Marcus Bailey, head of cloud solutions at Prosperity 24/7, introduces a framework designed to help organisations adopt AI effectively
AS I work more closely with boards and executive teams looking to implement AI, I keep noticing the same moment in meetings. Someone announces the organisation is “going all-in on AI”. Heads nod. A licence is bought, a pilot is launched and, six months later, the excitement has quietly fizzled.
It’s rarely for want of trying. The pressure to be seen doing something with AI is enormous and comes from everywhere: the boardroom, clients, internal teams experimenting independently and competitors claiming they have already cracked it. There is no single right way to go about it, so plenty of organisations dive in with no real structure. That’s where the problems start: pilots that lead nowhere, tools nobody uses and a creeping suspicion the whole thing was oversold.
Therefore, we built our ADAPT framework as a way of guiding organisations from “we should probably do something about AI” to “we genuinely couldn’t work without it”. The five stages of the framework spell ADAPT to demonstrate that every organisation’s AI journey is an evolution, not a switch you flip.
The first stage is Awareness, which is about getting AI onto the agenda and building genuine curiosity. This means involving everyone, not just the tech-curious few. Leaders need to understand what AI means for strategy and risk. The rest of the team needs to understand how it will be useful day to day. At this stage, the message needs to work for each audience, so the whole organisation moves together, rather than a handful of enthusiasts sprinting off ahead.
Stage two is about Design, Development and Data. This is where the real work happens. Data is the fuel on which AI runs. If the foundations aren’t right, no amount of clever tools will give you the results you’re looking for.
Once your data is in the right shape, robust products and rapid prototypes become far more valuable.
The third stage is Assurance. This stage is about embedding AI into your organisation responsibly. It means putting the right governance, risk controls and guardrails in place to protect the organisation, without strangling progress. The art is in getting the balance right and in line with the regulations we need to adhere to.
People and Adoption is stage four and the one everyone underestimates. Simply implementing new AI tools won’t change anything. This is where you ned to understand capability, levels of confidence across the organisation and who your champions are. It is also about having honest conversations about how processes can change and where technology can add most value.
And finally, Traction. Stage five is possibly the hardest part: making the change stick and proving it worked. It is also quite often the stage organisations skip entirely, which is why so many AI initiatives quietly die. But if you get the first four right, you build the foundation for AI that genuinely lasts, can be measured, effectively adopted, and pay its way.
ADAPT is a flexible framework with no single right entry point, only the right next step. The organisations that win with AI won’t be the ones that bought it first. They’ll be the ones that adapted best.
