Solutions For Intelligent Automation Continuum

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: THE NEXT DIGITAL FRONTIER

At Google I/O, Google’s annual developer conference, Sundar Pichai showcased Google Assistant making a call to book a salon appointment. With a distinctly human-sounding voice and smooth conversation style, Google Assistant conquered a key digital outpost at the event!

While this is just one instance, we all come across many more technological disruptions while simply browsing through our Twitter or LinkedIn feeds. This fast pace of change along with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), is impacting each one of us. In a good way of course! It’s also driving businesses to be fast, agile and scalable in an exceptional way.

Organizations today, have no option but to adapt to this by embracing new technologies. Technologies such as AI and automation is what will help businesses improve customer experience, staff productivity, and cut costs. However, all my discussions with clients have revealed that the biggest challenge they grapple with is determining where to begin and what steps to take to implement AI/ML and automation.

The study from renowned research firm Vanson Bourne1 on The State of Artificial Intelligence for Enterprises concurs that while 80% percent of organizations have invested in some form of AI technology, 91% see barriers in implementing it. The study highlights that the most significant reasons are lack of IT infrastructure (40%) and lack of talent (34%).

To help our clients overcome these obstacles effectively, we at EdgeVerve have set a lucid path by viewing this adoption as a continuum or journey with distinct and clear phases.

THE AUTOMATION AND AI JOURNEY – THREE KEY STAGES AND THE EDGEVERVE SOLUTION

When a business is transforming digitally, we segment the automation journey into three phases – deterministic, predictive and cognitive.

Caption: The automation and AI journey broadly divided into three phases

The first phase, deterministic automation, focusses on saving time and effort by utilizing robots to automate repetitive and rule-based business processes. As the starting point in the automation continuum, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) capabilities identify inefficiencies and automate a part or the whole process with bots. For example, RPA can be used to automate stock analysis, invoice despatch, credit card reconciliation or refund process in the banking sector.

Going beyond RPA deployment, when a business starts analysing data to make future predictions, it’s considered to be in the predictive phase. Here, AI and automation can be implemented with analytics-driven operations to predict failures and create a framework that suggests actions and recommendations. For example, actionable insights can help procurement officers identify the right vendors at the right time to make a purchase.

Building and managing this repository of knowledge over time to derive evolved patterns and aid business decisions, propels an enterprise towards the cognitive phase of automation. The use of ML and natural language processing (NLP) and pattern analysis decrease dependencies on external factors and assist in driving faster growth. For example, a procurement officer can benefit by knowing the effect of a socio-economic problem in an area as well as suitable actions to mitigate it.

EdgeVerve enables this journey by facilitating a smooth transition for enterprises with its technology solutions. The deterministic automation capabilities are provided by AssistEdge, our efficient RPA platform. The predictive and cognitive capabilities are achieved with our next-gen AI platform, XtractEdge™.

HOW EDGEVERVE SOLUTIONS WILL HELP ENTERPRISES IN THIS JOURNEY

EdgeVerve solutions offered at each stage ensure a gradual move from deterministic to predictive, and finally the cognitive stage. In the deterministic stage, AssistEdge covers the full spectrum of automation. Leading in the RPA space by revenue and number of bots, AssistEdge is a complete service for building and implementing RPA. It has successfully helped save more than $2 billion for our clients.

The move to the next phases – predictive and cognitive – is enabled by XtractEdge™, our AI platform where big data analytics, machine learning, knowledge management, and cognitive automation capabilities converge to offer end-to-end solution. It drives and maximizes digital transformation for an enterprise by enabling a wide set of industry- and function-specific solutions.

The recent introduction of AI-powered Business Applications by EdgeVerve, has ensured that the shift to a digital future is faster. These are a set of plug-and-play industry solutions that integrate seamlessly into the existing infrastructure. Built on the foundation of XtractEdge, they utilise the existing enterprise knowledge and address specific business concerns.

For example, the data-driven, intelligent XtractEdge Loans Loss Mitigation Business Application can assist lenders and bankers to predict (using existing lending systems and data) and provide early warnings about customers likely to default the next month or even the next quarter. Well, it doesn’t just stop there. The Application offers actionable insights and creates negotiable strategies, giving recovery agents an upper hand in negotiations.

These technological solutions by EdgeVerve aim to lead the way and guide enterprises in their Automation Continuum journey. With end-to-end solutions that improve operational efficiencies in the deterministic phase, avoid business challenges in the predictive phase and manage knowledge to reduce dependency in the cognitive phase, the digital future for an enterprise appears optimistic. Our clients are in safe hands!

Source:

• http://assets.teradata.com/resourceCenter/downloads/AnalystReports/Teradata_Report_AI.pdf