When it comes to AI, some businesses are debating the risks and benefits, while others are quickly jumping on board due to its promising potential. Regardless of where a business sits on that spectrum, one thing is certain: Many are still bogged down by manual processes and disparate technologies that are standing in the way of adopting and leveraging AI. In fact, according to a CSIRO report, while 68% of Australian businesses have adopted AI technologies, many still face challenges such as poor data quality, privacy issues, and a lack of skilled personnel.
The benefits of AI are clear — improved efficiency, fast decision-making, enhanced analytics — the list goes on. But without automation as a foundational element, AI systems don’t have streamlined processes, structured data, or the scalable infrastructure needed to implement intelligence and learning capabilities across applications.
So, the question is, “How can we expect AI models to optimise and improve a business’s day-to-day activities when all it has to work from are manual processes, siloed data, and broken processes?”
Hint: we can’t.
Bring people, systems, and data together first
For most businesses, the main barriers to AI adoption can be solved through a combination of process and automation. Because AI is an accelerator, it has tremendous value in helping businesses make existing processes, workflows, and technology better, faster, and smarter at scale. But if those processes and workflows are inefficient and your technology is disconnected, AI will simply scale those inefficiencies.
So, before AI can even enter the conversation, businesses must evaluate processes, automate workflows, and package them up into easy-to-use and engaging experiences for users. By bringing together process and automation, businesses can not only address inefficiencies within workflows between people but also streamline the amount of technology they’re using to get work done. By doing so, they can bring people, systems, and data together so that work flows through the business as efficiently as possible.
Process automation accomplishes this by helping businesses in several ways. The first is identifying where automation is most helpful, capturing where inefficiencies lie within existing processes, and modelling new processes to maximise efficiency.
Further, with workflow automation, businesses can orchestrate their processes, tasks, and documents into highly optimised workflows that ensure work and information is flowing between people, data, and systems in the most efficient way possible.
Another business benefit of process automation is the ability to scale adoption through modern interfaces and engaging, easy-to-use apps. Building on top of optimised workflows, businesses can leverage low-code development tools to easily build applications that bring automated, efficient processes to life for internal and external audiences.
Let’s walk through a scenario that uses the above framework: A company zeroes in on its HR department and realises they have broken processes riddled with manual tasks. They employ intelligent automation to orchestrate workflows that streamline the flow of data and information between the right people and systems.
With the newly optimised workflows, they easily create a custom employee onboarding application using a low-code development platform so that HR team members and new employees can easily flow through the onboarding process. The result? Team members can easily route approvals and information for new hires, and those new employees have a seamless and positive onboarding experience. And now they have the foundation to apply AI on top to screen resumes, answer candidate questions, or a range of other use cases.
Use automation as a vehicle for AI
For many businesses, AI is a destination that will take time and resources to get to. Fortunately, automation can be used as a vehicle to reach that destination faster and easier.
Some of the ways that automation helps businesses adopt AI include improving data quality, speeding up implementation, and creating a culture around automation.
We can all agree that AI is an extension of machine work but still must be managed by humans. So, ensuring that employees embrace AI and are empowered to leverage the technology is critical for businesses. If automation is already in place, businesses can more easily weave AI into an existing culture of technology adoption.
Too many companies get swept up in the excitement of AI without stopping to consider the infrastructure required to support it. Having automated workflows in place will ease the transition to AI and ensure that every team receives the right tools tailored to their needs.
At the end of the day, successful AI hinges on a deep understanding of how to implement it effectively. With a foundation of automation, organisations can unlock the full potential of AI and unlock new possibilities.
