e&

2024 - 2026

Accelerating AI adoption using personas

Adoption across a group of 9,000+ people was never going to be one programme. I built personas for the main stakeholder groups at e&, mapped where each one was starting from and what was actually stopping them, then designed a different route in for each.

Role

Adoption Lead

Timeline

2024 - 2026

Role

Adoption Lead

Timeline

2024 - 2026

Overview

Starting with the people we are designing for

To accelerate AI adoption across e&, I started by identifying the people we needed to bring on the journey with us. Rather than treat the organisation as one audience, I built six personas based on the real stakeholder groups I was working with, from the C-suite through to the wider workforce, so I could design initiatives around what each group actually needed rather than run a single generic programme at everyone.

Step 1

Talk to people

Spoke directly with leaders, team leads, and employees to understand where each group actually stood with AI.

Step 2

Build the personas

Grouped the recurring patterns into six personas, from CXOs to the wider workforce.

Step 3

Design for each group

Built a distinct initiative for every persona instead of running one programme at everyone.

CXOs and Senior Leaders

Persona #1: Leader Lateef

Expected to lead on AI before he has used it much himself. He wants to set the example for his team, but he will not put his name to something he cannot point to results for.

What he needed: To feel genuinely part of the AI journey, not just informed about it from the sidelines. He wanted to learn, but he needed that learning tied to real evidence of impact before he would advocate for it publicly.

Why he mattered: Nothing below the top would move until leadership owned this themselves rather than leaving it to IT. In my conversations with leaders like Lateef, the appetite was already there, what was missing was real understanding of AI, and proof he could point to before he'd put his name to it.

Solution 1

Launch AI and Disruptive Technology Council

My team set up a council chaired by the Group CEO, with all of his direct reports as members, meeting bi-monthly. Each session brought in guest speakers from consultancies to walk through current global AI trends, followed by open discussion among the CXOs on what they were seeing both inside and outside the organisation.

Members (names have been blurred for confidentiality)

My role

I acted as Council Secretary. I organised every session, shaped the agenda so it stayed engaging and aligned to the organisation's AI strategy, took the minutes, and circulated clear next steps to the CXOs ahead of the following meeting.

Solution 1

Launch AI and Disruptive Technology Council

My team set up a council chaired by the Group CEO, with all of his direct reports as members, meeting bi-monthly. Each session brought in guest speakers from consultancies to walk through current global AI trends, followed by open discussion among the CXOs on what they were seeing both inside and outside the organisation.

Members (names have been blurred for confidentiality)

My role

I acted as Council Secretary. I organised every session, shaped the agenda so it stayed engaging and aligned to the organisation's AI strategy, took the minutes, and circulated clear next steps to the CXOs ahead of the following meeting.

Solution 2

e&'s 2030 AI Roadmap Workshops

Working with a consultancy, we ran 50+ workshops across every business vertical and support function to map with the CXO's and their heads what each team was already doing in AI, where the real potential sat, and what their pain points were. Those pain points became the basis for a roadmap of prioritised use cases, sequenced across three waves, wave one covering the first two years, waves two and three carrying through to 2030, each with an estimated financial impact attached.

AI Roadmap (blurred for confidentiality)

My role

I partnered with the consultancy to design and facilitate the workshops, coordinated with stakeholders throughout, and built the key presentation slides. From what came out of those sessions I helped shape the final roadmap, translating the pain points we heard into the prioritised, wave-based structure with financial impact attached.

Solution 2

e&'s 2030 AI Roadmap Workshops

Working with a consultancy, we ran 50+ workshops across every business vertical and support function to map with the CXO's and their heads what each team was already doing in AI, where the real potential sat, and what their pain points were. Those pain points became the basis for a roadmap of prioritised use cases, sequenced across three waves, wave one covering the first two years, waves two and three carrying through to 2030, each with an estimated financial impact attached.

AI Roadmap (blurred for confidentiality)

My role

I partnered with the consultancy to design and facilitate the workshops, coordinated with stakeholders throughout, and built the key presentation slides. From what came out of those sessions I helped shape the final roadmap, translating the pain points we heard into the prioritised, wave-based structure with financial impact attached.

