Organizations have been using artificial intelligence (AI) for a long time, often without knowing it. In its simplest form, AI allows machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence — like problem-solving and decision-making — using predefined data. The recent breakthrough of generative AI, on the other hand, allows a machine to learn, problem-solve, and make decisions by compiling and creating an original answer. This is done through neural networks, which mimic how the human brain absorbs and disseminates information.

Generative AI has the power to accelerate the transformation of your organization. However, applying new technology strategically across your organization requires a shift in your organizational strategy and a complete reimagining of the way your people, processes, and technology work together.

The Impact of Generative AI on Your People

The perception that drives generative AI fears is that it will render people obsolete. According to a recent Gallup poll, three in four Americans believe that AI will reduce the number of jobs over the next 10 years.

However, the organizations that will reap the greatest benefits of AI are the ones that use AI not to eliminate employees but to enhance the employee experience. Gartner reports that employees will leave organizations where humans are doing work that generative AI could do instead.

Here are a few areas where AI can be used to support employees:

• Security: AI and automation can detect and respond to threats faster than the often overburdened and understaffed security department. This remediates “alert fatigue” and gives security and IT personnel the opportunity to shift their focus from routine and repetitive tasks to more strategic, analytical, and proactive activities that enhance the organization’s overall security posture.
• Finance: AI can automate the processing of invoices, track payment due dates, and manage payment approvals, reducing manual intervention in the accounts payable process. AI-driven models also have the power to generate financial forecasts and perform scenario analysis, helping organizations plan for different economic conditions and make informed financial decisions.
• HR: AI tools can automate manual tasks like scheduling interviews by considering candidate availability, interviewer schedules, and room bookings. AI also has the power to analyze workforce data to identify diversity and inclusion gaps and suggest strategies for improvement. With AI, HR professionals have more time to focus on more strategic and value-added tasks, such as developing talent strategies, fostering a positive work culture, and managing complex employee relations issues.

In short, AI and automation accelerate people to be a force multiplier. By implementing generative AI, organizations can streamline processes, reduce manual workloads, and free up their employees to focus on tasks that require creativity, critical thinking, and strategic decision-making, ultimately driving innovation and growth.

The Impact of Generative AI on Your Processes

Process improvement is a continuous effort that starts with aligning your strategy with your business goals. The convergence of new AI developments with maturing automation tools creates new opportunities to reimagine your business processes.

Reimagining your processes for an automated and artificially intelligent environment involves first understanding the relationship between your people and processes and having a plan in place for change management.

As with any process improvement initiative, start by mapping your existing business processes in detail. Define criteria for evaluating processes for automation. Common criteria used in process evaluation are:

• Complexity
• Repetitive tasks
• High error rates
• Data-intensive nature
• Scalability potential
• Impact on customer satisfaction

The key to success when incorporating automation and AI into your processes is to start small. When done right, automating your processes with AI will help you achieve your business goals, including cost reduction, improved efficiency, enhanced customer experience, or increased competitiveness.

The Impact of Generative AI on Your Technology

It’s important for organizations to take a slow and structured approach to implementing generative AI. This starts with developing a framework for how to handle shadow IT. The number of available generative AI apps is growing rapidly, and with no set guidelines, app sprawl across your organization can become problematic.

The top three considerations that must be made before stepping into AI are:

• Security: Do you have a clear plan for data security and privacy? Evaluate whether there are provisions in the budget for data governance, data security tools, and compliance with data privacy regulations.
• Data: Do you have the necessary data storage, quality, and integration capabilities to support generative AI? Clean, well-structured, and accessible data is crucial for training AI models effectively.
• Scalability: Can your technology infrastructure scale to accommodate the increased data processing and computing demands that generative AI may require? Ensure that your systems can handle the expected growth in data and AI workloads.
• Integration: How will generative AI solutions integrate with your existing technology stack? Ensure compatibility with your current software, databases, and APIs.

It’s important to start thinking about these considerations now, even if you think you’re still years away from integrating generative AI into your organization. Gartner predicts that by 2024, 40% of all enterprise applications will have embedded conversational AI.

Getting Started

There are several simple ways to incorporate generative AI into your organization. However, getting the most out of AI requires an organizational shift that reimagines your business strategy and calls for foundational digital changes. We’ve helped hundreds of organizations transform their people, processes, and technology to achieve digital-focused success, and we can help you on your AI journey.