From Science Fiction to Science-Driven
Putting the Rubber to the Road with Robotics, AI, and Automation
We are in the midst of decades of research and technology advancements that have led to machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and libraries of open source deep learning. We have achieved sophisticated neural networks, voice and image recognition, and natural language processing. We have created bots that sound like humans, smart appliances that facilitate greater ease in managing daily tasks, and cognitive machines that are outthinking humans in Jeopardy, Chess and Go. Collectively these advancements have made AI, automation and robotics almost mainstream, crying out for enterprise-wide adoption. It’s a whole new world; one that offers new opportunities and enhanced outcomes. The question is: Are you ready? If not, you should be.
Most organisations have heard of automation, robotics, and AI. Many have experimented with one or more proof of concepts, minimum viable products, or siloed implementations within their lines of business. Yet, only a small percent have gone all in, with trailblazers far and few between. These pioneers are the reinventors of the future to come.
For them, automation, robotics and AI are not just topics for corridor conversations, but strategic enablers of digital transformation. They are already leveraging these technologies; have invested significantly to date, and have committed to future investment. They see the clear linkage between intelligent automation (the combination of AI with automation) and enterprise-wide innovation. They are leveraging symbiotic technologies, like cloud, microservices, blockchain, the internet of things (IoT), to expose significant benefits. Additionally, they are using an integrated approach to:
Swimming Through Complexity
For most, it’s about the end state: elevating and reimagining the customer experience. For years, organisations have talked about getting to a market of one, and AI, it appears, may just get us there.
AI gives us insights into how our clients are working with their customers. It’s not about machines replacing humans. It is about automating individual tasks using robotics and automation to free up employees from tasks that are mundane and repetitive. Instead, the workforce will increasingly experience higher value-add activities and work that directly enhances customer and employee engagement. It’s about using cognitive to enable personalised assistance, enterprise-wide automation of business and IT processes, tacit knowledge sharing, ethical decision making and sensory-emotional response, in order to provide human-like services. This is where the automation pendulum moves toward augmenting human intelligence. An example of this is IBM’s Cognitive Agent that can analyse millions of medical reports, bringing the collective wisdom of leading-edge scientific insights to physicians located in rural and remote areas.
Give Me Higher Value
While automation will impact roles and professions, very few organisations will be fully automated. Instead, as automation transforms processes, workers will have the opportunity to evolve their skill sets and transition to roles that complement the work machines do, and vice versa. Just as mobile created developer ecosystems, network operators, SMS messaging companies, and new hardware/accessory manufacturers, automation and AI will shape new professions while creating new ways of working and earning a living.
Using AI as a cornerstone to reframe their IT and lines of business, organisations can accelerate and accentuate the roles each function performs. It requires thinking about the disruptions in the market, building new partnerships, and understanding one’s enterprise data. Digital transformation is about data and analytics — embedding it, integrating it and using it to reframe your enterprise business strategy. It requires you to be holistic in your thinking and to use data insights to predict and inform decisions in real time. It means IT and the business will need to work seamlessly together, displacing the lines between CMO, CIO and lines of business leaders; possibly even merging all into one.
Let’s also not forget your partner ecosystems. Bring them in, or they might just take you out. Your partner ecosystem represents a rich source of data. Think about your supply chain and your end-to-end delivery model. Think about each touchpoint with your partners and customers along the entire value chain. Through blockchain, smart contracts, IoT, real-time alerts, condition monitoring and intelligent automation, new levels of efficiency, speed and digital reinvention can be achieved, giving early adopters a differentiated, competitive advantage. It is this convergence — how we connect things, exchange and gather data, create trusted networks, invent new operating and revenue models, and focus on individualising the consumer experience — that drives innovation and value, enabling you to reach new markets.
Human-Machine Management
Ultimately, those that succeed along this path, do so by understanding and leveraging the potential of automation, robotics and AI to drive new, more productive relationships between people and intelligent machines. When 12 new robots join your department, think of it as a promotion — an opportunity to manage robotic resources, or to outsource a task you always wanted to get rid of — freeing up your time to innovate and create new value. In fact, it might just be the perfect time to ask your boss for a pay increase (or, maybe not.)
The front runners leading the pack understand how to exploit this potential to optimise their business and IT operations. This includes redesigning IT, incorporating new cloud services, embedding new capabilities like APIs and micro-services into the architecture, and enabling the build of sophisticated learning and decision-making systems. It means being bold, factoring in extensive experimentation and adapting to the lessons learned along the way. And, it means shifting your thinking, from injecting insight into existing processes, to automating entire business processes, and designing frictionless integration of IT, human, machine processes and experience.
It means re-orienting business thinking around both the potential and challenges these technologies offer. It may even mean rethinking C-suite roles. Will there be a need for a CAIO (Chief AI Officer)? Will the role of CIO evolve into Chief Intelligence Officer (after all, who will take care of the bots?) How will you manage the risks of thousands of bots, new machine learning patterns and auto agents working across your organisation? Who will be accountable? Who will review the algorithms to make sure they are providing accurate advice and executing the right decisions at the right time?
One thing is clear: Businesses are challenged to find new ways to seamlessly harness and integrate everything emerging and converging at scale. To drive innovation, businesses, competitors, and industries will need to work together. This means pooling their resources and assets to build technology that benefits society. Ultimately, businesses, policy makers and people will need to adopt and adapt to some flavor of human-machine relationship — essentially, reimagining the world for a new tomorrow. In the end, those who lead are those willing to pioneer the new frontier of augmented intelligence. Are you one of them?
