Uh, because your domain expertise needs to be there because that's not going to go anywhere. Because like for example if I'm going to talk about instructional designer, they bring in certain values that how the overall content needs to be strategized and delivered and experienced. Now you're talking about enabler where that enablement needs to be also brought into your core skills and competencies so that you can do your job better. So those are some of the uh, you know, roles that I would really, really uh, envisage uh in the future that how it is going to transform the roles from a learning perspective.

Speaker B: Thanks a lot Fayaz. This has been such a great conversation. Uh, but before we wrap up, do you have any final thoughts or a key piece of advice for our listeners who are navigating digital transformation and driving adoption in this recently increased AI driven world?

Speaker A: Yeah, so there are two components and two aspects to it from my perspective like um, empathy is very important and specifically when AI plays a very important role, uh, lead with empathy, really, really trust and invest in um, enablement of workforce and culture and things like that. Uh, build a human led AI environment where technology amplifies uh the human potential and uh, um, learner or the people or a human is going to be center of uh, any transformation initiative and adoption is going to play a very, very important role and it actually allows you to uh, do better job and keep uh, you focused. Think uh, more about innovation, think more about automation and things like that. Right? And uh, take AI as companion and not as alternative and uh, as much as possible understand AI skills, upskill AI skills for your required specific role. And my way of looking at is this one is like when I look back, um, when the Word and Excel, PowerPoint and all came in and everything was like different, we were Excited to learn. But even that was difficult. And that's how AI is going to be. And more we move further. AI is going to be becoming, become the basic stuff of it, like an obvious 360. Even today we use copilot. Right? I mean immediately like you know what's in it and how do we, how do we do better?

Speaker B: Like yeah, yeah, just imagine the future ahead of us.

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker B: Yeah. No, that's brilliant. Thank you so much Fayas for being an incredible guest and sharing, you know, like thoughts and practical forward looking insights with us. Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts and insights by us. Uh, I would like to wrap our podcast podcast with a little fun game of this and that if you agree with that.

Speaker A: Yeah, of course, absolutely. Let's bring it on.

Speaker B: All right, perfect. So one click automation or step by step guidance?

Speaker A: Um, this is a perspective. So do uh, I have an option to say both, neither or either? Just kidding because it's a very tricky one. But um, it's, it's, it depends and it's, it's sometimes it's both because it, it also you know, kind of depends on how you apply for it because each has its own perspective and it needs its balance. And uh, not one strategy fits all because ease is all about um, experience and clarity is about how you perform the training. But if I have to choose one, Doug, I would say like you know, one click automation, just get it done and things. All right. Right.

Speaker B: So yeah, perfect. So another question. Four day work week forever or unlimited upskilling budget, more time or more learning?

Speaker A: Okay, so you're tempting me now. So uh, no, four day work sounds absolutely tempting and fun but I know, uh, but if I have to go, I would say unlimited uh, upskilling because uh, you know, brings a lot of enablement with it. It actually empowers people to adapt, innovate and uh, lead in ever changing environment. And that itself makes the person much more better and faster over a period of time. Uh, so anytime. Upskilling, reskilling, Upskilling.

Speaker B: Great. So another question. Automate everything or explain everything clearly. So do it faster or do it better.

Speaker A: Again, it's a perspective. Automation actually offers a uh, very, very significant value based on whatever the objective uh, that you have defined for. But if you do not define your objective very clearly then automation could be misleading, could be confusing and things like that. Right. I'm all in for intelligent automation that we bring it to the uh, table. But the priority would be do it better because that's more very reliable from a long term perspective and you need to actually enable through automation. Great.

Speaker B: And would you rather impress the board or delight the end user? So, spotlight on dashboards or applause from the users?

Speaker A: This one is very easy. I think all the questions should have been this one. Always end users. Uh, applause from end users. Because it's a direct impact that you can see in dashboard. So if your end user is happy, if they are, uh, performing the way that they want to be, you have created that environment, you have given that tools, you have given that platforms, they are able to do their job much more effectively. Your dashboard always lights up. So I think end user is the answer. Applause from end users no.

Speaker B: Thanks a lot, Fayas. You know, like, it was an honor to host you here at our podcast, so thanks a lot, Fayas. That's brilliant. Um, and thank you for being an incredible guest and sharing such practical, forward looking insights with us. This has been a truly impactful episode. Love our listeners. You can catch us on, um, all of major podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. And don't forget to, like, share and subscribe to the digital Adoption show for more conversations like this. I'm your host, Doug Figueiredo, signing off. Thank you and see you at the next episode.