Building Momentum: How FMP Uses AI to Deliver More Innovative Solutions

At FMP, our teams are finding innovative ways to leverage AI as a tool and as a teammate. Across projects, our employees are embracing AI tools (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, Synthesia) to streamline workflows, enhance creativity, and deliver exceptional results for our clients.

AI is transforming how we deliver value, enhancing our ability to think more strategically, collaborate more effectively, and focus on what drives the greatest impact for our clients. By handling routine tasks and helping us surface insights more efficiently, it empowers our teams to engage more deeply and deliver smarter solutions.

We sat down with several team members to learn how they’re integrating AI into their daily work and what impact it’s having.

Q: How are you currently using AI in your role?

Sarah Tucker, Senior Consultant, uses AI to independently upskill and tackle new client challenges with confidence:

Sarah uses AI to support continuous learning and expand her technical expertise. She treats AI as a hands-on learning partner, leveraging tools like Copilot as a helpful guide through every stage of the learning process, from identifying what she needs to know, to walking through step-by-step coding instructions, to troubleshooting issues in real time. Whether she’s exploring new platforms or building out digital workflows, AI helps her quickly surface relevant resources, clarify complex concepts, and move forward with confidence. Her approach reflects a strong commitment to growth, using AI to accelerate mastery and stay adaptable in a fast-paced environment.

Adrien McCulloch, Senior Consultant, uses AI to accelerate competency research:

Adrien’s team specializes in understanding how work gets done by mapping out the tasks, skills, and behaviors that drive performance across roles. Traditionally, this meant manually sorting through interviews, focus groups, and documentation to identify patterns and define competencies.

Now, with AI-powered large language models, they’ve introduced efficiencies that allow for deeper analysis and faster synthesis of themes. The technology helps the team break down a job role’s daily work into smaller tasks and the skills or knowledge needed to do them well. This makes it easier to understand what each job role does and why it’s important.

Adrien’s team has also streamlined background research and sped up the transcription and theming of focus group recordings. Adrien described the AI as a “pseudo-SME,” enabling faster, smarter prep work that boosts efficiency and insight across their engagements.

Amanda Palla, Managing Consultant, uses AI across learning and development and accessibility projects:

Amanda has been leveraging AI as a strategic partner to elevate her work and deliver thoughtful, high-impact solutions. She’s used it to refine learning objectives using Bloom’s taxonomy, refine the tone of client communications, and even generate accessible, Section 508-compliant color palettes. She describes AI as an additional layer of checks that bring confidence and precision when working independently.

By integrating AI into her workflow, Amanda is able to focus more deeply on the strategic and creative aspects of her work, ultimately delivering solutions that are more thoughtfully crafted, strategically aligned, and responsive to each client’s unique priorities.

Emily Fairbairn, Managing Consultant, uses AI to support business development across research, writing, and visual communication.

She leverages AI to conduct market and pricing research, streamline proposal editing, and translate technical language into plain English. She also uses AI to evaluate proposal sections against solicitation criteria and generate visuals that enhance storytelling. In her daily workflow, AI helps her summarize meeting notes and refine communications, allowing her to stay focused and present.

Q: What kind of impact has AI had on your work?

Across the board, employees reported significant time savings and elevated deliverable quality.

Sam Deschenes, Senior Consultant, noted:

When tasked with drafting a report section on key performance indicators, he used Copilot to organize his ideas and generate a strong starting point. The tool helped shape the content logically and cohesively, resulting in a polished draft that aligned well with project goals.

Kristina Wright, Consultant, and Shareen Drilling, Senior Consultant who collaborate on e-learning projects, emphasized AI’s role in accelerating course development:

AI has helped their team brainstorm, troubleshoot, and generate quiz questions. This acceleration in the brainstorming and design stages of course development allows the team to devote more time to refining content and incorporating SME feedback ultimately leading to more customized, high-quality learning experiences that resonate with each client’s unique needs.

Risa Witherow, a member of FMP’s Business Development team, has found powerful ways to use AI to streamline proposal development. She uses Copilot to summarize key data points to help FMP tailor response materials to specific solicitations. She expressed that even if she only keep 20% of what Copilot generates, it helps her get past the blank page and keep momentum.

“It’s not replacing what we do, but it gives us a head start and helps us hand off a stronger product.”

Q: Any advice for others looking to get started with AI?

The consensus? Start small, be curious, and treat AI as a collaborator and not a replacement for your expertise and experience.

Sarah Tucker

“I like to talk to AI like it’s a coworker. If you write a prompt and it doesn’t quite hit, revise it and ask it to rethink. When in doubt, ask for guidance—it’s a tool, but we’re the ones tailoring it to client needs.”

Adrien McCulloch

“You have to use it wisely, understand what each tool is good at, and be smart about how you’re using it.”

Sam Deschenes

“It’s still the fundamental input-process-output model. If you want high-quality results, you need to give it high-quality input.”

Amanda Palla

“Don’t be afraid to use it.  AI won’t replace what you know, but it will enhance it.”

Emily Fairbairn

“So much of what I’ve learned is through trial and error and talking with other people about how they’re using it. Sharing tips, use cases, and prompts has been really helpful.”

Kristina Wright & Shareen Drilling

“Treat AI-generated content as a starting point, not a final product. Define your audience, give clear parameters, and always refine what it gives you to ensure quality and relevance.”

Risa Witherow

“Prompt engineering really is what makes it work for you. I like to set the scene, ‘I’d like your help with X, first I’m going to give you Y, and then we’ll do Z.’ That structure helps AI respond more effectively, and sometimes it even asks for more context, which makes the collaboration stronger.”

By embracing AI as a collaborative partner, FMP’s team is driving greater innovation—streamlining workflows, enhancing creativity, and delivering smarter, more strategic solutions for clients. If you’re ready to unlock the potential of AI in your organization, reach out to FMP to discover how we can help you implement and maximize these transformative tools.

Julie Jasewicz  joined FMP in May 2023 as a Human Capital Intern and works on a variety of projects ranging from training and development to strategic communications. She graduated from George Mason University’s IO psychology master’s program and is originally from the Adirondack mountain region in New York. Julie is passionate about cooking, travel and is a loving cat mom to her kitten Winter.