IWU National & Global

AI Delivers More Value When People Lead the Process

Kurtis was building a communication plan. I know that's not the most interesting start to the story, but stick with me here. It gets interesting.

Kurtis is not your average employee. He is what many would call a high performer. Others might call him an overachiever, but he didn't stop at just building what he was asked. This communication plan was intended for people who were interested in attending the university where we work. As part of the application process, many learners can qualify for financial aid. Financial aid requires a form filed with the federal government called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Many refer to it as the FAFSA.

Kurtis knew exactly what the learner needed to hear. He used to work in the very role for which he was building this communication plan. Instead of generating the content on his own, he reached out to the specialists.

If you've never worked with a university financial aid office, imagine this. You are responsible for manually processing and ensuring that the information received through the federal government is true and accurate. You are also responsible for occasionally collecting additional documentation, such as paycheck stubs or tax documents, to verify that information. There are different types of aid, including loans, subsidized aid, unsubsidized aid, grants, federal aid, state aid and even program-specific grants. Not only are these teams processing this information, but they are also responsible for emails, both external and internal, while handling massive volumes of phone calls. Essentially, they are busy.

When Kurtis reached out to this department, he did not simply ask what they wanted to communicate to prospective students. He gave them something to work with. He leveraged AI to draft a statement, verified it with other individuals who understood what information should and should not be included and then presented it to the busy department so they could review it, make adjustments and ensure it was compliant, helpful and useful.

Why Traditional Collaboration Slows Progress

That was a real scenario. Now, let me describe a more "realistic" scenario that has played out in most organizations, including ours, until recently.

Most of the time, requests like this would never be initiated unless they came directly from the department that needed the communication. That required this already overloaded department to understand the organization's technology capabilities, its multichannel communication tools, the content that needed to be created and the timing that would make the communication effective.

“The real breakthrough is not raw speed. It is that the person managing the systems begins with something instead of nothing.”

To send the initial notification and the necessary follow-up communications, these teams needed expertise that extended beyond financial aid. They also needed the ability to communicate that expertise in a way that translated complicated financial aid processes into language that prospective students could easily understand.

The request would begin a dialogue between the department and the team responsible for building the campaign, but responses were often delayed. That was not because anyone lacked commitment or respect. It was because the pace of day-to-day work was so demanding that creating even a small amount of capacity for preventive communication felt nearly impossible.

The back-and-forth process often stretched across weeks. Time was spent building an idea, gathering feedback from the department, returning revisions to the marketing office and then waiting while the marketing team coordinated additional requests with the technology team. Something that appeared very simple from the learner's perspective could easily take weeks or even months to complete.

AI Accelerates Organizations That Are Already Connected

AI amplifies an organization. Technology amplifies an organization. In the organization where I work, I have seen conversations that once took weeks happen in minutes. I have seen builds that once required days completed in minutes. The real breakthrough is not raw speed. It is that the person managing the systems begins with something instead of nothing. That gives people the opportunity to apply their creativity, ingenuity and innovation to work they genuinely enjoy.

Those words were intentional. AI amplifies an organization. Technology amplifies an organization. Simply giving people these tools does not automatically reduce weeks to minutes or days to minutes.

The reality is that organizations need communication structures and business processes capable of supporting the amplification that AI enables. When organizations do the difficult work of understanding where departments struggle to communicate, and when they give those teams both the permission and the capability to work together effectively, they unlock the significant efficiency gains that AI and technology can provide.

Alignment Determines AI Success

For a 10x person on your team, AI can multiply the impact of their work. For a confused person on your team, AI will simply multiply the confusion. The teams and organizations that will benefit most from this technology are the ones that are aligned, empowered and willing to take ownership of their work.

Before investing in the latest AI tools or chasing every new innovation, take a moment to reflect on your organization's existing dysfunctions. Imagine what would happen if those dysfunctions were suddenly operating at ten times their current speed. Make sure you are strapping a motor onto a boat instead of throwing one at someone who is drowning.