Who owns the company's version?
Getting AI working for one person is the easy bit. Making it something a whole company can use starts with deciding who owns the company's version and what's in it.
I was in a training session on Monday, going through what I've built for a client, and someone asked how they share what each of them builds.
It's the right question. It's come up at another company I work with too.
Nobody at either place was hiding anything. Someone had worked out a good way of doing a job and taught the assistant how they like it done. That setup sits on their machine, under their account, and a fair bit of it lives in their head. It works really well for them. Getting it to the person at the next desk is a different job.
The owner at the other company told me early on that the last thing they wanted was for the system to be theirs. Fair enough. Some of what I've built there still runs off my own account though, so I can't get too smug about this. At the first company, some of the work sat under one person's personal account until it got moved. It's an easy thing to let happen, and I've done it.
I'd settle who owns the company's version and what's in it before I trained anyone. Train people first and I reckon each of them goes off and builds their own. A few months later you've got several personal setups and still no shared one.
Working out what's in it is dull. Someone has to read through the setup and ask what each part assumes. Some of it only makes sense for one client, one folder, or the way one person reads a report. Some of it is judgement the company wants to keep. Some of it is a shortcut nobody else should inherit.
The company's version will also be plainer than the one on the keen person's laptop, because anything only they understand has to come out. Someone has to decide what's agreed and consistent before it gets shared, and that'll slow the keen people down. I reckon that's fine.
When I build these now, I keep personal shortcuts and machine-specific paths out from the start, so it can be handed on without a rewrite. If you want to see what I'm building on, I've written up my own system.
So now I ask two questions early. Who owns the company's version? What happens to it when that person's on leave?
Frequently asked questions
- How do people in a company share an AI setup?
- Decide who owns the company's version first. Then someone reads through the setup that's working and sorts it: what only makes sense for one client or one person, what's judgement the company wants to keep, and what's a shortcut nobody else should inherit.
- Should we train the team on AI before sharing a setup?
- I'd settle who owns the company's version and what's in it before training anyone. If people get trained first, I reckon each of them goes off and builds their own, and a few months later you've got several personal setups and still no shared one.
- Who should own the company's AI setup?
- Someone has to be named, and the company has to know what happens to it when that person is on leave. Those are the two questions I ask early.
- Will a shared AI setup slow down the people who are already good at it?
- Yes, a bit. The company's version will be plainer than the one on the keen person's laptop, and someone has to decide what's agreed and consistent before it gets shared. I reckon that's fine.