At Gold Bond Inc., a 77-year-old promotional products company, CIO Matt Price recognized that successful AI adoption requires more than just launching a chatbot—it demands embedding AI into cumbersome existing workflows like ERP intake, document processing, and call follow-ups. He formed a team of ‘super-users’ to develop company-specific AI applications and train others. By integrating models like Gemini and others into these workflows, supported with testing, guardrails, and human oversight, daily AI usage soared from 20% to 71%, with many employees saving up to two hours daily.
Gold Bond streamlined order processing using Google Cloud with AI models extracting and structuring order details before entering them into the ERP. Their multi-model AI approach includes Gemini inside Workspace, ChatGPT for backend tasks, and Claude for quality checks, supported by a Google premier partner. Beyond efficiency gains, AI helps with virtual product mockups, formula generation, knowledge base building, summarizing calls, drafting emails, auditing code, and market research, significantly speeding up planning and reducing meetings.
Crucial to this success was change management addressing employee apprehension. Starting with early adopters who pilot tools and train others, Gold Bond enforces policies to prevent shadow AI use and implements human review for all public-facing AI outputs. Price emphasizes cautious trust in AI, advocating for thorough verification and realistic expectations about AI capabilities. His advice: start simple, experiment thoughtfully, and integrate AI gradually within existing processes for best results.
