Bringing AI to the work we already take for granted in our lives

And this requires a complete transformation at the enterprise level, it says EY‘c Paul Pierotti

This year’s summer vacations gave me a stark realization: how much AI has become an integral part of everyday life.

I spent a happy two weeks driving the south of Italy with my family. It was a very pleasant trip and provided a welcome break. I also can’t help but think about the difference in the experience of driving abroad now and before.

Ten years ago our holiday started in a car full of little people who failed to follow the printed route map from the airport to our Eurocamp. It was always the most stressful start to our vacation. Now we connect Google Maps to the car and travel unencumbered; the only arguments now are with our current teenagers about what songs to play on the ride.

This is just one of dozens of examples of how AI plays a critical role in our daily lives, and largely without us even realizing it.

Alexa personalizes the morning news, Spotify suggests which songs to listen to with its Discover Weekly soundtrack, Netflix recommends what content to watch, Fitbit encourages a morning walk, and Ring notifies you that someone is approaching the door.

We use AI in our lives with little thought but with high expectations. However, the same change has not been as noticeable in the workplace, with many corporate processes remaining cumbersome. There are also some sectors with incredibly innovative AI applications, such as for cancer diagnosis and preventative health care. However, such decisions are usually isolated and unrelated.

It is useful to consider why this disparity occurred.

Transformation must be central to enterprise AI

The best digital solutions combine automation, analytics and AI within an innovation journey built around a deep understanding of consumer needs. For example, Google Maps connects directly from Airbnb to confirm the location of our next vacation spot. It also helps to identify fun things to stop at along the route to make sure we get to the next site in time for check-in.

These digital services have evolved based on detailed research to fully understand current and future customer requirements. They are also essential as they compete with experience. Simply put, if you don’t make the customer happy, someone else will. This experience is also supported by a wide range of data services to provide a more personalized and responsive service.

While he acknowledges many successes, the enterprise process experience has often led to improvements rather than being truly transformative.

Common pitfalls include:

• Use cases too focused on one improvement rather than reinventing the whole experience

• The solution uses only one technique which results in:
  • Automation eliminating some heavy lifting
  • Analytics offering a more targeted list but within the same business process
  • The AI ​​sits idle after turning out to be a small pilot.

The latter point is particularly common and may reflect Christine Connolly’s quote that there are “more pilots than British Airways” as CIO of the UK Department of Health. It’s incredibly frustrating to complete a successful pilot project and then watch your masterpiece sit on a shelf gathering dust.

Part of the solution is to ensure leadership involvement as the pilots are selected. For example, in a previous innovation program we required our leadership team to sign off on the implementation of each pilot project provided it met the agreed Go/No Go criteria.

An enterprise framework for AI collaboration

It doesn’t have to be that way. Moreover, the digital solutions we use in our lives provide both a strong understanding of what is possible and a clear path to success. Now is the time to apply the same approach to reinvent your enterprise experience.

This is one of the reasons why EY is implementing the use of AI in tax and audit. This helps guide how these services are delivered to customers, while freeing up around two million man-hours and improving accuracy.

In Ireland, we are also investing to expand our airspace capabilities with the AI ​​Lab. The Wave-space AI Lab will provide a base in Dublin and Cork for clients to re-engineer their enterprise processes based on a fundamental understanding of user needs.

It will also connect our alliance partners, such as Microsoft and SAP, and Ireland’s dynamic AI startup community to help deliver the most efficient and scalable solution today. We’ll also get input from ADAPT, Ireland’s AI collaboration involving eight universities, to make sure we’re also planning for what’s possible tomorrow.

AI has brought so many benefits to our personal lives. Nevertheless, we are unreasonable consumers who continue to demand more; better experiences, personalized journeys and curated content, all just for me. We all know and experience the value of AI.

Now is the time to take these unreasonable expectations and demand them from new and transformed business and enterprise services. This will help businesses provide a new work experience comparable to what we already take for granted in our lives.

• Paul Pierotti is a partner with EY Ireland covering data analytics and emerging technology