IMHO: Why boards need to embrace AI automation

Yellow train tracks split in several directions with safety barriers in place

OPINION: I’m going to be very blunt: If you are not automating or putting artificial intelligence (AI) into your business and designing your operating model around using these tools, you are not going to be in business in three years.

Before you discount that as overblown hyperbole, let me explain.

In the hype of ChatGPT, it’s very easy to overlook the real value of automation and AI for businesses . . . but there are strong business, customer and employee drivers for automation and AI.

Skills shortages and a desire by employees to be doing more enjoyable work have increased the need for organisations to better utilise their most valuable asset – staff – and use automation to augment them, and redefine how business can be done.

Automation is a lever that drives cost efficiencies, improves productivity and increases velocity – so work is done quicker and more effectively at lower cost. In addition, it can reduce reputational risk, delivery or quality risks and the frequency of error or failure, providing better visibility and early indications so action can be taken quickly.

Automation provides a significant competitive advantage.

All of that helps improve compliance and business resilience/continuity, and enhances the experience for customers and suppliers, while helping provide more engaging work for employees by freeing them up from mundane tasks to focus on more interesting work.

Many businesses are facing significant challenges in attracting and retaining talent and need to ensure people have fulfilling and interesting roles.

If you look at the impact that automation has on customers, employees and business together, it can be a triple win.

It’s now, not tomorrow

At its heart, those benefits come down to three key levers which AI and automation can deliver:

It enables businesses to be more productive.
It empowers businesses to differentiate themselves from competitors.
It enables you to allocate your finite, and very valuable talent to the areas of your business where they can best drive profitability and growth.

The pace of change is getting faster, it's no longer linear but exponential. And adding automation and AI to your business isn’t something you can wait to do next year, that's too late.

Businesses need to be looking at how they can make use of automation and AI now, because those that don’t will be outperformed by competitors who embrace the technologies, and you may never catch up.

But as we heard in a recent Institute of Directors New Zealand event Critical success factors for leveraging automation to increase productivity, there is no silver bullet.

The panel featured ASB Bank, The Timber Barron and Asthma New Zealand – three organisations who are already embracing AI and automation to drive their businesses forward.

It’s a journey

One key thing to understand is that it is a journey. You’re not trying to make a quantum leap straight away. Instead, it’s about taking small steps and developing and adjusting the path as you go.

At Asthma NZ, Chief Executive Katheren Leitner had a strong vision for the organisation and wanted to harness automation and AI for that. We at Quanton worked with her to first to build a foundation on which more innovative technologies can be added.

Even though they’re still on their journey, Asthma NZ has driven an increase in productivity just by putting the right technology and change management in place.

Partnership matters

We live in a world where transactional relationships have been the norm. But with AI and automation, partnerships are in.

You’re not merely bringing in someone to provide technical expertise. You must be an integral part of it because the business will have to change how it operates and thinks.

It’s a partnership where trust will be critical and partnering with a business whose culture fits yours is important and can help you on the journey. However, in procuring these services a traditional procurement approaches may hinder you, as many organisations take a transactional approach or input based approach when they need to focus on the outcomes.

Again, let me be blunt: If you treat automation and AI transformations as a transactional relationship, you are doomed.

You must have a partnership underpinned by trust because this is a journey, you’re going on together – along the way, you will discover new things and have to adjust your plans and adapt your ways of working.

Be brave, have a vision and get your business fully engaged

There are risks involved with any change, but it’s how you manage those risks.

Having a vision and the right governance framework, and guardrails, in place is critical.

For most organisations, there will be a large education piece required. Your board will need to learn about the technology, its benefits and the governance needs.

The best AI and automation projects we have been involved in have seen the business fully engaged in the partnership, and leadership buy in with enablement and support from the top.

At The Timber Barron, Director Daniel Ludlam was a key part of the work. He knew his vision and where he wanted to be and was integral, alongside the rest of his team, in shaping the automation to fit the business, and adapting it.

That adaptation along the way is critical.

Harnessing agile sprints, building, testing, tweaking and moving to the next iteration ensures you’re delivering capability and learning as you go. Traditional ways of thinking and waterfall processes won’t work because you can’t predetermine everything, and it just takes too long.

Make a point of finding out how other companies got on their automation journey and what is working for their environment.

It’s more than technology

AI and automation are more than technologies. They bring with them a change in your operational model if you are to deliver meaningful benefits.

The gains you get will transform your business. Therefore, you need to view this as a transformational program with all the things that implies around change management, having a burning platform (reason for change) and vision, ensuring your team are on the journey with you, having champions in your business, and reinforcing your wins.