Business process management's (BPM's) traditional focus on process efficiency and cost reduction has given way to agility and digital automation. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) has the ability to take human cost and latency out of processes, as well as provide new interfaces that customers enjoy.
So says Damian Michael, MD of Innovo Networks, a Cape Town-based voice, data and cloud provider that is building what it says will be the first virtual assistant in South Africa.
Together, AI and BPM could play a significant role within organisations, according to Boston-based BPM vendor, bpm'online. It believes AI is not only a means of injecting intelligence into business processes, it is pushing BPM capabilities to their limits in a way that "dramatically accelerates" the drive towards digital transformation.
According to bpm'online, organisations that leverage the power of AI for building the most efficient process flow are experiencing drastic enhancements in operational efficiency. In fact, the company maintains that AI-powered solutions for business process automation "produce business outcomes that go far beyond typical process performance results".
It's not surprising therefore that, according to Forrester Research, BPM vendors are investing heavily in AI. In its report, Artificial Intelligence Revitalises BPM, Forrester attributes this trend to perceived benefits AI could or should have in the areas of customer service and experience - areas that intersect closely with BPM priorities.
Michael agrees and says AI has come to the forefront as a means to drive better and deeper customer experiences within a digital process.
"AI has the ability to take human cost and latency out of processes, as well as provide new interfaces that customers enjoy. With faster and more user-friendly operations, customers are happier, stay loyal and do not look for alternatives," he explains.
"It's no surprise that customer experience and business transformation are expected to become the top two primary focuses of businesses looking to improve their processes. Enterprises are investing in and growing large sandboxes of data sets that will ultimately help build the AI algorithms that can inspire significant digital transformation for their businesses."
Michael defines digital transformation as "the openness to support new and emerging business models that embrace technological changes".
"As with any great technological change, this kind of transformation cycle involves much more than pure technology. It also requires a shift in corporate culture, enterprise and IT processes, individual roles, governance and engineering.
"The role BPM can play in this transformation is to harness software-defined network (SDN) technologies like cloud computing to ensure users can communicate, collaborate and transact whenever they want and wherever they want. Applying AI to BPM (process efficiency) is definitely a step in the right direction, but real-time implementation of process modifications is the next frontier," Michael concludes.
Share