Artificial intelligence (AI) won’t fade anytime soon, and since Generative AI (genAI) joined the party in Nov. 2022, innovative business strategies will only get louder.
The not-so-fun part of AI and genAI’s growth shows up when businesses resist change and the adoption of emerging technologies. But the truth is – business leaders must step up.
AI and genAI are consuming — if not commanding — a lot of business presence, and it only makes sense in the current landscape of skyrocketing demands, where U.S. labor growth can’t even support economic growth without AI. Continually scaling economies during talent shortages and gaps requires AI.
Organizations are increasingly dependent on IT support for meeting demands, those from internal employees and external consumers. Employees must have nonstop access to systems needed for their jobs, especially when working from remote locations. Customers too must have uninterrupted connections to websites, and they’re unwilling to tolerate those that don’t work or cause them to wait. No business can succeed without retaining talent and customers, and their expectations cannot be met without AI and automation for IT, ensuring smooth, streamlined processes when it comes to service request management, system uptime, incident remediation, and more.
Economic downturns including inflation and rising interest rates, talent shortages, supply chain disruptions, and high customer expectations are just some of the critical issues weighing businesses down, and perhaps putting them in jeopardy.
It’s Not About Automating All Tasks Right Away
Businesses shouldn’t rush or scramble to get an AI and automation masterpiece up and running overnight to produce immediate results. With all eyes on outcomes, it’s easy to want them right away. But in all reality, orchestration from end-to-end takes one step at a time.
Even Christopher Strachey, who’s said to have written the earliest successful AI program, had to start somewhere. His checkers program, created in 1951 at the University of Manchester, ran on one computer but at a unacceptably slow pace. It wasn’t until a full year later that the program could play a game of checkers in a reasonable amount of time.
When it comes to starting small and having much-needed patience, server provisioning is an ideal example, where in its many small tasks can become one process, and that process can be completely automated all the way through. These tasks include:
- The initial request
- Change control and approval
- Knowledge of where the server itself will physically (or virtually go)
- Server specifications
- The applications needed to be installed on the server
- The IP address and firewalls
- Post-configuration changes
- Confirmation that the server was provisioned successfully
- Connection details are sent back to the administrator or requester.
That’s nine tasks.
The best approach starts with identifying the most pressing problems – those that prevent business growth and cause needless expenses. From there, leaders should assess which automations are most applicable to their main challenges, and then analyze scalability and determine the maximum level of applicability.
No mission comes without challenges. Today’s era of AI and automation bring privacy and security concerns to the font of the line, along with governance, risk, and compliance.
It’s a crucial time to implement automation, but only with careful consideration to do so safely. Another reason to not rush into things, organizations should automate a small, repetitive task before one that’s complex. Slowly but surely, it will be ok to scale up as experience and confidence is gained along the way.
A Business Benefits and Goals Automation Mindset
AI and automation play a powerful role in driving success as transformative components of businesses, and in the last few months, have earned a No. 1 spot, and are top of mind for leaders.
At a basic level, as AI and automation take over tasks, the more efficient and productive the organization becomes. IT professionals trapped in a cycle of repeating manual tasks can instead spend time on high-value tasks that require creative thinking and an innovative mind.
Freeing up knowledgeable IT staff from repetitive, tiresome work also reduces the chance for inevitable, but unfortunate, human error. Mistakes in many IT processes, like employee offboarding and resource provisioning, can lead to damaging security issues. Automation lowers potential for errors while increasing business-critical accuracy and consistency.
AI and automation don’t work a typical 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. shift, but run 24/7 instead. Considering cost savings as a top priority for organizations today, AI and automation reduce labor costs because staff are no longer needed for as many shifts. AI and automation create opportunities for upskilling employees and empowering them to do high-value jobs that come with greater purpose.
As the AI and automation journey continues, businesses can optimize their operations and provide enhanced experiences to customers, which positions them for an innovation-driven competitive advantage in the marketplace. Take chatbots for example – perhaps the best thing to happen to ITSM in a while! Known for freeing up L1 engineers, chatbots can fill requests and meet customer needs on their own, and at an expected fast pace. AI and automation can ensure immediate gratification with much faster response times.
Today’s consumers won’t wait for help. In fact, a recent study found a whopping 90 percent of customers say getting an immediate response to a customer service question is “important” or “very important.”
A customer-centric lens with a focus on agility can help organizations determine where to start implementing AI and automation, as they align with today’s top business priorities.
The global AI market as of June 2023 has propelled to a staggering $142.3 billion. The surge is largely fueled by AI’s transformative applications and customer experience enrichment, across industries like retail, banking, telecommunications, and more. By embracing AI’s potential, businesses can improve the digital transformation process, stay competitive, and provide customers with exceptional products, services, and experiences.
As the future proves to be unpredictable, organizations must take the very first step sooner rather than later – thinking about business goals and how small starts with automation will help achieve them.
Watch Resolve’s latest webinar on demand for much more on this topic. You’ll walk away with three tactics to start applying AI and automation according to your organization’s priorities.
