Don’t automate just to automate. In an AI-powered world, that is the key to winning the AI race.
More and more companies today are moving toward incorporating intelligent automation into their business model. As a Vice President at HGS, a global business process outsourcing company (BPO), we’ve found that combining AI with the human touch, has helped us to provide exceptional customer service for our clients. This intelligent automation can help all businesses improve, from BPM companies to large Fortune 500 companies.
I’ve learned how the cognitive frameworks are mapped out for many leading organizations that have built their new business models around the convergence of digital, intelligent process automation, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). It is important to discuss business challenges around implementing initiatives in these critical areas, from the top down and at scale. There are plenty of insightful lessons to be learned and common themes that one can see manifesting across industries when developing initiatives around today’s customer experience (CX) tools and disrupters.
Here are some key insights about the process of building a business model around RPA, analytics and AI:
1. It’s important to design evolving systems to accommodate ongoing and sometimes unexpected requirements, expectations and business challenges.
2. Mistakes are inherent to any change process. It’s necessary to fail, but organizations must learn to fail fast, regroup, reflect and iterate the next attempt with a better sense of what is actually needed to succeed. Organizations must also understand that change is an important investment and it requires the right resources, priorities and communication within the organization—at the right time.
3. Automation can start quickly by focusing on the easy, menial, repeatable and mature tasks already being performed by the organization. A process expert, such as a business process outsourcer (BPO), can be a skilled and trusted resource when taking that important first step in an automation journey.
4. In terms of good governance, C-level leaders must carefully formulate their strategic plans around automation and communicate the hows and whys of their efforts to everyone within their organizations. Many companies struggle to keep the employees that are currently doing the work that they are automating. As a result, other critical skill sets are lost, along with their engrained knowledge of the company. It is vitally important to include automation plan stages to proactively re-skill, re-train, or move employees to other parts of the organization. Consultants can be very helpful in this transition process.
5. Start with the business problem and then automate accordingly. Again, this is where experienced consultants or outsourcing companies can assist. They can identify the best, proven processes to start the automation cycle. They can also host a half-day workshop for key stakeholders in your organization, understand business priorities and suggest areas for some quick successes. Ideally, automation is a joint ownership between the business and the IT department.
Ultimately, these insights share a common theme: winning the AI race requires C-suite and executive buy-in, strategic AI investment, as well as building the right detailed business model around the convergence of these new technologies.
