Intelligent Automation is a term that’s gaining momentum. But what does it really mean and how can it help you make an impact on your business?
Deloitte defines Intelligent Automation as “the combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation.” At IPsoft, Intelligent Automation is the cornerstone of everything we do, and we have an industry-leading product portfolio and a 20-year history to prove it.
Amelia, our cognitive AI-based digital colleague, is able to follow a human-led process and learn that process so that she can repeat it on her own. Our virtual engineers in Amelia AIOps (formerly 1Desk) watch a human-led workflow and learn the steps. They then ask a human automation expert if the workflow can be added as a new automation; if the automation expert says yes, the virtual engineers have picked up a new skill.
The ability for AI to not only learn a new skill, but to repeat that skill on its own is a vital aspect of how AI will shape the workforce in the future. In this piece, we’ll examine how Amelia and our virtual engineers can apply Intelligent Automation to everyday business and IT tasks, and we’ll explore the many ways this can lead to enhanced productivity and extensive cost-savings.
Intelligent Automation and Amelia
Unlike some chatbots that claim to utilize AI for customer service, Amelia learns and improves over time. Perhaps her most important attribute is her ability to study, repeat and apply new skills to real-life customer interactions. Let’s pretend Amelia is helping John search for a new car. During her interaction with John, Amelia could help him choose the color, make, model and even customize the car to his liking. Unfortunately, when it comes time to schedule a test drive, Amelia learns that John is based in Anchorage, Alaska. In this example, Amelia has never before interacted with an Alaska-based customer, and wasn’t programmed to do so, so she can't complete the transaction on her own.
When Amelia escalates the conversation to a human employee, that person can use a workaround to find a way to schedule a test drive at an Anchorage-based dealership. While this is happening, Amelia will study this workaround to see if it’s something she can repeat. If the workaround is a straightforward process that Amelia can repeat on her own, she’ll ask the automation expert in charge of her deployment if she’s allowed to complete this exact transaction herself. If the answer is yes, Amelia will now be able to schedule test drives for Anchorage customers.
Automated Workflows
Within AIOps, our clients can create automations and use out-of-the-box IPsoft-provided automations to solve problems related to IT operations. Behind these automations are AI- and Machine Learning-powered virtual engineers that perform and study the tasks that they’ve been assigned. However, as is common with IT automations, what happens when an automation resolves 90% of the problem, but the last 10% requires a custom fix? With un-intelligent automation, the virtual engineer stops working and shuts down. With Intelligent Automation, the virtual engineer watches as a human engineer fixes the final 10% of the issue, learns how the fix was created, and asks if it can be copied and saved as an automation.
This is crucial on many different levels. First, your system improves over time. Rather than purchasing software that will become dated within a few years, or requires constant updates for improvement, AIOps improves on its own, with a simple confirmation from a human automation expert. This level of Intelligent Automation is also important for training and assisting new workers. By studying the workflows that are saved in the system, new workers can learn how fixes are accomplished and apply those learnings to similar issues in the future. Finally, by training a virtual staff to handle tasks that can be completed without human oversight, you’re freeing up time for your staff to focus on custom and critical problems. Your staff becomes less focused on the quantity of minor issues it can solve or needs to solve, and focuses more on creating quality fixes to significant problems or other higher-value activities.
Intelligent Automation goes beyond what IPsoft currently does for its customers. It will be omnipresent within the next 10 years, impacting everything we do— from work to leisure to commerce. By getting a jump on it now in collaboration with IPsoft, you’ll be setting your company up for success immediately.