AI Maturity in the Workplace
By Jonathan Banks, Founding Partner and President of NCXT
In Saint Paul, we need to set our sights on reaching AI maturity. AI Maturity means that we promote measurable and purposeful experimentation, growing our ability to operationalize AI to achieve our missions at increasing levels of efficiency and impact. We don’t chase trends, and we don’t ignore them either. Instead, we’re asking better questions about the value and impact we are creating and who benefits from our AI adoption.
Some organizations are getting real results from AI. But others are just generating noise.
For example, it’s excellent to see how Minnesota IT Services rolled out Microsoft 365 Government Copilot Chat to state agencies in a controlled and measurable manner.
Sitting amongst the founding members of the GovAI Coalition is our own City of Saint Paul CIO, Jaime Wascalus. Included in GovAI Coalition’s work is distributing templates and case studies to lead us toward AI maturity by helping us find our place amongst the shifting workforce landscape, and showing us the types of upskilling required of job seekers today. This collaboration, research and guidance make it clear that cutting through the brush on our own is not always needed, but instead we advance further, faster by discovering how AI already serves as a path for a changing workforce, upskilling, and measuring AI performance.
Meanwhile, let’s remember a recent MIT Media Lab experiment observed decreased neural engagement, diminished recall, and less creative work by ChatGPT users compared to non-ChatGPT users. Additionally, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that data center energy-consumption could double between 2022 and 2026, driven primarily by AI computing. For context, that’s more than the annual electricity consumption of entire countries like Japan or Germany.
And this is where Saint Paul can set the trend.
We should think about AI maturity before we hit enter. Are we expanding our ingenuity, or dumbing ourselves down? Are we magnifying our impact or being wildly inefficient at an organizational scale?
Let’s be confident and proud of our innovation. Let’s walk forward with our heads high and eyes fixed on AI maturity.
Can you share one piece of advice for tech workers and startup founders?
People simply want tomorrow to be better than today. I believe we have the resources, talents, and technologies to help them get there
Jonathan Banks
Founding Partner and President, NCXT
Jonathan Banks is the Founding Partner and President of NCXT, a people engagement and change enablement company headquartered in the Twin Cities. Jonathan is also the Ramsey County Workforce Innovation Board Chair Elect. Jonathan is known for his work with the covid-era Saint Paul Restaurant Resiliency project, and over 15+ years of public and private sector IT and organizational change leadership. At NCXT, Jonathan leads with the belief that a better tomorrow is built by aligning daily actions with ambitious strategic goals.