Before you shake your head on the title, let me share that this is a practitioner's view of things and something that I’ve realised over 25 years of working with enterprise customers of all sizes.
It’s always been a bit of a pickle for any enterprise to deploy technology. It’s almost like the clichéd kid in the candy store kind of experience. There’s a lot on display; personal computing devices, business software of all sizes, security systems of all kinds, productivity software and hardware; all this in addition to the plethora of machines, equipment and appliances that keep a business running. Deploying the right mix of technology has forever been a challenge. There’s petabytes written around business versus technology, the changing role of the CIO, how CDO’s are the new thing that they would now bridge business and technology in ways that are about creating this right balance.
But what if this wasn’t a matter of choice at all? In fact, what if choosing to deploy one or the other is a mistake by itself? Before we lose ourselves to arguments around technology and needs of any enterprise, let’s get back to basics for a minute.
Any enterprise is made up of 3 things - people, products/machines and processes. The combination of these 3 “elements”, and yes, these are the basic elements of any business, are the ones that create magic in every enterprise in terms of how they build and deliver their products and services to their customers.
And if you asked any business owner which of these three elements would be the most important for their business to allocate funds and resources, the answer would get you back to the candy store experience. With a lot of reluctance, given that a business isn’t allowed to choose all of them, limited primarily by their ability to find suppliers or partners that allow them to innovate across this spectrum, they choose to deploy either some part of hardware or software or services to bolster a part of their abilities, as they have always done so and their predecessors before them.
Then again, the limitation is only hypothetical. Just as that kid in the store wouldn’t imagine he could actually ask for the entire store, businesses aren’t asking their technology or solution providers/partners to work across the full spectrum of people, products/machines and processes.
So, let’s get back to the elements. Each of the three key elements, namely, people, products/machines and processes, can be augmented and all of these elements in their entirety can be made intelligent. Augmentation is focused on three key outcomes; being able to make anything smart, then connected and finally, intelligent. Each of the elements have their own ways of getting smart, connected or intelligent.
People could get really smart with Wearables/IOT, connected with Augmented Reality and intelligent with ML/AI.
Products/machines could get really smart with IOT, connected to their peers and to their human friends, with Digital, and get intelligent with ML/AI.
Processes could get really smart with ERP and other enterprise systems, connected with Digital (cloud/web/apps/bots and the like) and intelligent with ML/AI.
A true exercise in transformation would involve in part or in full, all of the 3 elements as it’s not possible to get truly augmented and intelligent without making each of the components augmented and intelligent.
Herein, comes the new AI to the rescue!
Augmented Intelligence, or the new AI, is focused on holistic transformation versus the piecemeal approach of yore. People.AI, Product.AI and Process.AI technology, solutions and services offer to get every element of the business smart, connected and intelligent.
Read about how we have used the new AI to transform people, products and processes in different industries for our clients here.
Happy Reading!
