Connections

By Karl Redenbach, Co-Founder and CEO, LiveTiles –

The rise of AI will finally free humans from the mundane tasks they have longed to leave behind (and that are holding businesses back). Data is the new oil, and you’re sitting on a mountain of it.

The way businesses utilize the information at their fingertips, and create an intelligent workplace, will be critical to how they scale and release the talents of their people. At LiveTiles, we’ve recently employed a futurist to join our team and make no mistake, the robots are coming and every business needs one (or 10!). The power of AI and chat-bot technology has come a long way in recent years and has the potential to transform — even in simple ways — how we perform common business tasks.

The information in your email, your calendar, your databases and repositories are potentially all touch points for simple AI technology that can streamline the way we work and help us solve common business challenges.

LiveTiles Futurist George Muir, formerly with IKEA for over 26 years, is predicting more than one change to how business is done in the not-so-distant future. How enterprises respond to advancements in technology and a constantly connected world will be critical.

He is predicting the rise of a new type of workforce, and a shift from people craving a ‘work-life’ balance to a ‘work-life’ blend. This change will be driven by the digitization of business, which includes working with robots and artificial intelligence.

Whatever your view of the future workplace, it will most certainly be different. To maintain growth, retain talent and meet demand, successful enterprises will need to address how they will create an environment where staff are engaged with the flexibility that will become commonplace.

AI technology has the potential to address many of the challenges facing the future workplace, where enterprises must weigh up how they provide flexibility without sacrificing productivity. With the ability to automate mundane tasks, analyze data quickly and find information more efficiently, AI technology can significantly boost productivity and release the talents of your people.

Science fiction enthusiasts and technology experts have offered their own predictions, some rooted in cynicism and fear of a robot takeover, others rooted in optimism and hope for a happier human workforce. I tend to align with the optimists on this one. The rise of AI will finally free humans from the mundane tasks they have longed to leave behind (and are holding businesses back).

This isn’t about pitting man vs. machine, but integrating effective and intelligent software that can eliminate mundane tasks that erode productivity, engagement, performance and increase time spent on revenue raising tasks.

A bot for everybody

AI assistants can be the ultimate companion, potentially doubling (or more) productivity, reducing errors and allowing ‘their human’ to work at a higher level by automating time consuming work. The potential is enormous and the case for individual AI assistants for every single employee is compelling.

How many vacation days do I have left? Where is the expense form? I’ve lost my password? I am new, where can I find some information? These are all simple questions that often result in hundreds or thousands of emails and hours spent across an enterprise. Simple chat bot technology has the potential to automate all of these by interacting with the data you already have.

I firmly believe that a bot for everyone pleases no one and the best way to deliver a bot that truly assists is to have either your own, or one configured to a specific function.

At LiveTiles we believe in highly personalized technology and are currently building specialized AI solutions for a number of enterprises. We envisage multiple chat bots across large organizations that each solve their specific challenges. For example: An HR bot; an IT bot; a meeting bot; or even a cafeteria bot (which can tell staff what’s on the menu today).

For businesses, chat bots are a scalable, affordable solution to improve productivity, release their workforce from monotonous tasks and move towards a greater work-life balance.

Even simple Q&A chat bots can have a huge impact across your organization, and the information you currently have is all you need to build them. There is a clear shift from digital to intelligent workplace, and it will be powered by scalable AI that can deployed across an organization to make it more efficient and productive.

While hiring a human personal assistant for every staff member would be a logistical and financial nightmare, the reality of using your data to create simple AI technology is an effective compromise. With the ability to automate time-consuming tasks and focus more on revenue-raising work, the productivity benefits could significantly change how businesses operate and scale. Data is the new oil, and it’s time you thought about utilizing it.

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