Guiding employees and clients in navigating the GenAI landscape
Whitney Millegan is championing the responsible advancement of our organizational AI capabilities
How does a global company of 9,000+ employees across 70+ countries manage the expanding role AI/GenAI plays in its own workplace? While simultaneously advising clients on its uptake in their industries?
That’s where Whitney Millegan (Millegan) comes in. She combines technology expertise with a problem-solving mindset to ensure ICF remains at the forefront of AI innovation—overseeing the execution of initiatives aimed to unleash the power of our workforce using GenAI and enable client delivery of emerging tech solutions.
A key member of our chief technology office, Millegan is guiding our internal staff on how to use the relatively new and rapidly evolving GenAI technology effectively. As well as addressing questions about how GenAI adoption might influence job roles and opportunities in a broader sense.
She compares the transition to the introduction of automated cash machines in the financial sector. How bank tellers were initially concerned about job security with the introduction of ATMs. When in the end, most banks still have both human tellers and ATMs. She regularly uses this analogy to help new users feel more comfortable using GenAI.
“Hands-on experience can help build confidence and understanding around GenAI.”
For some employees, it’s as simple as using an AI assistant to summarize emails piling up in their inbox. She’s also found that teaching staff how to use GenAI tools builds trust in the tools themselves, in addition to enhancing productivity and efficiency.
In addition to promoting the use of GenAI, Millegan is leading Agile teams to develop and implement GenAI-powered business process improvements and helping us create good governance to manage our implementation of the technology in the workplace, taking a comprehensive approach—policies, principles, checklists, and training—to ensure responsible AI use.
"Strong governance around AI use is priority number one. But it's not just about simply having a policy in place. We also need dynamic systems because AI is moving so rapidly."
Recognized by the Northern Virginia Technology Council as a 2023 Tech 100 NextGen Leader for driving impact in the region’s tech community, Millegan applies an entrepreneurial approach to implementing new ways of working through experimentation. And her vision and leadership are preparing us well to take advantage of GenAI now and into the future.