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A recent study of 200 large companies conducted by Bain & Co and published by RPA software provider UiPath found many companies that have already deployed generative AI are using it to enable automation across the organization.
More than half (53%) of executives surveyed said they had deployed some form of generative AI, with 45% predicting that the integration of automation and AI tech will catalyze a major transformation of their industry.
While the technology holds great promise across many sectors, choosing the processes to automate is a key step in delivering ROI. Reworked spoke with five leaders in the space to get their perspective on how to get the most out of these new capabilities.
Focus on Early, Easy Wins
While the automation of processes has become a necessity for many sectors and organizations, Rod Garcia, VP of engineering at Slack, said there is still no one-size-fits all automation strategy.
"Automation is fundamental to the way that businesses share information, streamline processes and communicate — and many times, the most impact we’ll see and experience is on employees themselves." But, he said, automation investments should depend on an organization or team’s unique challenges and goals.
Organizations that are not starting from that point of view risk wasting time and resources implementing automation that makes little to no impact.
To avoid this, Garcia said organizations need to look at what processes are ready to be automated and what processes need more time. The starting point? Look at the everyday processes that take more time than needed or have a negative impact on efficiency and productivity.
These processes could be as simple as processes for gaining approvals through legal departments or sharing sales lead information from one tool to another. It could even mean rethinking how teams kick off new projects by creating processes that automatically share files and background information, schedule intro calls and track work.
Team building and help center requests are other areas that organizations don’t often think about when it comes to opportunities for automation, Garcia said. Yet, simple automations can enable workers to share project statuses more easily, remind teammates about major project milestones and streamline help requests to ensure responders have all they need to triage more effectively.
“These are all great places to start infusing simple automations that can quickly help teams to visualize what can be done and the potential benefits they’ll begin to see,” he said.
Thinking Beyond RPA
When considering automation, it can be easy to think about robotic process automation (RPA), but automation is much more than that, said ISG business development executive Brian Thompson. It also includes intelligent document processing (IDP), natural language processing (NLP), workflow management and orchestration, automation for IT operations (AIOps) and, of course, generative AI.
To understand a company's automation opportunities, Thompson recommends starting with a high-level scan of the areas of interest and following that up with interviews and workshops to determine the process landscape and better understand and inventory the process types, process "owners" and technology required to move forward. In many cases, initial interviews reveal that executives intuitively know where there are opportunities.
From there, he said, you can more easily develop a "heat map" of your automation opportunities based on the company's unique situation.
Once that is done, Thompson suggests taking deep dives into the identified opportunities and developing a detailed business case and high-level implementation planning draft. Doing this, he said, allows for a clearer understanding of any challenges with the existing processes (if any) and where automation can help. It also helps leaders not only understand where specific opportunities exist but also quantify potential savings and benefits.
“From this, organizations need to develop the high-level solution framework and overall Intelligent Automation approach that may include AI, ML, cognitive AI, RPA or aspects of all of them," he said, noting this allows them to create a true roadmap to moving forward.
Related Article: What Is Robotic Process Automation?
Capturing 'Swivel the Chair' Moments
Enterprise automation has been reshaping how companies and their workforce perceive their roles, but many organizations still patch together their processes using existing tools, leaving untouched the daily routines that could benefit from automation, said Malcolm Ross, SVP of product strategy at Appian.
"If you're considering implementing or updating your department-owned process automation for the first time, it can be difficult to determine where to begin. So how do you identify what processes are ready for automation and when should you do it?"
When deciding which processes are ready for automation, business and IT leaders should first identify where teams are experiencing what he describes as “swivel the chair” moments — or moments when a worker either needs to pivot from one system to another or turn to a coworker for information to proceed with their individual work.
“If your team regularly experiences high-volume, time-consuming tasks and processes that require the mindshare of the full team or are error-prone when done manually, then you have identified prime candidates for process automation," Ross said.
Once you've captured those moments, Ross says leaders need to review the identified workflows and talk to the team to understand where things are going wrong. Are employees experiencing long completion times for one step in a process, lengthy wait times between steps in a workflow, reworking previously completed tasks or encountering great variation in process flows and completion times?
“If you are noticing any of these challenges in your everyday work processes, you need automation to streamline and improve accuracy in your organization’s workflows,” he said.
He notes some key warning signs that may indicate automation is warranted — and needed.
For instance, if the organization is experiencing a lack of data access across departments and knowledge workers, or if process standardization is an issue, then implementing process automation at the root-cause of these will likely propel the organization toward long-term and lasting improvements, he said.
“The key to successful automation is not only buy-in across leadership and departments, but selecting the right place to start,” he said. “By automating the process that will be the lightest lift and have the greatest business impact first, your organization will be able to use the lessons learned from these pilot projects to inform larger, more enterprise-scale automation initiatives.”
Consider the Voice of the Employee
Quite often employees are in the best position to determine which areas of a business or process need automation.
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In a recent study of IT decision-makers conducted by ABBYY, respondents cited "pressure from employees" and "to help with employee burnout" as the main drivers for digital transformation.
Burnout, said Maxime Vermeir, senior director of AI strategy at ABBYY, is a consequence of excessive manual work involved in certain document-centric processes, which employees find mundane, time-consuming and offering little satisfaction. It makes this type of work a prime candidate for unlocking the benefits of automation, but the most common path taken is not always the most efficient.
Vermeir said it's critical for leaders to start any type of automation project by getting a facts-based, analytical assessment of current workflows that includes people, processes and content. Using technology like process intelligence will provide a true representation and in-depth analysis of how processes really work without employee bias. In turn, this will enable the creation of a digital twin of company processes that business leaders can use to assess what process are prime for automation.
Process simulation is a new trend shaping automation decision-making, Vermeir said. It allows organizations to evaluate changes before deploying them to understand what impact they would have, based on all the historical facts their systems have accumulated. This model can be adjusted to reflect any
proposed changes to the process to enable informed decisions about the potential impact of change.
“Process simulation helps leaders make informed decisions regarding resource allocation and process changes before being implemented, ultimately leading to optimized operational efficiency and customer satisfaction,” he said.
Related Article: Intelligent Process Automation Is Here — Where Are You?
Automation in a GenAI-Crazed Future
Looking ahead, it's important to acknowledge how new technology will factor into the future of automation.
Tony Lee, CTO of Hyperscience, said he's seen the demand to uplevel tech stacks and integrate things like generative AI technology skyrocket across organizations, but that differs from current automation practices, as it generates content typically associated with a higher degree of labor. This evolution and interest in emerging technology does not mean automation will become obsolete or sidelined but rather provides a new opportunity.
“As generative AI advances, automation will only improve when powered by the technology and integrated simultaneously,” he said.
“There will always be mundane processes within business operations that must be completed, and implementing automation tools into tech stacks will maximize operational efficiency while freeing up employee time to complete the work that matters, such as further developing generative AI products.”