Engaging for success: building a supportive culture around GenAI

GenAI has entered the mainstream of business activity. McKinsey recently reported that 88% of organizations use the technology in at least one function (although only one-third have started to scale these initiatives) . The remaining 12% should be in no doubt that turning a blind eye to this revolution is not an option. Furthermore, ongoing training is required to create impactful change, and this is an area where Orange Business can bring its own experience to bear in the form of its Digital Services School. The results of these efforts will be greater GenAI adoption – and greater value creation. 

When GenAI isn’t officially provided, employees often turn to unsanctioned solutions to get their work done. This phenomenon, known as ‘shadow GenAI’, carries significant risks and can lead to data breaches, compliance failures, and exposure to unreliable outputs. Recent studies reveal that companies significantly under-estimate the amount of work being carried out with unauthorized tools, with some reports indicating more than half of employees would use GenAI regardless of company policy. Secure, enterprise-sanctioned GenAI options address these risks and provide organizations with the visibility they need to understand where the technology is delivering value.

Successfully adopting GenAI isn’t as simple as deploying a new tool. Trust is the cornerstone of any culture and, at the very start of the internal roll-out of our in-house GenAI tool – Live Intelligence – we issued a Responsible AI charter that set out the general principles on AI use applicable within the company. Our experience is that there is no adoption with trust and no value creation without adoption: so, trust isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s fundamental to delivering successful outcomes from your GenAI investments. You can read more about this topic in our executive briefing paper, ‘The Adoption Advantage: Why GenAI’s true value lies in everyone’s hands’.

Employees will be more disposed to using GenAI if they know they can trust the outputs and that their data is being protected; and surveys consistently show that a majority of employees who use GenAI report a positive impact on their work lives – and the more they use the tool, the more positive they are likely to feel towards it. For example, PwC’s 2025 Global Workforce Hopes & Fears Survey found that daily users are much more likely to see tangible benefits such as improved productivity (92%), job security (58%), and salary (52%%) compared with infrequent users for whom the same figures were 58%, 36%, and 32%. 

It’s also important to remember that your workforce is not a monolithic entity. As Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn founder and noted AI entrepreneur, points out, employees exhibit a range of attitudes towards AI, from sceptics (‘doomers’ and ‘gloomers’) to enthusiastic early adopters (‘zoomers’ and ‘bloomers’). Engaging each group requires tailored communication and support. For instance, providing reassurance and clear guidelines can help address concerns among the cautious, while advanced training and opportunities to lead can motivate those eager to innovate. A one-size-fits-all approach will not succeed – personalized engagement is key.

With governance and communications in place, you can address the wider change management issues of GenAI implementation. At Orange Business, we encourage a spirit of grassroots innovation: Live Intelligence promotes collaboration by allowing employees to share the results of their GenAI experiments with colleagues around the company. We were quick to identify and support GenAI champions, adjusting job descriptions to recognize the time they were investing in evangelizing this new technology. We also had the very active involvement of CEO, Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, to underline the importance of GenAI to our corporate strategy. 

Of course, access to GenAI tools is only transformative when employees feel supported and properly trained. Surveys reveal a significant gap: most workers lack the confidence and training needed to use these technologies effectively, which hampers productivity and increases costs. Orange has recognized this challenge, investing heavily in comprehensive GenAI training – offered through webinars, formal classes, and mentoring. With over 50,000 employees trained across 28 countries and 12,000 hours of education delivered, the initiative has built a critical mass of skilled trainers, accelerating adoption and innovation throughout the organization.

These training programs go beyond technical skills, emphasizing ethical usage, bias awareness, and responsible AI practices. This multi-faceted approach ensures employees are not only competent but also confident, paving the way for a truly AI-literate workforce and unlocking the technology’s full potential. These programs are designed to facilitate career transitions into AI expert roles and to provide comprehensive upskilling and reskilling resources.

This same training is available to customers via the Orange Business Digital Services School, which offers three major learning paths in Generative and Agentic AI. These range from a three-day course on GenAI Fundamentals to a certification in Development Engineering for Generative & Agentic AI which might take as long as six weeks. Over the past three years, we have conducted over 250 AI projects for more than 150 different clients in a wide range of industry sectors, all of which were designed to facilitate career transitions into AI expert roles and to provide clients with comprehensive upskilling and reskilling resources. 

Two years after its 2023 launch, Live Intelligence has become an integral part of our organization: 12,000 to 15,000 employees use it daily, and it has up to 48,000 unique users each month. This vibrant community has created over 20,000 personal AI agents that support not only office roles but for tasks such as automating site visit reports for our field engineers. Overall, these efforts are delivering real, measurable benefits – saving employees an average of two hours per week. Today, a remarkable 33% of all Orange Business employees are fully trained in this technology, with the target of increasing this figure to 50% by the end of 2025. 

Our experience shows that the future belongs to organizations that embrace GenAI not just as a tool, but as a catalyst for cultural and operational transformation. By tackling the risks of shadow IT head-on, investing in thoughtful change management, recognizing the diversity of employee attitudes, and providing structured learning opportunities, business leaders can build a resilient, AI-ready workforce. Orange Business’s example shows that, with the right approach, GenAI can drive both innovation and productivity.