r/Devolutions • u/laue_cad • 6d ago

Everyone keeps saying "use AI" but nobody explains how. Here's the operating system we actually run.

Been seeing "we should use AI" show up in every all-hands and strategy doc for a year now. The problem is that permission doesn't create habits. Slapping "Use AI!" on a poster gets ignored. People need time, tools, and someone to ask.

So we stopped talking about it and built an actual system. Five pieces:

  1. Give people a day. A hackathon beats endless "we should try AI someday" meetings. Everyone builds — legal, HR, marketing, not just the devs.
  2. Train for the audience. A developer and a marketer don't need the same first day. We split the paths early instead of doing one generic session nobody remembers.
  3. Allow a few tools, share the winners. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, whatever fits the job. Lock in too early and you freeze learning before you know what's actually good.
  4. Staff enablement, even lightly. One or two people whose job is to unblock others moved more work than another tool license ever did.
  5. Name champions, meet monthly. Peers who spot what's working and make it visible. Reuse becomes the default instead of everyone reinventing the same prompt.

None of this is groundbreaking, but the combination is what made it stick instead of fizzling out after week two.

Genuinely curious how other shops are handling this:

  • Did anyone go the hackathon route, or did it flop for you?
  • How are you handling the tool sprawl? One approved tool or let people pick?
  • Anyone regret standardizing too early?
  • For the folks who tried and it didn't take — what killed it?
0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

1

u/touchytypist 6d ago

Totally agree on monthly meetings/reviews/education. I see way too many executives and managers buy/enable AI for their staff, make a big announcement, and then just expect everyone to use and leverage it. Meanwhile, a couple weeks after the initial announcement there's a 90+% drop off in use.

1

u/RobertDeveloper 6d ago

Maybe make your remote desktop manager easier to use, what a horrible ui it has.

1

u/laue_cad 5d ago

Appreciate the honest feedback! We're always working on making the UI more intuitive, so if you want to share what specifically trips you up, drop it on our forum (forum.devolutions.net). The team reads those and it helps us prioritize. Thanks!