Demo of AI Use Cases Repository

I designed an AI Use Cases Repository based on the Roadmap for visibility on the prioritised domains and use cases.

Team Members

Persona #2: Reluctant Ramy

Ramy has done things his way for years and doesn't see how AI would fit into how he actually works. He isn't against AI, but he needs proof before he'll trust it with something this important.

What he needed: The chance to test the tool hands-on, and to try to catch it out, before he would trust it with a process he had spent years refining.

Why he mattered: Team-level buy-in decided whether any of this actually worked. In my conversations with people like Ramy, the resistance wasn't to AI itself, it was to handing a careful, high-stakes process to something new without proof it wouldn't get it wrong. A tool doesn't earn the right to touch a process like his just because it exists, it has to earn trust first.

Solution

HR and Admin Chatbot

Once the 2030 roadmap had identified priority use cases, we built a working prototype of a support bot integrated into Microsoft Teams to answer frequently asked questions directed to HR and Admin teams.

Screenshot of demo session

My role

Once the tech team had a working prototype built into Microsoft Teams, I ran the onboarding workshops with separate teams directly on the live tool. I captured the questions and errors they hit in real use and fed that back to the tech team, which shaped the next round of development before launch.

Solution

HR and Admin Chatbot

Once the 2030 roadmap had identified priority use cases, we built a working prototype of a support bot integrated into Microsoft Teams to answer frequently asked questions directed to HR and Admin teams.

Screenshot of demo session

My role

Once the tech team had a working prototype built into Microsoft Teams, I ran the onboarding workshops with separate teams directly on the live tool. I captured the questions and errors they hit in real use and fed that back to the tech team, which shaped the next round of development before launch.

Innovators and Techies

Persona #3: Innovator Inaya

A trailblazing AI advocate, already reaping the benefits and inspiring others to follow suit.

What she needed: Real projects to keep pushing on, not just workshops, and a formal channel to mentor others rather than advocate informally on the side.

Why she mattered: Peer proof lands in a way a leadership announcement never does. In my conversations with innovators like Inaya, the results were already there, she simply had no stage to put them on. Giving her that stage did double duty. It didn't just spread what she knew, it moved her own contribution from doing the work herself to shaping how others did it, which is where her time started to matter more.

Solution

AI Think Tank

I set up an AI think tank to give people like Inaya, already getting results with AI on their own, a formal home to build on that further. From 200 employees who put themselves forward, 65 were shortlisted into the programme, opening with a launch event and a keynote from QuantumBlack, McKinsey's AI arm, then moving into breakout groups mapping pain points and where AI could help.

Group picture

My role

I set up the think tank from scratch, ran the shortlisting process, organised the launch event, secured the keynote speaker, and designed the breakout persona exercise that ran through the day. On the day itself, I presented on stage and facilitated the workshop, with support from my team.

Solution

AI Think Tank

I set up an AI think tank to give people like Inaya, already getting results with AI on their own, a formal home to build on that further. From 200 employees who put themselves forward, 65 were shortlisted into the programme, opening with a launch event and a keynote from QuantumBlack, McKinsey's AI arm, then moving into breakout groups mapping pain points and where AI could help.

Group picture

My role

I set up the think tank from scratch, ran the shortlisting process, organised the launch event, secured the keynote speaker, and designed the breakout persona exercise that ran through the day. On the day itself, I presented on stage and facilitated the workshop, with support from my team.

Watch AI Think Tank launch video on LinkedIn

Most employees

Persona #4: Curious Chloe

Chloe is curious about what AI could do for her role, but with no clear, low-effort way to start exploring it, that curiosity has nowhere to go.

What she needed: Small, easy entry points she could work through in a couple of minutes, not a course or a mandate, just a way to follow what was possible without a big time commitment.

Why she mattered: This is the largest group in the organisation, and the one most at risk of interest fizzling out for lack of an easy way in. In my conversations with employees like Chloe, the appetite to learn was already there, what was missing was a low-effort way to act on it, one that could keep pace with how quickly the subject itself kept changing.

