5 Highly Impactful, Real-World Applications for Intelligent Automation

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On paper, intelligent automation seems amazing. And in practice, when implemented properly and applied to the appropriate processes and workflows, it absolutely can be. Many business leaders, however, struggle to make the transition from theory to action because it can be easy to become overwhelmed and overloaded. To help with this, we’ve identified five use cases where intelligent automation can be applied to deliver long-term, sustainable value.

Processing, interpreting and leveraging unstructured data.

There is a virtually endless amount of data being generated on a minute-by-minute basis. All of that information is useless if it is not properly vetted, and humans are simply incapable of keeping up with the sheer volume. Intelligent automation, on the other hand, is capable of sifting through mountains of data, instantaneously analyzing it and extracting relevant insights that can be used to improve business operations.

Proactive remediation.

Wouldn’t it be nice if, instead of worrying about responding to an incident as quickly and effectively as possible, you could remediate the problem before it even occurs? This is entirely possible with intelligent automation. Not only can you use this technology to predict potential issues, but you can leverage it to autonomously resolve said issues without the need for any human intervention.

Trend detection and escalation.

Not all anomalies in data are detrimental, but many are, and the outcome can be downright devastating to an organization. By introducing intelligent automation into the mix, you can apply the power of AI to continually scan and pinpoint trends that may be worthy of attention. You can even set parameters for which types of anomalies should be resolved automatically and which should be escalated for review.

Real-time, strategic optimization.

Processes that aren’t working to the full benefit of the organization can be worse than processes that are broken altogether. Annual, quarterly or even monthly audits to identify and correct inefficient workflows are simply not sufficient in today’s competitive landscape. The right intelligent automation platform will provide real-time updates to ensure ongoing strategic optimization on the fly.

Forecasting and decision-support.

Planning for the future is an essential component of executive leadership. Intelligent automation can become an invaluable tool for this, turning data into insights that can help management more accurately forecast and make more effective decisions.

These are just a handful of the many applications for intelligent automation that IT and other business leaders should consider when preparing for the months to come. These technologies will continue to push boundaries, overcome limitations and become fundamental to successful digital transformation.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. You can begin experiencing the power of intelligent automation for the five use cases above (and much more) by launching your free trial of Ayehu today.

When it Comes to AI, Slow and Steady Wins the Race

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When it Comes to AI, Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Adopting artificial intelligence for your organization can be an intriguing prospect – especially when you start forecasting all the many benefits doing so will afford. But as exciting as it may be, it’s imperative that you not get ahead of yourself. By moving too quickly – that is, before you fully understand the implications of AI – you could easily end up with a costly mess on your hands. Instead, you should focus on gaining knowledge of and becoming familiar with AI. This will ultimately enable you to develop and implement a thoughtful strategy that will deliver consistent, sustainable value.

So, where is a good place to begin? Which projects should you apply your attention, efforts and investments toward? This initial phase will take some time and careful planning, but the payoff for being prudent will be well worth it in the long run. Start by brainstorming a handful of projects. Then, for each of these projects, spend some time doing your due diligence, both business and technical, to map out the potential impacts. This practice will help you identify the most lucrative areas to which you should commit your resources.

If you are feeling pressure from the “powers that be” to generate proof of concept more quickly than taking the above approach will allow, specify a few workflows and projects into which AI and intelligent automation can be rapidly integrated. Specifically, dedicate a portion of your resources to smaller initiatives that have the potential to make a substantial impact. By automating this “low hanging fruit,” you can generate some quick wins and provide quantifiable evidence of value. Once you’ve satiated the interested stakeholders, you can then turn your attention back to the larger-scale, longer-term projects.

The goal with AI should be to develop and establish a solid foundation upon which to build and grow over time. By starting smaller and working steadily toward the bigger picture down the road, you’ll lay the groundwork and gain the momentum you need to harness the power artificial intelligence and use it to propel your organization ahead of the competition.

Ready to get started with AI but not sure where to begin. Download your free 30-day trial of Ayehu NG and access our library of 200+ ready-to-use, codeless workflow templates. Be up and running with intelligent automation in literally minutes!

How Intelligent Process Automation Can Help You Scale at a Moment’s Notice

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Imagine how much your organization could accomplish if you had an army of employees at your disposal. More importantly, what if these employees were perfectly happy waiting in the background for the next time you needed them? That’s essentially what you’ll get with intelligent process automation. Let’s take a look at the surprising way AI can provide your business with the scalability you need to stay on top of your game.

