The Staircase of AI Adoption

The Staircase of AI Adoption is the framework Intric uses to guide organizations through their AI implementation journey. It’s been developed through our hands-on experience helping over 60 organizations successfully adopt AI, combined with insights from established scientific research.

By integrating real-world learnings from our customers with two proven academic frameworks—the SAMR Model and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)—we’ve created an approach that is both practically tested and scientifically grounded:

• SAMR Model: Defines the four stages of technology adoption and how organizations progressively integrate AI into their workflows
• Technology Acceptance Model (TAM): Explains what drives people to actually use new technology

AI adoption isn’t a single leap—it’s a journey up a staircase. Each step builds on the previous one, creating a sustainable path from efficiency gains to organizational transformation.

The Four Steps

Each step below sets out what it means, why it matters, and a practical example.

1. Step 1: Substitution – Swap a Tool

   Success indicator: “This is easy”

   What it means: Replace an existing manual task with AI, keeping everything else the same.

   Why it matters: This is where adoption begins. By focusing on ease of use, you remove fear and build confidence. People see immediate time savings without changing their workflow.

   Example: Instead of manually searching through a 50-page contract PDF, you ask an AI assistant to find specific clauses.

2. Step 2: Augmentation – Improve a Tool

   Success indicator: “This is better”

   What it means: Use AI to perform a task better than a human could alone, going beyond simple replacement.

   Why it matters: Once people trust the basics, they’re ready to explore AI’s true capabilities. Here, AI doesn’t just save time—it improves quality and catches things humans might miss.

   Example: The AI doesn’t just find contract clauses—it cross-references them with invoices to spot discrepancies and billing errors.

3. Step 3: Modification – Change the Task

   Success indicator: “This is my new job”

   What it means: Redesign workflows and job responsibilities around AI’s capabilities, not just within existing processes.

   Why it matters: This is where transformation happens. The job itself changes—humans move from doing routine tasks to overseeing AI-driven processes and focusing on high-value work.

   Example: Instead of manually checking each invoice against contracts, the system does this automatically and only alerts humans when issues arise. The human role shifts from checker to decision-maker.

4. Step 4: Redefinition – Redefine the process

   Success indicator: “This is our future”

   What it means: Enable entirely new ways of working that weren’t possible before AI. Create new services, processes, or capabilities.

   Why it matters: Organizations at this stage use AI to innovate, not just optimize. They reimagine what’s possible and create new value.

   Example: Using AI-driven insights from contract and invoice analysis to proactively renegotiate supplier agreements, predict budget needs, or identify optimization opportunities across the entire procurement process.

The Two Keys to Unlocking Each Step

Each step on the staircase is “unlocked” by two critical factors that determine whether people will actually adopt AI:

Perceived Ease of Use

“Is this a headache to use?”

People need to feel confident they can use the tool without extensive training or frustration. The easier it feels, the more likely they are to try it.

Perceived Usefulness

“Does this actually help me?”

People need to see clear value in their daily work. If AI doesn’t solve a real problem or save meaningful time, adoption will stall.

The golden rule: Start where it’s easy and useful, then progress to more complex applications once trust is established.

Remember: The goal isn’t to reach Step 4 as fast as possible. The goal is to build sustainable AI adoption that creates lasting value at each stage of your journey.