Solution 1

AI Newsletter

I created an AI-generated newsletter, broken into sections covering current AI trends inside and outside e&, an employee spotlight, and a tool worth trying.

Newsletter section

My role

I created the newsletter end to end. I used Midjourney for the thumbnails and Claude to draft captions within the platform's character limits, and I structured every issue into the same sections, trends, an employee spotlight, and a tool to try, so it stayed easy to produce and easy to read. Employees told us they valued learning a little at a time far more than being handed a course to finish.

Solution 1

AI Newsletter

I created an AI-generated newsletter, broken into sections covering current AI trends inside and outside e&, an employee spotlight, and a tool worth trying.

Newsletter section

My role

I created the newsletter end to end. I used Midjourney for the thumbnails and Claude to draft captions within the platform's character limits, and I structured every issue into the same sections, trends, an employee spotlight, and a tool to try, so it stayed easy to produce and easy to read. Employees told us they valued learning a little at a time far more than being handed a course to finish.

View full issues of the newsletter

Solution 2

SharePoint Site

A SharePoint hub carrying the same content as the newsletter, plus links to learning resources and a repository of e&'s AI and data assets, including the Responsible AI framework.

Screenshots of the site

My role

I built the SharePoint page myself, mirrored the newsletter content onto it so there was always a single place to catch up, and added a running set of learning resources alongside a repository of our AI and data work, including the Responsible AI framework, so people could go deeper whenever they wanted to.

Solution 2

SharePoint Site

A SharePoint hub carrying the same content as the newsletter, plus links to learning resources and a repository of e&'s AI and data assets, including the Responsible AI framework.

Screenshots of the site

My role

I built the SharePoint page myself, mirrored the newsletter content onto it so there was always a single place to catch up, and added a running set of learning resources alongside a repository of our AI and data work, including the Responsible AI framework, so people could go deeper whenever they wanted to.

AI Champions

Persona #5: Ready Rashid

A trusted tech or strategy voice within his own team, ready to carry the AI roadmap forward the moment someone hands him the mandate to do it.

What he needed: Real autonomy to run his part of the roadmap, a clear line back to leadership, and resources he could point his team to without having to build everything from scratch.

Why he mattered: A strategy sets direction from the top, but someone still has to keep it moving inside each team, day to day, closing the gap between a decision made in a council meeting and a change that actually happens on the ground. In my conversations with people like Rashid, that was exactly the role they wanted, real ownership of their corner of it and accountability for the outcome, not just a mention at a town hall.

Solution

AI Champions

Within each team, we identified a tech or strategy expert to act as that team's AI champion, responsible for the roadmap staying on track and for communication between their team and the CXOs.

Screenshot of me leading the launch meeting for the AI Champions

My role

I designed the champion model itself, identifying a tech or strategy lead within each team, people like Rashid, and defining what the role carried: ownership of that team's roadmap, a direct line to the CXOs, and real autonomy balanced against real accountability for hitting their objectives.

Solution

AI Champions

Within each team, we identified a tech or strategy expert to act as that team's AI champion, responsible for the roadmap staying on track and for communication between their team and the CXOs.

Screenshot of me leading the launch meeting for the AI Champions

My role

I designed the champion model itself, identifying a tech or strategy lead within each team, people like Rashid, and defining what the role carried: ownership of that team's roadmap, a direct line to the CXOs, and real autonomy balanced against real accountability for hitting their objectives.

External Partners and Stakeholders

Persona #6: Stakeholder Sara

Watching from outside the organisation, deciding whether e& is genuinely ahead on AI or simply talking about it.

What she needed: Credible, public proof that AI was embedded in the organisation's strategy, not just in its internal messaging.

Why she mattered: Internal adoption is only half the picture. In conversations with board members and investors like Sara, what mattered wasn't what was happening inside the organisation, it was what was visible from outside it.

Solution 1

Release AI Whitepaper

A white paper on how e& was positioning itself at the forefront of AI, released in partnership with the Chief Technology and Information Officer.

Whitepaper cover

My role

I worked directly with the Chief Technology and Information Officer to shape the positioning, then coordinated with the branding, PR, and agency teams to design, generate the AI images, compile and produce the final white paper.