Instant Access

With human workers, it’s not feasible to drastically increase your workforce whenever the need arises, nor is it easy to decrease your numbers when things get slow. There’s a complicated process behind all of this and time is not on your side. With intelligent process automation, however, you have a team of AI-powered robots who are ready, willing and able to get the job done at the flip of a switch.

Consistency

Bringing different employees up to speed via on-boarding and training can be challenging and time-consuming, especially in today’s fast-paced, digital age. Not to mention the fact that you have to initiate the entire process over again every time someone new joins the team. Intelligent robots, on the other hand, can be “trained” in groups of any size with the outcome being routine and perfect consistency across the board.

Cost Savings

Recruiting, hiring, training and retaining talented employees costs money. In addition to intelligent automation providing the ability to scale up or scale down instantly as well as train and deploy thousands of bots while maintaining complete consistency, all of this can be done at a reduced cost to the business.

Now, let’s take a look at a few real-world applications that put these benefits into action.

Scenario 1

Your business is launching a new product or service and, as a result, will incur a substantial increase in transactions. Your current workforce is already maxed out and you don’t have the time or the ability to hire any additional employees. Intelligent process automation can step in and bridge the gap, handling the influx of work at any capacity necessary without the major hassle and expense of staffing. Then, once things settle down, you can scale back down to normal as needed.

Scenario 2

Business has been particularly lucrative as of late and you’ve had to increase output significantly to meet the increased demands of your customers. Suddenly, the market takes a turn for the worse and your numbers start to rapidly decline. With intelligent process automation in place, you won’t have to face the possibility of laying employees off. Rather, you could just scale back the number of robots you’re deploying.

Scenario 3

One of your biggest competitors has launched a new product or service and you’re scrambling to develop and implement something similar. Chances are you can’t afford to hire a slew of new employees to help bring your comparable product or service to market. Besides, doing so would take too long. But, putting too much pressure on existing team members could result in costly mistakes and QA issues. Intelligent process automation, on the other hand, is available at the ready to take on whatever is necessary for you to remain competitive.

Without question, intelligent process automation has the potential to bring your business to the next level. Are you ready? Give us a call today or download your free 30 trial now to get started.

3 Ways AI will Fundamentally Change the Way We Work

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Over the years, there have been many revolutionary changes to the way humans work. In recent history, it’s been the introduction and widespread adoption of computers and digital technology. Now, we’ve entered a brand new “revolution” that’s primarily being driven by artificial intelligence, and the rate of change we are experiencing is nothing short of mind-boggling. And if current forecasts are accurate, we are on pace to undergo enormous transformation over the next 5-20 years.

Specifically here are three of the most significant ways that AI is poised to fundamentally change the way we work in a relatively short span of time.

Increased Automation

The obvious place to begin is a monumental increase in tasks and workflows being automation, not just in terms of volume but also in complexity. This increasing reliance on artificial intelligence still has many people, understandably, falling victim to the narrative that robots are slowly but surely making human workers obsolete.

Thankfully, this is largely a false alarm, at least at scale. Yes, some roles will inevitably be replaced as automation capabilities become increasingly intuitive, the advancing technologies will also pave the way for new jobs. In fact, by one estimation, AI and automation could deliver a global GDP boost of upwards of $15 trillion. Those willing to reskill or upskill will position themselves well to ride the wave and future-proof their careers.

Evolving Roles

In addition to creating new roles, automation and artificial intelligence will ultimately improve the quality of work for humans as well. In all honesty, the tasks most likely to be turned over to robots aren’t exactly the most sought after jobs. Better to leave those mundane, repetitive and frankly, boring tasks to machines so humans can concentrate on more cognitive and meaningful work.

Undoubtedly, the human roles of the future will focus on the soft skills and human-centric capabilities that artificial intelligence can’t yet replicate – things like empathy, communication, creativity and problem-solving.

Employee Experience

Ultimately, the workplace of tomorrow will feature a hybrid combination of both humans and robots working in tandem to achieve the same end goals. Many organizations have already begun to make this transition, but eventually, even companies that could be considered “non-tech” to some degree will see a transformation in the employee experience.

Regardless of whether it’s a warehouse or manufacturing plant, or an office environment, workers in just about every field and across almost every role will need to get used to working with “co-bots,” that is, co-workers that are artificially intelligent. In everything from how new team members are recruited to how they carry out their daily work duties, AI will continue to play an increasingly prominent role.

