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"Start with Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) enterprise solutions. Embrace shadow AI." — Diana Cano, Ph.D., CIO Cambium Learning Group

How Do Organizations Successfully Implement AI?

In a series of articles over the next few months, I will provide an overview as well as real-world AI case studies and practical take-aways to help you and your organization survive, thrive, and produce ROI with AI.

Part 1 of this series highlighted research showing that AI is seeing a record level of investment. Nearly everyone is using AI at work. AI business usage is accelerating. AI is gaining traction everywhere it has value. So business leaders need to take AI seriously and quickly take action to get gains. You snooze, you lose.

Building an Innovation Culture with an Innovation Process

An organization's innovation culture can produce great results. I've built this kind of culture for various companies and can help you too. One important part of such a culture is implementing an innovation process. Firms typically follow these steps in their innovation process: insight, idea, innovation, introduction / implementation, and impact. Below are examples of how this works in action.

Cambium's AI Case Study to Improve Software Development

Cambium is a digital publisher for pre-K to 12 education solutions. It's a private portfolio company of Veritas Capital. Every day, Cambium helps more than 30M students and teachers across the country tackle the greatest challenges in education.

Cambium's Board gave the company an AI nudge. As good boards do, it had the insight to ask, "How are you using AI now? Where can you use it?"

To answer these questions, CIO Dr. Diana Cano had an idea. Conduct a situation analysis via a written survey of all the Business Units. The rolled-up results surfaced 60 projects using AI throughout the firm. The results were published to Business Unit tech leaders, so they could learn from each other, and also shared with the Board.

Here's one innovation that surfaced. Incorporate an AI Coding Assistant through the use of GitHub Copilot, an existing COTS service. This AI tool, used in software development and engineering via a trusted partner, was providing an impact of 25% productivity improvement. It translated to a huge, 30-minute time saving per test case.

Cambium Take-Aways for AI Implementation

	OFFER THE RIGHT PRODUCT. Embrace Shadow AI and find bottoms-up success stories. (Note that some firms find shadow AI controversial and risky. First check if this approach is in line with your firm's innovation culture.) Start with Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) enterprise solutions. These are pre-vetted and easy to adopt with low risk.
	FIND AND OFFER THE RIGHT INFORMATION. Establish strong partnerships with tech companies and get specific use cases from vendors. Determine where have they implemented AI and found ROI.
	OFFER THE RIGHT REWARD. Celebrate failures as well as successes. Fail early, often, and gracefully.

AI in Software Development

According to the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 62% of developers now actively use AI tools in their work — up from 44% last year — and 76% are using or planning to use them in 2025.

A GitHub sponsored study estimates 97% of dev teams have tried AI coding tools, with 90% of U.S. developers reporting improved code quality.

Code Generation and Productivity

Major tech firms (Google, Microsoft, Salesforce) confirm that 20%-30% of their new code is AI-generated. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff notes that AI performs 30%-50% of work at Salesforce, especially in engineering and service.

Enterprise surveys show that 75% of software executives claim AI tools cut development time by up to 50%. A Google-controlled trial found AI assistance reduced time-to-task by approximately 21% on complex assignments.

GitHub Copilot users accept about 30% of AI-generated suggestions, correlating to higher productivity. Estimations indicate that the adoption of generative AI productivity tools could potentially contribute to a $1.5 trillion increase in global GDP by 2030.

Role Shifts and High-Level Contributions

As AI handles routine tasks — such as automating repetitive processes, building user-facing apps, and testing — developers are pivoting to system design, architecture, UX, and other complex problem-solving. Research suggests AI frees up teams to focus on collaboration and onboarding activities.

Summary

AI is widely integrated and increasingly essential in software engineering. 60%-90% of developers are using it to produce 20%-30% or more of new code, resulting in 20%-50% faster development. AI also enhances code quality, testing, bug finding, and developer learning — allowing developers to focus on high-level design and complex tasks. Follow the lead of Cambium, start with commercial off-the-shelf solutions. Get started now.

Selected Events

July 21, 2025. Private Directors Association - Colorado Summer Social. Check back to register.

August 7, 2025. "Growth through Innovation: A Board's Role." Theresa speaks to the Latinos & Latinas Corporate Roundtable Meeting. By invitation only.

August 14, 2025. "Private-Equity Backed Boards." Private Directors Association of Colorado. Lunch and Learn. 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM MT. PDA members only. Check back to register.

Book Theresa to Coach, Speak, Facilitate, and Consult

See Theresa in action. Theresa's engaging presence, original stories, actionable insights, humor, wide ranging experiences, and practical pointers have earned her top speaker and consultant rankings at many events and with a wide-range of business clients. Let "The Catalyst for Extraordinary Results" help you and your organization thrive. Learn more at TMSworld.com and see a sample of Theresa's speaking programs.

As Evie Hudak, President of BPW said, "We at Business and Professional Women of Colorado highly recommend Theresa Szczurek to any organization looking for a facilitator or coach to help determine its path to the future. Theresa brings structure and flexibility, strategy and empathy, and most importantly, real-world experience that translates into meaningful growth. We were privileged to have her help our organization through a time of significant transition."

Emily Jarvis at GovLoop said, "Of all the keynoters I've worked with, Theresa is among the best."

Theresa M. Szczurek, Ph.D.
C-Level Executive, Certified Corporate Director, Certified Management Consultant®, Executive Coach, Speaker, and Colorado CIO of the Year

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