Solution 1

Release AI Whitepaper

A white paper on how e& was positioning itself at the forefront of AI, released in partnership with the Chief Technology and Information Officer.

Whitepaper cover

My role

I worked directly with the Chief Technology and Information Officer to shape the positioning, then coordinated with the branding, PR, and agency teams to design, generate the AI images, compile and produce the final white paper.

Solution 2

Strategic Partnerships

A portfolio of external AI partnerships that gave the organisation validation beyond its own messaging.

  • Nokia Bell Labs: a year-long R&D collaboration on AI for strategic industrial sectors, announced through a joint press release.

  • UNDP: an ongoing AI collaboration spanning disaster response analysis after the Türkiye-Syria earthquake, healthcare, and a social and climate platform for real-time, policy-relevant insights.

  • AI Nation Afaaq: a nation-wide AI upskilling programme delivered with AWS.

  • IBM watsonx: an AI governance platform covering automated risk management and compliance across e&'s AI models.

AI Nation with AWS

My role

- Nokia Bell Labs: worked closely with the partnerships team to coordinate the press release, the GITEX award, and the ongoing joint projects. - UNDP: worked on the presentation for the platform, presented at the UN in New York. - AI Nation Afaaq: worked on the creative campaign with the AWS team. - IBM watsonx: worked closely with the implementation teams.

Solution 2

Strategic Partnerships

A portfolio of external AI partnerships that gave the organisation validation beyond its own messaging.

  • Nokia Bell Labs: a year-long R&D collaboration on AI for strategic industrial sectors, announced through a joint press release.

  • UNDP: an ongoing AI collaboration spanning disaster response analysis after the Türkiye-Syria earthquake, healthcare, and a social and climate platform for real-time, policy-relevant insights.

  • AI Nation Afaaq: a nation-wide AI upskilling programme delivered with AWS.

  • IBM watsonx: an AI governance platform covering automated risk management and compliance across e&'s AI models.

AI Nation with AWS

My role

- Nokia Bell Labs: worked closely with the partnerships team to coordinate the press release, the GITEX award, and the ongoing joint projects. - UNDP: worked on the presentation for the platform, presented at the UN in New York. - AI Nation Afaaq: worked on the creative campaign with the AWS team. - IBM watsonx: worked closely with the implementation teams.

Wrap up

Bringing it all together

These six tracks ran in parallel, reaching over 9,000 employees through the entry point that actually made sense for each of them. None of it would have worked without starting from real conversations rather than assumption, that human-centric approach is what let six different initiatives land where one generic rollout would have failed.

Why a people-centric approach worked

Reach across every level of the organisation.

Over 9,000 employees engaged, from the CEO's direct reports down to individual employees, each through the entry point that direct research into their needs pointed to, rather than one blanket programme.

Reach across every level of the organisation.

Over 9,000 employees engaged, from the CEO's direct reports down to individual employees, each through the entry point that direct research into their needs pointed to, rather than one blanket programme.

A working roadmap through to 2030.

Built from workshops that asked each business vertical what their actual pain points were, not from a generic AI wishlist, and turned into a prioritised, three-wave roadmap with financial impact attached.

A working roadmap through to 2030.

Built from workshops that asked each business vertical what their actual pain points were, not from a generic AI wishlist, and turned into a prioritised, three-wave roadmap with financial impact attached.

Adoption built on proof, not announcements.

The procurement chatbot and the AI think tank were both shaped by the people who would actually use them, tested against real scepticism and real expertise before launch, rather than handed down finished.

Adoption built on proof, not announcements.

The procurement chatbot and the AI think tank were both shaped by the people who would actually use them, tested against real scepticism and real expertise before launch, rather than handed down finished.

External validation

The internal work led to a formal R&D partnership with Nokia Bell Labs and a GITEX award, external recognition built on a genuine, research-led adoption story rather than a marketing claim.

External validation

The internal work led to a formal R&D partnership with Nokia Bell Labs and a GITEX award, external recognition built on a genuine, research-led adoption story rather than a marketing claim.