Artificial intelligence has become one of the most hyped technologies on the planet. Company leaders everywhere are wondering how they can use AI to upgrade their business. While the most exciting use cases make headlines, it’s the practical applications making an everyday difference that organizations should focus on first. Incremental yet tangible AI-powered improvements in common business processes offer immense value without massive disruption.
Getting Traction from Transactional Efficiencies
Many companies turned to AI hoping for an instant revolution that would dazzle customers while trouncing competitors. The reality is that flashy AI projects often fizzle in the face of business fundamentals. The building blocks of organizational success are based on executing high-volume routine tasks as accurately and efficiently as possible. AI thrives when used to refine and automate baseline operations.
For example, data entry clerical workers used to manually type information from forms and documents into various business systems all day long. Automating this tedious yet essential activity with AI data extraction tools boosts speed and accuracy while reducing costs associated with hiring multiple full-time employees.
Upgrading Decision-Making with Augmented Intelligence
Another down-to-earth way to extract value from AI is equipping knowledge workers with augmented analytics tools. Most employees rely on making small judgment calls all day to perform their jobs. AI should not aim to supplant human experience and expertise, but to supplement it through data-driven insights for better daily decisions.
Equipping call center representatives with customer lifetime value dashboards increases cross-sell and upsell rates. Empowering bank loan officers to quickly check applicant risk scoring enables faster qualifications with reduced default exposure. Applying AI to amplify institutional knowledge across everyday choices compounded over months and years generates enormous impact compared to long-shot AI moonshots that often miss the mark.
Automating Manual Document Processes
Few business activities exemplify the practical power of applied AI better than automating manual document workflows. Critical functions like contracting, invoicing, compliance and case management fundamentally rely on creating, sharing, finding and analyzing documents. Nevertheless, paper-based systems are slow, siloed and risky. Digitizing documentation into cloud content management platforms has helped, but manual user processes still drain productivity and increase errors.
The people at ISG explain that intelligent contract management solutions use AI tools and techniques like machine learning algorithms, natural language processing and optical character recognition to understand and automatically manage documents. For contracting, this means AI can automate repetitive steps for request, approval, negotiation, signing, and renewal without human involvement.
Start with the Quick Wins
When exploring how to capitalize on AI capabilities, companies should first look to streamline their own business fundamentals. Target repetitive tasks core to baseline operations where automation can drive direct savings. Then look to insert smart decision support tools that improve the many daily choices of knowledge workers. Finally, aggressively pursue AI to eliminate friction and risks embedded in manual document workflows central to regulated industries.
Radical AI transformation may garner big headlines but often fails to satisfy shareholders seeking reliable returns on expensive tech investments. Delivering ongoing marginal gains behind the scenes does more to improve fundamentals over the long run. Target quick yet tangible AI wins on everyday business processes to demonstrate true functional value while priming operations for the next big wave of innovation sure to come.
Conclusion
Organizations should strategically tap AI to address friction and fatigue points on frequently used baseline business operations. Compared to flashy moonshot initiatives, injecting intelligence into workaday responsibilities offers more accessible impact while building trust and capabilities for more ambitious AI adoption down the road. Master processing transactions efficiently, make better recurrent decisions faster, and automatically manage documents intelligently as the first mile markers on the practical path to AI business success.
