Dec. 11, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by Eide Bailly. 

A version of this article first appeared on EideBailly.com.

Generative artificial intelligence has the power to accelerate the transformation of your organization. However, applying new technology strategically across your organization requires a shift in your organizational strategy and a complete reimagining of the way your people, processes and technology work together.

Impact of generative AI on your people 

The perception that drives generative AI fears is that it will render people obsolete. According to a recent Gallup poll, three in four Americans believe that AI will reduce the number of jobs over the next 10 years.

However, the organizations that will reap the greatest benefits of AI are the ones that use AI not to eliminate employees but to enhance the employee experience. Gartner reports that employees will leave organizations where humans are doing work that generative AI could do instead.

Here are a few areas where AI can be used to support employees:

• Security: AI and automation can detect and respond to threats faster than the often overburdened and understaffed security department. This remediates “alert fatigue” and gives security and IT personnel the opportunity to shift their focus from routine tasks to more strategic, analytical and proactive activities that enhance the organization’s security posture.
• Finance: AI can automate the processing of invoices, track payment due dates and manage payment approvals. AI-driven models also have the power to generate financial forecasts and perform scenario analysis, helping organizations plan for different economic conditions and make informed financial decisions.
• Human resources: AI tools can automate manual tasks like scheduling interviews by considering candidate availability, interviewer schedules and room bookings. AI also has the power to analyze workforce data to identify diversity and inclusion gaps and suggest strategies for improvement.

In short, AI and automation accelerate people to be a force multiplier. By implementing generative AI, organizations can streamline processes, reduce manual workloads and free up their employees to focus on tasks that require creativity, critical thinking and strategic decision-making, ultimately driving innovation and growth.

Impact of generative AI on your processes

Process improvement is a continuous effort that starts with aligning your strategy with your business goals. The convergence of new AI developments with maturing automation tools creates opportunities to reimagine your business processes.

As with any process-improvement initiative, start by mapping your existing business processes in detail. Define criteria for evaluating processes for automation. Common criteria used in process evaluation are:

• Complexity
• Repetitive tasks
• High error rates
• Data-intensive nature
• Scalability potential
• Impact on customer satisfaction

The key to success when incorporating automation and AI into your processes is to start small. When done right, automating your processes with AI will help you achieve your business goals, including cost reduction, improved efficiency, enhanced customer experience and increased competitiveness.

Impact of generative AI on your technology

 It’s important for organizations to take a slow and structured approach to implementing generative AI. This starts with developing a framework for how to handle shadow IT. The number of available generative AI apps is growing rapidly, and with no set guidelines, app sprawl across your organization can become problematic.

The top considerations that must be made before stepping into AI are:

• Security: Do you have a clear plan for data security and privacy? Evaluate whether there are provisions in the budget for data governance, data security tools and compliance with data privacy regulations.
• Data: Do you have the necessary data storage, quality and integration capabilities to support generative AI? Clean, well-structured and accessible data is crucial for training AI models effectively.
• Scalability: Can your technology infrastructure scale to accommodate the increased data processing and computing demands that generative AI may require? Ensure that your systems can handle the expected growth in data and AI workloads.
• Integration: How will generative AI solutions integrate with your existing technology stack? Ensure compatibility with your current software, databases and APIs.

It’s important to start thinking about these considerations now, even if you think you’re still years away from integrating generative AI into your organization. Gartner predicts that by next year, 40 percent of all enterprise applications will have embedded conversational AI .

Getting started

There are several simple ways to incorporate generative AI into your organization. However, getting the most out of AI requires an organizational shift that reimagines your business strategy and calls for foundational digital changes. Eide Bailly has helped hundreds of organizations transform their people, processes and technology to achieve digital-focused success, and we’re here to help you too.