Beyond Buzzwords: From hype to purposeful AI in the workplace

Sumaiya works in the CEO's office, handling a steady flow of board documents, memos, and executive briefs. Her role demands not only accuracy but also speed, good judgment, and clarity. During board meeting season, the workload can become overwhelming—dozens of reports to scrutinise, summaries to prepare, and memos to draft, often extending late into the night. Her biggest fear used to be those weeks of back-to-back board sessions, where she had to condense hundreds of pages into manageable notes for senior leaders while still producing detailed reports for her colleagues.

Today, her routine looks quite different. With the assistance of Microsoft Copilot, she can summarise hundreds of memos in an hour, saving valuable time and mental energy. Instead of drowning in paperwork, she now concentrates on helping the executive board sharpen priorities and prepare for discussions that matter. The impact is significant: higher quality work, more mental space for creativity, and even the ability to leave the office on time and spend evenings with her family.

Shabab, on the other hand, is an analyst in the Business Intelligence team. His job involves sifting through hundreds of reports each week, transforming raw data into insights for business managers. In the past, this entailed long nights of analysing spreadsheets, creating charts, and preparing presentations for early morning reviews. Nowadays, AI and robotics have altered his workflow. By the time Shabab joins his morning meeting, his analysis has already been processed, visualised, and automatically shared with the relevant managers by 8 a.m. Instead of being bogged down with manual tasks, he now focuses on interpreting insights, challenging assumptions, and helping business teams make smarter decisions.

Sumaiya and Shabab's stories reveal a larger truth. AI is not just about efficiency—it is about fundamentally transforming how employees work, freeing them from repetitive and dull tasks so they can concentrate on creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving. For this change to truly succeed, organisations must foster a culture that inspires employees about AI rather than deters them.

Building a Culture of Curiosity, Not Fear

AI often comes with risks and, even more frequently, with fear. Many employees worry that the tasks they currently do will soon be replaced by AI, rendering their roles redundant. This is a natural response—and if left unaddressed, it can quietly hinder an organisation's progress towards the future.

Research supports this concern. A PwC study found that 37% of workers worry their jobs are at risk due to automation and AI, even as most recognise its potential to make work easier. Meanwhile, surveys show that nearly 60% of employees believe AI will enhance their job satisfaction by reducing repetitive tasks. This duality—fear and optimism—highlights the importance of leadership in shaping the narrative.

Senior leadership has a responsibility here. They must help employees understand that AI is not a substitute for people but a tool that depends on human guidance and judgment. AI cannot operate independently; it requires guidance, context, and human judgment. The true strength of AI comes from people who know how to steer it towards productivity and meaningful outcomes.

This means organisations need to invest in training, awareness, and practice. Employees should be encouraged to experiment with AI tools, fail safely, and learn continually. Only then will fear transform into empowerment, and scepticism into curiosity.

Then what?

We all remember the long hospital queues—paying bills, filling out forms, choosing tests—an exhausting ordeal for patients already burdened with anxiety. Consider a modern hospital example. Patients can now book appointments, select their doctors, pay bills, and even receive test results through an AI-powered kiosk or agent. The staff who previously managed these administrative tasks are not rendered irrelevant; instead, they are freed to focus more on what matters most—helping critical patients, managing emergencies, and providing compassionate care.

This shift exemplifies what AI should mean for organisations in Bangladesh: reducing administrative burdens so people can concentrate on work that requires empathy, creativity, and human care.

The 4Ps of AI: Purpose, Prototyping, Pivoting, Perfecting

My own journey has taught me that AI adoption without a framework often leads to failure. Globally, studies suggest that 70–80% of AI projects fail—not because the technology is flawed, but because organisations jump in without clarity of purpose, the right team, or leadership sponsorship.

Every organisation is unique. Before rushing into AI, leaders must first ask:

• What are the biggest challenges our business faces today?
• What can't we do well now that AI might help us do better?

That is where the first P—Purpose—comes in. AI initiatives must start with a clear link to business priorities.

From there, organisations must move into Prototyping—testing real use cases on a small scale. Not everything will work, and that is okay. The key is to learn quickly.

The third P, Pivoting, is about adapting. When pilots reveal new insights, leaders must be willing to shift focus rather than stubbornly push through.

Finally, Perfecting—continuous refinement until the initiative delivers real impact. Transformation requires patience, management attention, and above all, the right people. Quality matters more than quantity. A few passionate, curious, adaptive talents can often move the AI agenda further than a large, half-committed team.

The Practical Roadmap: Where to Begin

So how do you start? From my experience, the most effective approach is to:

• Identify a handful of everyday pain points (e.g., HR queries, travel approvals, meeting summaries).
• Form a cross-functional "AI squad"—your internal ninjas who dream up use cases and inspire management with possibilities.
• Start small, show quick wins, and scale gradually.

This roadmap is not about replacing people; it is about equipping them with tools to do better, more fulfilling work.

Where Is the Money? How Much to Burn?

The next question is always: how much should we invest?

Businesses should treat AI investments like their Horizon 3 bets—the initiatives that prepare them for the next 3–5 years. This doesn't require massive budgets upfront. It requires deliberate, phased spending.

McKinsey research shows that companies who invest in AI consistently see 10–20% productivity gains, but only after building conviction through smaller, successful pilots. For example, imagine a simple AI agent guiding employees on HR processes—travel bookings, bill settlements, memo approvals. If that saves thousands of hours across the organisation, it becomes a powerful case for scaling further. Investments should follow feasibility and impact, not hype.

Rushing Without Guardrails??

While the promise of AI is exciting, we must also recognise the risks of adopting it without the right governance and knowledge. Poorly guided AI can create misleading outputs, data-quality problems, and privacy risks—ultimately eroding trust among employees and customers. Global studies show many AI projects collapse not from lack of usage, but from weak governance.

That's why businesses must build strong data management and governance in parallel with AI—clarify data ownership, clean and secure datasets, set access rules, and monitor model outputs. Building this discipline early ensures that when adoption accelerates, it does so responsibly, with clear guardrails and trust at the core

The Bangladesh Context: Complex but Necessary

Of course, in Bangladesh, this journey is not simple. Manual ways of working remain common, and for many organisations, human resource costs are cheaper than technology investments. But that logic cannot last forever.

To move forward, we need to build AI literacy among employees and create leaders who can bring their people along on this journey. It is not only about business efficiency but also about long-term employee well-being. When employees are freed from repetitive drudgery, they gain time and energy for meaningful, creative work. That is how we build healthier, more resilient organisations.

A Closing Reflection: It's for us, humans

AI is not here to take away jobs — it is here to transform them. The opportunity before us in Bangladesh is immense: to enhance our professional culture, improve employee well-being, and elevate the quality of our work to a whole new level.

This does not mean replacing our workforce. It means inspiring and engaging them, providing the tools and confidence to use AI effectively. By training staff and fostering curiosity, we can unlock creativity, innovation, and a renewed sense of pride in our work.

A great opportunity lies ahead. The question is: will we approach it with fear, or with curiosity and courage?

Author is Special Advisor, Telenor Nordics, OSLO, Norway; Ex CMO of Grameenphone, Bangladesh.