The three trends that AI & Automation leaders need to watch this year
Prepare yourself for the top topics of 2023
It’s a rare moment. The stars align and you get three top thought leaders and experts on AI & Intelligent Automation in front of the camera at the same time. That’s what happened on the last day of January. We kicked off 2023 with the first “What’s the BUZZ?” live stream of the year. With more than 960 registered participants and 1,800+ viewers in total, it’s been the most popular episode of the last 12 months.
» Watch this episode on YouTube or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. «
1) Getting more out of your RPA program
Most organizations have been running RPA programs for several years now with increasing process maturity — intake, value assessment, development, roll-out. According to Frank Casale, they are now wondering: What’s next? As they look at capabilities that complement the bots in production or that enable entirely new automation scenarios, there are two technologies which are becoming more popular:
"IDP [intelligent document processing] and conversational AI are two kind of big plays that are great bolt-ons. And the majority of RPA users are getting real return on investment through the adjacent technologies."
—Frank Casale, Founder The Institute for RPA & AI
Frank’s takeaway from this episode extends how knowledge work changes as a progression of RPA, Intelligent Automation, native AI — and what lies ahead:
2) Managing multi-vendor landscapes
Extending you RPA program often leads to a technology landscape that uses different vendors and products to enable different capabilities: Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), Artificial Intelligence (AI), etc. And even using multiple vendors for the same capability is not uncommon within an enterprise.
"I am hearing from customers that the multi-vendor landscape and the desire to use multiple technologies to do various different things under the umbrella of enterprise automation and AI - is an inevitable, irreversible trend."
—Shail Khiyara, Founder VOCAL Council and President & COO Turbotic
As organizations are facing more technical complexity, Shail encourages Automation and AI leaders to focus one thing above all: People.
3) Becoming the “worker of the future”
As technologies such as RPA, IDP, and AI converge, workers need to start preparing for the future of work. This means staying on top of emerging trends (e.g. Generative AI and ChatGPT) and looking for opportunities to learn and to apply this knowledge. But creating this digital literacy is not just an individual’s objective for staying relevant in the future economy. Businesses and their leaders need to equally embrace it.
"It is about people. It's about that commitment to digital literacy. So, you really owe it to yourself to stay plugged in and educate yourself."
—Ian Barkin, Entrepreneur & Investor
Ian views it as an organizational goal in which incentives need to be aligned as well:
How to catch up on the latest episodes?
Watch this episode on YouTube or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.
Which AI & Intelligent Automation trends are you tracking this year?
What’s next?
Appearances
February 22 - Join me on Daniel Goodstein’s Digital Leaders Show of The Digital Enterprise Institute as we discuss how leaders can use generative AI in business.
Join us for the upcoming episodes of “What’s the BUZZ?”:
February 16 - Alexander Leonida, Founder SilkFlo will share what to look for in Automation in a Multi-Vendor World
February 28 - Mary Purk, Managing Director AI & Analytics Center, Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, will provide insights into Accelerating Your AI adoption Across The Business
March 14 - Tom H. Davenport, Professor and Author, and I will talk about Being All-in On Generative AI — and what that entails.
Follow me on LinkedIn for daily posts about how you can set up & scale your AI program in the enterprise. Activate notifications (🔔) and never miss an update.
Together, let’s turn hype into outcome. 👍🏻
—Andreas