The AskIBM beta release was launched in May 2024. With the beta release the CIO organization delivered a unified user experience by having a single-entry point for all IBM employees to automate tasks to help increase productivity. Users can now go to one place to summarize, translate and create content, draft documents, chat with documents, find information and access other strategic digital assistants. Turning this type of work over to AskIBM helps to focus attention on more high-value activities.
Interestingly though, initial results showed that AskIBM performed well, but a roadblock to additional success was behavioral. The key to getting the most value out of AskIBM is using natural language to create clear and intentional prompts that provide the context needed to generate effective answers. However, at first many IBM employees searched using single or double keyword-based queries rather than natural language queries. In fact, upon release, natural language queries only accounted for 2–4% of the questions asked, but as a result of education and training, this amount increased to around 10% by the end of January 2024. Through continuing education, training and hands-on use, IBM employees are steadily adapting to this new way of working.
The CIO organization’s experience designing, developing and deploying AskIBM has yielded valuable lessons we can share with IBM clients worldwide. These include:
- Being adaptable and open to managing and incorporating approved changes while in development
- Making effective decisions by having the right people involved to expedite decision-making and foster collaborative teamwork to support a scaled enterprise initiative
- Creating a scalable solution by scoping a larger effort and employing a manageable, phased approach to development and user onboarding based on performance results and stress testing
- Prioritizing organizational change management from the beginning to plan education and training to help users adopt new AI technology and ways of working