Ibrahim Halkano Abduba
Cover of Reach, Start, Stay. How to Get People to Use AI, and Keep Using It

Reach, Start, Stay.

How to Get People to Use AI, and Keep Using It

Every organisation can buy AI. The hard part is getting people to use it, and to keep using it once the pilot team has gone home. This book shows why most AI efforts stall after the demonstration, and what leaders can do about it.

It is built on a simple model, tested in original research: every technology must reach people, get them to start, and give them a reason to stay. The model comes from a study of how people in Nairobi’s informal settlements adopted mobile money, and why they kept using it or did not. Two decades of enterprise systems projects taught the same lesson.

Publication details will be announced here.

Your AI pilot succeeded. That’s the problem.

Most organisations can get people to try AI. Far fewer get them to keep using it. Now, as AI agents arrive in finance, HR and procurement, the book applies the Reach, Start, Stay model to AI.

Three stages, one model

Every technology must pass through all three. Most projects fail at one stage while their sponsors are busy fixing another.

Reach

Can people get to it at all? Infrastructure, data, systems, rules and access.

Start

Will they begin using it? Ease, honest benefits, trust, champions and skills.

Stay

Will they keep using it? A real, recurring need, at a cost that makes sense.

Inside, you will learn

Why pilots stall

Why AI projects stall after the demo, and why a successful pilot can be a warning sign.

What AI should decide

Which decisions AI can take, and which it never should.

Governed runtimes

How governed runtimes keep AI agents safe.

Data residency

What data residency means for cloud and AI.

Implementations that last

How to run implementations that people are still using ten years later.

A business case you can check

How to build a business case you can check a year later.

From pilot to lasting use

A roadmap from first pilot to lasting use.

Resources

Free resources from the book, including the Reach, Start, Stay scorecard, the templates and regular updates on the vendor landscape, will be published here when the book is released.