One of the most important market trends of the 21st century is that the digital age has initiated our journey towards minimalism! The market moving towards a customer-centric approach is not a coincidence. The rules of the game have changed ever since businesses realized the power of leveraging technology. Digital transformation companies are helping businesses to simplify their operations by adopting digital platforms and technologies.
As the B2B industry is snowballing, many companies are coming up with new technologies to streamline business operations even more. Take cloud computing, for example. The cloud market is expected to reach a whopping trillion dollars in the next 5 years! Businesses are rapidly adopting cloud technology once they understand its potential. The tech is so saturated in the market that almost 94% of the enterprises use some sort of cloud technology.
As the market brings such a dynamic piece of technologies to the table, Artificial Intelligence remains undisputed for the following reasons- it's adaptive, modular, efficient, and exciting! AI is not even at its best form yet, but this didn't stop businesses worldwide from recognizing its true potential. A report suggests that almost 9 out of 10 leading companies have either invested or are looking to invest in AI. Besides these, AI consulting companies facilitate many businesses to bring their best foot forward by envisioning an AI-infused business process.
Can AI replace humans?
Even when a nearly ideal system exists, it is subjected to human errors. Humans can be distracted, get tired, and can be less productive under an enormous workload! AI-infused business operations leave zero to a bare minimum window for errors. The system doesn’t get fatigued. It doesn’t get less productive while doing repetitive processes.
On the contrary, AI systems are designed in such a way that their productivity increases when they repeatedly perform a task. To be precise, 54% of the business executives say that AI has significantly increased their business productivity!
On top of this, AI systems are becoming smarter by implementing technologies like Machine Learning, Swarm Learning, and Deep Learning. As the AI system is exposed to different situations, it understands the context of the scenario and records it. It is then transferred to other devices that are running on the same AI. This is how voice search assistants were able to advance so much under a short window.
All those dangerous tasks previously performed by humans that posed a significant risk to their lives can now be done using IoT devices and AI systems. But there is no way that 100% replacement of humans by AI can be efficient. Understanding its decision-making process is still a black box to humanity, and it will take decades before we crack that! So, as of now, AI taking over humanity is still a work of fiction!
What do we mean by AI and humans working together?
People often imagine giant machines orbiting over a blue power source when they think of AI. One cannot blame them as that's how our predecessors imagined AI. They didn't equate to the exceptional computing prowess that we hold in our hands now!
However, AI implementation in a business is almost always subtle. The work happens behind the screen and doesn't have flying orbs around it! AI is used in certain places to replace the workforce only to allocate that resource in a more demanding task. So, AI is basically streamlining the operations. Employees can use AI as a "tool" to increase the overall efficiency, precision, and speed at which they perform a task. An active AI strategy will look more like a renovation and reallocation than a massive lay-off! In fact, a report finds that replacing humans with AI will only work in the short term.
As we said earlier, AI is more of a tool than anything. AI-enabled systems help humans rather than take decisions on their own. When AI and humans work together, they have a higher chance of achieving the organization's more significant goals than working separately.
The three main ways in which AI systems assist humans are by,
- Assisting our cognitive abilities.
- Assisting in social interaction.
- Assistance in the form of robotics.
Take Oracle's Human Capital Management system, for instance. The system is an embodiment of advanced and practical AI solutions than anything. Yet, they are not a replacement for the HR executives. However, when these AI apps are used as a tool, the overall efficiency of the HR executives increases dramatically. It helps a great deal in data management, organization, and visualization, allowing them to concentrate more on the task than the means to do the task.
The five pillars of effective AI adoption to scale-up
believe it or not, creativity is limited to only life forms! AI has not yet crossed the barrier of "awareness." Though AI can be looked at from the perspective of philosophy, a scientific approach towards it is the one that's going to help you scale up! The 5-step program to get the most out of AI by fusing it with the human knowledge pool is as follows.
- Redefining your business operations.
- Open to experimentation.
- A strategy that puts AI at its core.
- An effective data management system.
- Adapting to the new AI wave.
1. Redefining your business operations
The new wave of digitalization has created a lot of opportunities for tech penetration across different industries. Many companies are reluctant to take a step towards AI implementation as they have to put a lot of effort into it. AI can drastically transform a business operation by either bringing a fresh perspective to the table or by assisting the process with precision. However, the business process should have enough space to accommodate the AI to implement these changes.
2. Open to experimentation
AI can be divided into two based on the functions they carry out.
- Strong AI
- Weak AI
As the term suggests, strong AI is more equipped to carry out complex business operations than weak AI. This mainly has to do with the freedom with which it operates. For example, weak AI can only work in a minimal space, and for the most part, it is confined and cannot find solutions on its own. On the contrary, strong AI systems are capable of arriving at solutions on their own. Their approach towards problem-solving is more equipped than its counterpart. Businesses should try their luck out with such advanced systems, as they can provide a whole new dimension to your operations!
3. A strategy that puts AI at its core
Businesses should experiment with AI and understand how it reacts to their particular business model. Only through experimentation can businesses form a solid digital strategy with AI at its core. Once this strategy is set, AI can bring a lot of options to the table. A multitude of opportunities opens up as AI penetrates deeper into your business process. At the very least, it will provide you with valuable insights into the process.
4. An effective data management system
AI is all about learning and unlearning stuff. To do this, it needs enough data upon which it can base its decisions. As the system comes across different scenarios, it can produce better outputs. The more the system learns, the better it operates. Understanding the crucial data of the business processes can help AI systems to apply context to a particular situation. For example, AI and robotics are predominantly used to produce products with maximum precision and uniformity in manufacturing industries. Suppose the system comes across a faulty material, it has to make a decision on the spot as to whether halt the process or proceed further. To make all these decisions within a few seconds and proceed with the process, the AI system is paired with a capable data management system.
5. Adapting to the new AI wave
This is probably the most challenging part of building a strong AI adoption strategy. Even though AI is a predominant technology in the market, the skills related to AI are thinly spread across the workforce. People who are well-versed in AI development and operations are hard to find. Even if your company comes across one, the price tag is pretty hefty. Even more than that, the existing employees of your business need to understand this move you are making and should adapt to the new process. Employees obviously need some time to get used to the new change, but you can get the most out of the system only when your employees embrace the change!
Wrapping this up,
Sometimes, businesses focus on the immediate results instead of going for an organic change. AI implementation is one such thing. Replacing the workforce with AI is much easier than equipping your employees to work alongside the technology. However, this will give you the initial boost but leveraging the full potential of the technology remains untapped. To reimagine is to move forward!
