The Automation Age of Business Communications
If I had to impart one piece of advice to aspiring design engineers, it would be to think about the customer and the problem you’re solving for them. Sounds obvious, yet quite difficult to do. It demands a kind of deep thinking which is tiring, and a maturity to know how to translate those those deep thoughts into something practical. (In this respect, my professional struggles continue.) However, this approach is unerring in delivering relevant direction and guidance with decisions both big and small.
This design meditation reveals what I believe is a new age of business communications; it is revealed when you contemplate the problems that business communications must now solve. The problems of communications engineering are a storied history. To illustrate, consider the previous problems we’ve tackled, and some examples of the service and product embodiments of the solutions:
1832–1876: The Telegraph Age: Eliminate physical distance for real time communications between various organizations. Before the telegraph, information moved at the speed of a horse. Telegraphs, poles and wires
1876–1960: The Analog Age: Enable real time communications between consumers and organizations at a distance by eliminating the requirement for specialized skills (morse code). Before the analog age, all communications was business communications. Telephones, switchboards and operators.
1960–1995: The PBX Age: Automate the distribution of real time communications between various parts of organizations. Before the PBX age, every call was answered by a person. Key systems, voice mail, desktop phones
1995–2016: The Unified Communications Age: Make employees more efficient by unifying the various methods of communications and integrating it with information systems. Before the UC age, computers and communications never met. Cisco Call Manager, Skype and Asterisk
In 2017, we have a new set of problems to solve, and thus, I believe we are starting a new era of business communications. One that recognizes that artificial intelligence will one day make conversational automation practical. One that recognizes that customers prefer to use their thumbs to communicate, even when the conversation might escalate to voice and video. One that recognizes that data fluency is more important than echo cancellation. One that designs for a business communications world where there are three kinds of actors: customers who message, bots that assist them, and the employees stuck in the middle.
I’m calling this the Automation Age, and I believe it’s what communications engineers have to tackle next:
2017-Future: The Automation Age : Natively support messaging, the preferred communication mechanism for people, supporting automation, insights and process improvement. Before the automation age, business communications was painful and expensive. Messaging networks, bots, the Internet of Things, and agent focused intelligent messaging.
Along with this new age come new services, products and insights. Just when you thought the hockey game was done, there’s another period to play.
