"You can just do things."

It's a throwaway line, but it became a bit of a catchphrase in my team, and it genuinely changed how we work.

When AI tools started showing up in design and research, a lot of us were quietly worried. The tools could write the copy, mock up the screen, run the analysis. All things people had spent years getting good at. The obvious response is to argue that the human is irreplaceable. We did the opposite and went and learned the tools instead.

This session is what we actually did, in five steps.

Get everyone on the same tool. When one person works something out, everyone else can copy it that afternoon.

Show people the good stuff, not just the basics. If all you ever demonstrate is a better spellcheck, that's all anyone will use it for.

Get proper permission from leadership. People experiment much more freely once they know they're allowed to.

Encourage people to use AI at home, on things that don't matter. That's where the confidence comes from, not from training.

Build a habit instead of running an event. We do a small experiment every week. A group of people from different teams also got together to learn this properly and then teach everyone else, on top of their normal jobs. Nobody got a budget or a new title.

None of this needs a technical background. You'll get something out of this talk you can try yourself.

David Mulholland, Associate Director, Service Transformation, Enterprise Services Group