Transforming Operational Excellence: The GenAI Revolution

The year 2022 marked the emergence of GenAI, and organizations across various industries and of all sizes explored its potential to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. GenAI is no doubt poised to revolutionize business operations with its transformative benefits.

According to the PEX Report 2024/25, AI is set to become the biggest area of investment for firms to achieve operational excellence (OPEX) over the next twelve months. More than half of surveyed professionals indicated that their organizations have already begun discussions around potential AI projects, particularly in operations. While GenAI has the power to enhance operations in finance, customer service, supply chain, and healthcare, it also comes with complex challenges, from cost and budget limitations to security and leakage risks associated with its use and implementation.

How can GenAI transform an enterprise’s journey toward operational excellence?

This blog spotlights the evolution of OPEX, its four key pillars, GenAI success factors and challenges, and the future of OPEX.

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“Generative AI & the Transformation of Operational Excellence,” created in collaboration with PEX Network, to discover how GenAI can revolutionize your path toward operational excellence!

The OPEX landscape: Evolving needs and the role of emerging technologies

OPEX, or operational excellence, is where an enterprise continuously improves efficiency and effectiveness in business processes, streamlines operations, delivers value to customers, driving quality and profitability.

Operational excellence—a cornerstone of business success—has transitioned significantly over the years, evolving from traditional methodologies like Lean Six Sigma and robotic process automation (RPA) to today’s era marked by GenAI-powered copilots. Moreover, several factors have contributed to the evolution of OPEX, from businesses relying on new digital technologies, teamwork, sustainability, and customer satisfaction to meet the ever-changing demands of today’s markets.

As Priyank Mangal, Senior Director – Sales and Solutions – EMEA, EdgeVerve, points out, “There is a huge amount of pressure on operations to be more and more efficient.” What’s more—This amplifies the expectations of CIOs to lead innovation through the integration of emerging technologies like AI.

That said, what constitutes OPEX? And how can GenAI truly transform an enterprise’s OPEX? The answer lies in adopting a platform-based approach that unifies all four pillars of OPEX.

The four pillars of OPEX

According to N. Shashidhar, Vice-President and Global Product Head, EdgeVerve, OPEX essentially consists of four pillars – people, technology, data, and processes as defined below:

Each of the above elements is undergoing a significant transformation, and GenAI has only accelerated these transformations.

Challenges of implementing GenAI in OPEX

According to research from Microsoft and research/ analyst firm IDC, GenAI usage jumped from 55% in 2023 to 75% in 2024 among surveyed organizations. However, as per McKinsey, only 11% of organizations have adopted the technology at scale.

Though GenAI has enormous benefits, the reality of implementation is fraught with challenges. Some challenges include hesitation over the ROI of GenAI investments, the rapidly evolving legal and regulatory environment, bias and fairness implications, and security risks.

How can enterprises overcome these challenges and unlock real value from AI? Organizations thus must prioritize robust security measures, governance, and adaptability in their technology strategies to scale AI efforts beyond pilot projects. Here are a few critical success factors for enabling OPEX with generative AI.

What are the key success factors for enabling GenAI in OPEX?

Embracing the future: Emergence of agentic AI and AI agents

While GenAI has immense possibilities, experts highlight the rise of agentic AI as another seismic shift in the AI revolution, opening new doors for innovation across industries. Agentic AI acts autonomously, proactively adapting to users’ needs and planning. Agentic AI represents the next evolution in AI, going beyond traditional GenAI, which primarily responds to prompts. This capability allows them to be true partners in problem-solving and decision-making, driving significant business outcomes.

To learn more about the rise of agentic AI in operational excellence.

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The future will thus see enterprises transcend AI for operational efficiency and ride the wave of change by harnessing the power of generative AI agents, unlocking new avenues for efficiency, productivity, and growth. Driving business impact at such speed and scale would require firms to move beyond experimental and point-based approaches to platform-based approaches.

Hence, enterprise AI platforms or platform-based approaches are likely to play a pivotal role in driving GenAI-powered OPEX transformations and shaping the next generation of AI-first enterprises.

To dive deeper, download EdgeVerve’s latest report, “Generative AI & the Transformation of Operational Excellence,” created in collaboration with PEX Network, to discover: