When I was at Uni, I had a close friend who always had the latest gadget. Over the years I saw her with a tiny portable television, handheld gaming consoles, a PDA (digital diary), then of course mobile phones as they developed. As student electrical engineers her love for technology made sense, but it amazed me that she was always the first to have whatever new tech came on the market. 

Years later I started an MBA and during a basic marketing course I came across the term ‘early adopter’. These people are among the first to adopt an innovation before most of the population have even thought about it.  

It turns out there are 5 categories of technology adopters –  

• Innovators,  
• Early Adopters,  
• Early Majority,  
• Late Majority and  
• Laggards 

and individuals will move between categories depending on the specifics of the technology to them. 

Marketing lesson over.

Earlier this year I pressed you to put an AI Policy in place. I knew you would have Innovators and Early Adopters within your workplace who were already using AI and wanted you to ensure they operated within the boundaries of the security and privacy regulations you must meet. 

We’re long past that – your customers and your opponents are also using AI and probably expect you to. Some are using off the shelf services; others are building their own agents. Most aim to streamline processes or to enhance their customer service. What are you doing? 

But not all businesses innovate all the time. 

Think back to working from home and online meetings – were you doing this long before Covid or not until lockdowns forced you to? How long did you take to move into e-commerce? What other technology were you quick or slow to use? 

As a business you don’t have to be an innovator or an early adopter for every new trend. But a Future Fit Business is watching those changes and deciding what and when to jump on board.