And, of course, the workforces of tomorrow will also become increasingly decentralized – a trend that has been thrust to the forefront over recent months, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. What this means is that employees of the future will be able to work virtually from just about anywhere. This then removes global barriers and opens up tremendous possibilities for talented workers.

Preparing Your Organization…

Without question, AI and intelligent automation technologies are going to completely transform the way humans work. Workers who embrace these inevitable changes and are willing to adapt and evolve along with them will be best suited to take advantage of the many opportunities that surely lie ahead. Likewise, organizations must also plan and prepare for the newest revolution by making an investment, both in terms of technology as well as people.

If you’re interested in jumping on the AI bandwagon but are unsure where to begin, downloading a free, 30-day trial of Ayehu and enrolling your employees in our Automation Academy are great places to start.

Is Your Organization AIOps-Ready? Here’s How to Get There in 3 Steps

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3 steps to get AIOps ready

Digital transformation can be boiled down to three things: simplicity, innovation and intelligence. One of the most effective tools for achieving these things is AIOps. But adopting a new approach in any department can be daunting. Adding in the complexities of IT makes it even more challenging. When it comes to significant initiatives like this, taking it step-by-step can make things much more manageable. Let’s break down three phases that will make your AIOps implementation go much more smoothly.

Step 1: Define your goals.

You can’t expect to hit a target if you don’t have one in front of you. The first step in getting your organization ready to roll with AIOps is to determine exactly what you’d like to accomplish as the end-result. Take some time to identify areas of specific need where AIOps could provide resolution. Some examples of this might be supporting your ITSM team with alert escalation or improving service availability through incident management. You have to define your objectives first before you can develop a strategy for achieving them.

Step 2: Establish parameters for success.

Next, you must determine which parameters you will use to monitor and measure your success. Common AIOps success parameters include things such as mean time to resolution (MTTR), outage prevention, improved productivity and cost reduction as a result of automation. By developing and setting these benchmarks, you’ll be better able to assess your implementation success rate. You’ll also be better prepared to determine when to pivot and change course if necessary.

Step 3: Focus on the data.

Artificial intelligence is only as good as the data it’s being fed. The term “garbage in, garbage out” comes to mind. In order for your AIOps adoption to be successful, you must prioritize the issue of making sure the data you will use is plentiful, accessible, relevant and most importantly, of superior quality. Sourcing this information as early as possible can give your project a jumpstart, save you a massive amount of time and aggravation and improve your chances of reaching your goals without fewer roadblocks along the way.

As you work through these three fundamental steps, one important point to keep in mind is that AIOps is a journey, not a destination. Therefore, it should never be viewed as a one-off project, or a “set it and forget it” initiative. Organizations that have been successful with AIOps recognize that it’s something dynamic and ever-changing. Go into it with the proper mindset and digital transformation will be your reward.

cio guide to operational efficiency

Introducing the 1st Annual Intelligent Automation Hackathon!

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The world has evolved rapidly in recent months, and many of us and our customers are now working from home (WFH).  While we’re all looking forward to things returning to normal once again, it will definitely take a while. And for some, it may never be quite the same. 

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is expected that the new normal will increasingly involve remote work arrangements, to minimize impact and prevent potential business disruption while maintaining social distancing recommendations.

With so many employees now getting the green light to work from home, the demand for IT support – for VPN access, remote file permission, and the like – will only continue increase, at a time when fewer IT staff are available on-site to meet this higher demand. The result is likely to be longer wait times for IT support and more technical issues to resolve. Intelligent automation can help address these challenges.

Now is your chance to be part of the solution, have fun, and win prizes at the same time! 

Welcome to our first annual Intelligent Automation Hackathon – focused this year on WFH solutions. Develop workflows and activities to leverage Ayehu’s automation and orchestration platform to make WFH easier, more streamlined, and more efficient. 

The hackathon will take place as an entirely virtual event, during which participants will develop their workflows and activities from their work or home office. There will be two categories and prizes will be awarded to winning entries in each category.

Why participate? Lots of reasons!

  • Get firsthand experience building activities and workflows, and propel your professional career forward
  • Learn more about the free resources Ayehu provides via its Academy and Git Hub Community
  • Receive personal exposure as an automation leader and innovator
  • Give back to the community and help us all get through the COVID-19 pandemic and its long term impact
  • Have fun and win prizes (up to $1,000!)

The event is scheduled to run from October 6 to 8th, and all development work and entry submission must take place during that time period.

Interested? Click here to register while there’s still space available!