Large enterprises are estimated to have an average of more than 100 different applications that employees must toggle between to get the work done. Now imagine a workflow scenario where robots line up a flow of just-in-time tasks on their desktops! This will free people from the complexities of navigating through numerous applications and workflows across multiple systems.

Sounds far-fetched? Think again. The handshake between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation is a reality. This intelligent convergence into a unified technology ecosystem can help re-write yesterday’s paradigm of ‘automate for efficiency’ to ‘automate for value.’

Addressing the Human Experience Factor

The AI-Automation Center of Excellence (CoE) amalgamates enterprise-wide standards, processes and procedures, best practices and robust governance models. This enables organizations to intelligently scale their digital and automation led transformation initiatives.

Beyond such efficiency, organizations must look at AI-driven automation from a ‘human experience’ standpoint vis-a-vis purpose and opportunities for the workforce. This will need a pan-organization culture of shared belief and understanding of the automation-driven transformation strategy.

Improving the human experience also calls for the re-imagination and enhancement of workforce skills and capabilities. Business leaders must understand the impact of automation on the workforce and collaborate with HR stakeholders to upskill and cross-skill their talent. They must also look at what and how employees at different skill and hierarchical levels can do more – vertically and laterally – with their time freed up by automation technologies.

Essentially, organizations must continually assess the scope for human-machine convergence and re-imagine ways to bring them together.

Skilling – A Critical Need

The CoE model enables significant integration and centralization of operations to become a powerful catalyst for change. It forms the near-perfect intersection of command and control with speed and agility. Automation is seen and addressed as an enterprise-wide challenge with a clear vision and strategy to capture and deliver sustainable value.

However, this calls for seamless access to and availability of skills. Today, there exists a significant skill gap, and organizations need to effectively upskill their talent in a future-relevant manner. This will be the tipping point of how successfully this model can bring gains to companies.

The AI-Automation CoE is key for organizations to become autonomous digital enterprises in today’s digital-only landscape. Whether in-house or outsourced, CoEs can help achieve the right balance between intelligent automation and human intervention to maximize business value with speed and agility.

Read how AI-Automation CoE can help accelerate the last mile AI journey

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