Smart Machine Based Business Process Design and Improvement

Accenture 2018 Note: PROCESS REIMAGINED

 Together, people and AI are reinventing business processes from the ground up.

Book by Accenture Consultants: Daugherty, Paul R. and Wilson, H.J.,  Human + Machine: Reimagining 

Work in the Age of AI. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2018.

SMART MACHINES ARE REINVENTING HOW WORK IS DONE

Smart machines are helping some companies achieve amazing results in some business processes.

The  machines and men in combination as agents of process change are unlocking entirely new roles and new ways for humans and machines to work together. This is the third era of process change. It is already delivering profound results, across industries and for the economy as a whole.

Accenture consultants Daugherty, Paul R. and Wilson, H.J., surveyed more than 1,075 process professionals from large companies that use artificial intelligence technologies in at least one business process.

Some 88 percent of organizations using machine learning have seen at least a 200 percent improvement in KPIs in enterprise processes.

Many companies are employing some degree of automation using smart machines but, only 9% are using the full force of AI

To move from process automation to reinvention, a small group of leaders are doing  three tasks  

simultaneously:

• Reimagining processes from scratch

• Unlocking the full potential for human and machine interaction

• Capturing the exponential power of dark data

As a result of this approach, 31 percent of their reimagined processes are generating 10x KPI improvements. For those not applying all three, only 15 percent of the processes are generating such KPI improvements. In other words, the probability of achieving 10x improvement doubles all three tasks are applied. These are three overlapping lenses through which processes are observed and redesigned.

Roles for Humans and Smart Machines in Process Design and Operation.

1. Humans train AI for performance.

Human trainers help to improve an algorithm’s performance through activities like data-cleaning and data- and image-labelling. At the more sophisticated, humans teach algorithms how to mimic human behaviors to improve the AI’s social, emotional (and even natural language) intelligence.

2. Humans make AI explainable.

By using experimental analytical techniques on AI data models, humans can explain why algorithms make the decisions they do, such as passing over an employee for a promotion, halting a manufacturing process or targeting a subset of customers with online ads. Large enterprises that deploy advanced AI systems should consider hiring employees who can explain the inner workings of complex algorithms to non-technical professionals.

3. Humans make AI sustainable.

Sustainers make sure AI systems operate as they’ve been designed to do. If any unintended consequences occur, they ensure that the enterprise responds accordingly. However, only one-third of the companies  surveyed have a high degree of confidence in the fairness and auditability of their AI system. And less than half have the same level of confidence in the safety of these systems. Clearly there are some fundamental issues to be addressed. This is where sustainers play a crucial role.

4. Machines augment with powerful insight.

Smart machines amplify human capabilities with powerful data-driven insights. They do this by sifting through real-time process data to enhance workers’ judgment and creativity to match, recommend and spot patterns, with interactions usually taking place through a PC or tablet screen.

5. Machines give User Interface (UI) personality.

The fifth type of alliance enables personality-based interactions between humans and machines through voice and natural language.  AI based machine  acts as an adviser, whether that involves analyzing customer feedback, inferring causalities between events (drugs and patient outcomes, for instance) or processing financial-trading operations. 

In every case, the AI augments a worker’s capability either by freeing them for higher-level, more engaging tasks or helping them to work faster—maybe even both. Interactive alliances are reimagining business processes in many white-collar professions.  

For example, maintenance work and field training are both being updated by AI agents incorporated into augmented-reality glasses (where visual information or workload instructions are overlaid on workers’ fields of view). One of the most advanced examples is GE’s digital twin implementation. Here, the AI agent’s advise based real-time data simulations of industrial machines. Imagine a maintenance process in a power plant. The worker gets reports from the digital twin, which reports damage to a turbine rotor. Through a conversation between human and machine, the AI can describe how the turbine has been running over the past six months, how the damage has escalated during that period, and predict the lifespan impact if no repairs are carried out. Because the worker is wearing an AI headset, the computer will also show the human exactly where the damage is, and suggest next-best actions for resolving the issue in real time.

6. Machines provide physical aid.

The human-machine alliance improves people’s ability to work. It also means they’re less likely to become fatigued or suffer injury. Suddenly, factory jobs aren’t just for workers in their physical prime, but can be designed for people of all ages and abilities. This  alliance  extends careers and retains expertise for a longer period.

PREPARING FOR THE THIRD ERA OF PROCESS CHANGE

Henry Ford's assembly line started the first era of process design. It changed manufacturing forever.  Companies have been using technology to revolutionize their business processes. 

The business-process-reengineering (BPR) movement of the 1990s identified and promoted business process redesign harnessing the power of desktop computing to create greater efficiencies. This effort of second era of process change has provided many rewards. 

Now the third era of process change has started. Processes can be designed by incorporating smart machines for business processes. We can term them as smart business process machines.