Articles

I looked up the dictionary definition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on THE GOOGLE the other day and it said it was “the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.”

So if that’s accurate, a lot of what currently gets called “AI” probably isn’t, and the line between AI and other forms of automation is rather blurred. That said, I’m not sure it really matters if you’re focused on improving outcomes.

There are a lot of huge brains and trillions in investment being poured into a range of sophisticated sets of algorithms aimed, in the main, at improving and scaling human output. And that’s why we should be interested. If, by deploying these technologies, we can improve our productivity, then we have no choice other than to pay attention.

Productivity is something that all business leaders need to be obsessive about, but in recent years it seemed to drop out of favour as a point of focus. My guess is, with growth hard to come by, capital more expensive than it has been for years, and demand for skills outstripping supply, particularly in the west, that it will come back into vogue pretty rapidly, even if it hasn’t already.

For the uninitiated, productivity is measured as the rate of output per unit of input, or “bang for buck” as it’s often described. Improving it is often quite tricky, and technology practitioners and providers have made quite literally an industry out of finding ways to do that. Improving either side of the equation works, but boosting output whilst reducing input is the ideal. So in that sense, automation tools to streamline processes, and AI tools to boost or enhance customer interactions are simply the latest stops on that journey. Not taking advantage of them seems almost negligent.

Personally, I think the best way to decide how to use them, other than as individual props, involves seeing past the background hype and taking a fresh look at our processes. For instance, you might want to use an automation platform to aggregate data from multiple sources to generate a KPI dashboard, or to get an AI tool to provide knowledge or assistance to your customers and staff. You might even just want to use it to summarise content and actions from an otherwise seemingly endless stream of online meetings.

I do think we’re going to see a lot more headline-making, enterprise-scale, customised solutions as time moves on, and they’ll be a source of huge competitive advantage for the organisations who deploy them successfully.

In parallel, however, there’s a less dramatic, but potentially priceless opportunity to determine what generic automation and pre-trained AI tools can do for you, starting with taking a good look at the weaknesses or points of friction in the way you operate.

And with so much change happening, it may well be time to take a fresh look at your overall business strategy and from there define brand new, better aligned processes in support of an increased focus on productivity. It’s certainly worth thinking about. I certainly am.