How One Organization Solved Uneven AI Adoption Across Their Teams
At a Glance
Challenge: Uneven AI adoption and inconsistent skill levels across the organization, despite months of ChatGPT access.
Solution: Custom AI training delivered at a national conference and across beginner, advanced, and role-specific virtual sessions, with interactive labs throughout.
Results: Broader, more consistent AI adoption organization-wide, with staff at all skill levels gaining practical confidence and the executive communications team equipped with purpose-built skills.
The Business Problem: Why Uneven AI Adoption Persists After a ChatGPT Rollout
Our client had done something many organizations struggle to do: they gave their people access to an AI platform, in this case ChatGPT. But access wasn’t the same as adoption, and the uneven AI adoption that followed the initial rollout created its own set of challenges.
Some employees were using the ChatGPT heavily and seeing real value. Others had barely touched it. Leadership also had growing concerns about shadow AI, staff turning to unauthorized tools outside of approved environments. And as peer organizations accelerated their AI efforts, they didn’t want to be left behind.
The problem wasn’t the tool. It was that people had been handed something powerful without the context, skills, or confidence to use it well. Uneven AI adoption isn’t just a technology problem, it’s a human one as well.
Objective: A Training Program Built to Close the AI Adoption Gap
Our client engaged Cascade Insights®® to design and deliver a structured AI training program that would directly address uneven AI adoption across the organization, moving staff toward more consistent, confident use while meeting them where they were, regardless of their starting point.
The goal was more than simply to increase tool usage. It was to build real organizational capability around AI, with employees who understood where AI creates leverage, what should and shouldn’t be delegated to it, and how to apply it responsibly within their specific roles.
The Solution: Custom AI Training Designed for Every Level of AI Maturity
We began with a high-profile opening: presenting three times throughout the day in a breakout session at the client’s national conference in New York City. This established a shared foundation across the team, a consistent understanding of what to delegate to AI and how to use ChatGPT’s capabilities, regardless of business role. Establishing that common baseline was the first step toward closing the adoption gap.
In the month following the conference, the program continued with a series of virtual training sessions, each built for a different level of AI maturity:
- Beginner sessions for staff with limited prior AI experience, starting with the fundamentals and building confidence through hands-on practice.
- Advanced sessions for staff who had already been using ChatGPT for one to two years, focused on deeper techniques, more sophisticated prompting, and expanding their use cases.
- Executive Communications training, a fully custom session purpose-built for the team supporting the Office of the CEO. This wasn’t a modified version of another session. It was designed from the ground up, with unique exercises, role-specific scenarios, and a flow built entirely around the demands of executive-level communications work.
Every session was custom-built for this client. No off-the-shelf curriculum was repackaged and delivered. Training was grounded in their specific workflows, used organization-relevant examples, and included interactive labs where participants applied what they were learning in real time. The focus throughout was on practical application, not generic AI demonstrations.
The Results: From Uneven AI Adoption to Organizational Capability
Following the training program, the client saw a meaningful shift in how staff engaged with AI. The pattern of uneven AI adoption gave way to something more consistent across the organization, not just among early adopters, but broadly. Staff at every skill level left with practical skills they could apply immediately.
The executive communications team gained a training experience built entirely around their work, giving them tools and habits directly relevant to supporting the Office of the CEO. And by delivering high-quality, relevant training within approved tools, the organization reduced the incentive for staff to seek out unauthorized alternatives.
Most importantly, the client moved from scattered access to organizational capability, with an increasing number of people who understand not just how to use AI, but how to apply it purposefully and responsibly within their specific roles.