Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how fleet professionals research problems, analyse data, and develop business cases. But according to industry experts speaking at the AfMA Summit, AI is not a replacement for stakeholder engagement and change management.
During a keynote session titled Accelerating Brainstorming to Executive Pitch with AI, Yolande McLean, General Manager Partner Enablement at AutoGuru, and Chris Martin, Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering – APAC at Geotab, demonstrated how Fleet Managers can use AI tools such as ChatGPT to accelerate the process of developing a telematics business case.
The session took delegates through a step-by-step process that traditionally requires multiple workshops, stakeholder meetings, brainstorming sessions and weeks of document development.
“We’re going to work out who your stakeholders are, understand what their strategic priorities are, brainstorm the biggest problems across your enterprise for fleet, validate those problems, identify solutions, blockers and return on investment, and then generate your killer business case,” McLean told attendees.
The demonstration showed how AI can rapidly identify stakeholder groups, map business priorities, organise brainstorming outcomes, prioritise operational issues and generate executive-ready business cases.
However, both presenters stressed that AI should be viewed as an accelerator rather than a replacement for sound fleet management practices.
Start with the Problem, Not the Technology
One of the key messages from the session was that Fleet Managers often jump too quickly to solutions.
Martin said successful telematics projects begin with clearly identifying business problems rather than selecting technology features.
“It’s really important to make sure you don’t do this out of order,” Martin explained. “Identifying those business problems is critical. You can’t solution without knowing those problems properly and also having validated them.”
He warned that organisations often specify features in procurement documents before properly understanding what they are trying to achieve.
“We often get asked to demonstrate ROI or say we need this feature in our business,” said Martin.
“If you take the first answer of a safety scorecard as the feature we need, you’re potentially limiting yourself in terms of getting some of the better technology or getting a different way to solve that problem.”
Instead, Martin encouraged fleet managers to define the business challenge first and then allow vendors to demonstrate the most appropriate solutions.
AI Can Do the Heavy Lifting
The keynote highlighted how AI can dramatically reduce the time required to organise information and develop business cases.
McLean demonstrated how brainstorming outputs that would traditionally take days to analyse could be grouped, categorised and visualised within minutes.
“In the good old days of mind mapping and process mapping, you would chuck all of those post-it notes up on a whiteboard, then you’d try and order them into categories,” she said.
“That would have taken hours, if not days, of effort in an old-school brainstorming session and prioritisation session. It takes next to no time to do that in AI.”
The process included stakeholder identification, strategic priority mapping, problem validation, solution analysis, risk assessment and ROI development before generating a board-ready business case.
According to McLean, AI can even convert lengthy business cases into concise executive summaries and infographics suitable for senior leadership teams.
Stakeholder Engagement Remains Critical
Despite the productivity gains offered by AI, McLean repeatedly cautioned against relying solely on technology.
“AI is not omnipotent,” she said. “It doesn’t know the nuances of your business. It doesn’t know the personalities in your business.”
The biggest risk, she argued, is developing a technically sound business case without bringing stakeholders along on the journey.
Throughout the presentation, McLean highlighted the dangers of what she described as “scuttlebutt”, workplace speculation and resistance that can emerge when people feel excluded from change initiatives.
“If you do that in isolation, you are not undertaking change management,” she said. “You risk alienating your stakeholders, alienating your driver base, and then you are not able to either get it approved or successfully implement.”
The presenters argued that engaging stakeholders early helps uncover business problems, improve solution design and build advocates who can support implementation.
Turning Critics into Champions
Martin reinforced this point through a practical example shared during the session. Drawing on a fleet implementation project discussed earlier in the conference, he described how drivers who initially resisted telematics became strong supporters once they experienced the benefits.
“It started the other way, where drivers were resistant to it,” Martin said. “But in terms of stakeholder engagement, that’s a pretty phenomenal change.”
The example demonstrated how early engagement and clear communication can transform potential opponents into advocates for technology adoption.
One fleet even found drivers became frustrated when telematics equipment was temporarily removed because it disrupted reporting processes that had made their jobs easier.
AI Is a Co-Worker, Not a Replacement
The session concluded with practical advice for fleet managers beginning their AI journey. Martin suggested thinking of AI tools as junior employees rather than all-knowing experts.
“The AI tool can only analyse very well. It can speculate. It’s very good at hallucinating,” he said. “The more information you give it, the more training you give it, the better it reins in its answers and makes it relevant to you.”
For Fleet Managers, the message was clear. AI can dramatically accelerate research, analysis and business case development, but successful fleet projects still depend on understanding business problems, engaging stakeholders and leading organisational change.
As McLean reminded delegates, AI may be able to write the business case, but people still determine whether it succeeds.
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