Demystifying Automation and AI for Your Organization

In a recent survey, nearly 40% of our respondents identified the inability to find talent as the biggest challenge for their organization, highlighting the growing importance of employee satisfaction and retention. It’s important to remember that the employee experience encompasses more than competitive pay and lucrative benefits packages; research from Salesforce shows that those who are dissatisfied with their work technology are more than twice as likely to leave their employer in the next year and less than half as likely to recommend their employer to potential employees.

The way you implement and optimize technology in your organization will ultimately be the top differentiator between struggling to find and retain employees and becoming a sought-after employer of top talent.

The Role of Automation and AI in Your Organization

When it comes to automation and artificial intelligence (AI), getting started doesn’t always mean starting from scratch. Tech giants have started to deploy capabilities across their business applications, making tech-driven productivity and efficiency accessible for all.

The key to choosing where to invest in automation and AI to support your employees is in developing a thoughtful strategy that considers your people, processes, and technology. It’s time for you to explore ways to optimize your processes if:

• Your team uses multiple systems, spreadsheets, or data sources to complete tasks.
• Your team is spending hours (or even days) on cumbersome manual processes instead of high-value tasks.

Using AI and automation to support your team not only creates efficiency but allows your team to do more fulfilling and valuable higher-order thinking.

Watch how Microsoft Copilot can change the way your team tackles everyday work.

Want to hear more? View the entire on-demand recording.

Automation Tools

Organizations who operate legacy systems and applications can still take advantage of automation by leveraging tools like robotic process automation (RPA). The key to success when choosing a tool is to identify the problem you are trying to solve and the scope of the processes to be automated.

Use Cases

• RPA can automate the task of data entry by extracting data from one application or system and inputting it into another without human intervention. For instance, an RPA bot can automatically transfer data from emails to a database or from an Excel spreadsheet to an ERP system.
• Built-in workflow automation can streamline the approval process for expense reports. When an employee submits an expense report, the workflow system can route it to the relevant managers for approval, automatically notifying them and tracking the progress until the report is approved or rejected.
• Low code platforms can be used to automate the creation of simple mobile app interfaces. For example, a low code platform can enable a non-technical user to quickly build a basic mobile app for collecting customer feedback without writing extensive code.
• Integration platforms can automate the process of synchronizing customer data between a CRM system and a marketing automation platform. When a new customer is added or updated in the CRM, the integration platform ensures the same data is reflected in the marketing automation system.
• iBPMS can automate complex decision-making processes. For instance, in a loan approval process, an iBPMS can automatically evaluate an applicant's credit history, income, and other relevant data to make an informed decision on whether to approve or deny the loan application.

Each of these technologies can be used to automate various tasks, making business processes more efficient and reducing the need for manual intervention.

Top Challenges in Modernization

The easiest step of any modernization initiative is identifying the areas of your organization that are prime for automation and selecting the right tools. Where organizations struggle most is in developing a strategy, constructing a scalable architecture, and implementing a governance framework.

• Strategy: Many organizations struggle to define a comprehensive digital modernization strategy. They may not fully understand how technology can best support their long-term objectives, leading to a lack of clarity in their approach. If the strategy is disconnected from the organization’s core mission, it can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities.
• Architecture: One of the biggest architecture challenges is integrating new digital solutions with existing legacy systems. Many organizations have outdated technology infrastructure that doesn't easily support modernization efforts. Another top challenge is ensuring that the architecture can scale to accommodate growing data volumes and user loads.
• Governance: Governance challenges often revolve around change management. Getting buy-in from employees and stakeholders, and managing the cultural shift that comes with modernization, can be difficult.

Investments to Make Now

An investment in technology is an investment in your employees — and in the future of your organization. Our team can help you determine where automation and AI fit in your organization and create a strategy that encompasses your architecture and governance.