Organisations are feeling the pressure to remain competitive and are turning to new technologies to give themselves an extra edge. There has been a lot of discussion around artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation, but how can companies incorporate them into their existing businesses in order to stay ahead of the pack? We have some pointers.
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In a survey of more than 3100 IT and business executives by IT services firm Accenture, 85 per cent of respondents anticipate that the pace of technology change will increase at a rapid rate in the next three years. Many organisations find themselves overwhelmed at the pace of change and are unsure on how to make use of new technology advances to stay ahead of the game.
We’ve talked extensively about AI here on Lifehacker Australia. The technology juggernauts such as Google, Microsoft and Apple are all making investments in AI with things like digital personal assistants. Google and Microsoft have both recently open sourced their internal AI research tools in a bid to fuel progress in this field of computer science.
While there are moral and ethical debates going on about how AI would impact the global workforce and humanity as a whole in the future, the reality is AI technology is incredibly useful on a personal and professional level. Putting aside personal digital assistants like Cortana, Google Now and Siri, enterprises can use AI and automation technology to increase business agility, reduce complexity of systems and operations and continually experiment with new products and services.
Organisations are certainly recognising the potential of AI and smart automation. In the Accenture survey, 70 per cent of executives said they are making significant investments in AI-related technology compared with two years ago. More than half said they plan to use machine learning and embedded AI solutions extensively.
Microsoft itself is already using machine learning to save itself millions of dollars by using the technology for fraud detection and financial forecasting.
For enterprises looking to make a start in using AI and automation technologies, they will have to redefine both their businesses and the way they manage their IT. They will have to do things differently and incorporate AI as a new and important layer in their IT architecture. This may be daunting for some companies, which is where this cheat sheet by Accenture will come in handy.
Organisations may already be using some type of AI technology, such as business intelligence and analytics tools, without even realising it. Here’s Accenture’s guide to creating a 100-day plan for incorporating an AI and intelligent automation strategy in your company:
Is your company currently looking at deploying AI and intelligent automation tools? Let us know int he comments.
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