I can finally talk about something that has been very dear to my heart for almost a year. Uff! Where do I actually start?
As most of you know, next to publishing my personal and privately run weekly newsletter here on LinkedIn, I had been heavily involved in numerous internal and external talks, keynotes, discussion sessions, Promptathons, and workshops on (generative) artificial intelligence. Counting 2024 only, it all added up to roughly 100 speeches that aimed to inspire listeners and get them to think creatively but also critically about the advent of the AI age ahead of us. There is no denying, we are all going full steam ahead in this direction, and this will change everything, from your personal to your professional lives.
Now, talking is one thing, DOING is most of the time something completely different. This dawned on me quite early as colleagues asked for practical and at times very specific support in their field of expertise (of which I didn’t know a thing tbh). So it became clear that one speaker, one passionate individual will not suffice looking at what’s ahead of us. The solution seemed simple: we needed to scale AI expertise from the ground up. Establish a grass-roots movement that transcended various levels of the organization.
Brainstorming together with my dear „partners in crime“ Sindy Leffler-Krebs and Stefan Dörken, we created, conceptualized, and put into action the „AI-Pioneers“ – an initiative to translate Tim Höttges‘ battle cry for putting AI front and center at Deutsche Telekom into tangible action. The idea: cross-company AI-enablement by establishing and cultivating AI passion and expertise at team-level, leveraging a franchising-like concept by supporting each AI-Pioneer with the means, methods, and tools to learn about AI and also to teach others in their teams about it. Together with the Telekom Academy, we created learning modules, a three-tier level system, and tons of learning materials while talking to our union partners to really establish a reputable and serious approach for individual learning within the company.
Yesterday we celebrated our kick-off with around 375 colleagues, and I was floored seeing so many motivated and passionate people from all across the company attend. A huge shout out to our Service Development and Innovation lead Peter Meier van Esch who gave the opening speech for the event – what else can you wish for? It was just perfect, and I cannot really find the right words to explain how it feels to see a team grow around an idea that eventually grows and blooms into something tangible.
But the real work only started! I am super hyped and filled with excitement to see our first learning session take place this Thursday.
So:
Here’s to you all, my fellow AI-PIONEERS!
👍 YOU GOT THIS! 👍