Most Teams Are Stuck at the Surface
They ask questions, generate drafts, and occasionally feel impressed.
Then the week gets busy and nothing changes.
Adoption only counts when it shows up in a workflow that runs with a predictable output and a review gate.
A maturity model helps because it turns vague ambition into a set of next steps.
Six Levels of Adoption
Level one is curiosity: using AI as a search and drafting tool.
Level two is templates: reusable prompts with clear formats.
Level three is workflows: triggers, owners, and approval gates.
Level four is evaluation: rubrics and test sets. Level five is orchestration: multiple tools and handoffs. Level six is compounding: weekly improvements that make the system smarter.
- Templates: foundation, situation, instruction.
- Workflows: trigger, inputs, outputs, escalation.
- Gates: approval before execution.
- Evaluation: rubric plus test set.
- Review: weekly fix and update.
How to Move Up One Level
Do not try to jump from chat to automation everywhere.
Move one level at a time on one workflow.
If you are at templates, add an approval gate and an owner. If you are at workflows, add evaluation.
This is how you build capability that survives tool changes and staff changes.
A 30 Day Path
Week one: convert one recurring task into a template with a clear output format.
Week two: add a gate and assign ownership.
Week three: build a small test set and score outputs.
Week four: improve the biggest failure mode and document the workflow so someone else can run it.
Bottom Line
Pick one workflow and move it up one level in 30 days: template, gate, evaluation, and documentation. That is real adoption.