Making AI Work for People and Business – Smart Cookies with Nicole A. Donnelly

In this episode of Smart Cookies, Nicole A. Donnelly, founder of AI Smart Ventures, joins Derek to share lessons from training more than 20,000 people on AI. From hands-on learning and practical implementation to measuring ROI and Return on Heartbeats (ROH), Nicole explores how organizations can accelerate adoption while making room for human creativity, curiosity, and connection.

Key Select Takeaways

• Training alone is not enough. People need a live lab session alongside formal training: a recurring space where they can bring real work problems, see how colleagues are using AI, and experiment without consequence. Most organizations will not dedicate one hour a week to this. The ones that do see the fastest adoption.
• Sharing is the real catalyst. The average worker is not part of communities where AI use cases get shared. When organizations create internal spaces for that sharing, adoption accelerates faster than any communication plan or training curriculum alone.
• Start with the pain, not the technology. Nicole’s approach is to map the internal or external customer journey, identify the biggest bottleneck, apply AI there first, and then move to the next one. Proposals, customer service, and newsletter production are common starting points. Strategy follows a 12-month project roadmap with two-week implementation sprints.
• ROI and ROH both matter. Return on investment and return on heartbeats. Measuring success means tracking both time saved and workplace satisfaction. Surveys before and after every training session, usage data, NPS, and time-to-value metrics all tell part of the story.
• The human in the loop is a choice. AI could do more than most organizations allow it to do. Nicole chooses specific points in her delivery where humans remain: reading every survey before entering a room, reviewing every piece of content before it goes out. The question every organization should answer is: where is your magic, and where will it always be human?
• Curiosity is the skill that matters most. In three years, the people who will thrive are the ones who stayed curious. Not the most technical, not the most senior, but the ones willing to keep asking what else is possible. That applies to individuals navigating their own careers and to organizations deciding what kind of workforce they want to build.

If you’re working through these decisions or other AI items in your organization, the partnership between K/G Digital and AI Smart Ventures provides an end-to-end ability to address the challenges of realizing the full potential of AI.  Reach out to us to begin the discussion:  Email K/G digital – AI Smart Ventures