THE 1-MINUTE READ: WHERE IS THE CLIENT-SERVICING IN AUTOMATION?

Words: 419 | 60 second read

All business - by virtue of being beholden to the bottom line - is in the pursuit of greater efficiency and effectiveness. As the marketing guru Peter Drucker once put it, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

In so many respects, the combination of ‘Digital Technologies & Big Data’ has invited companies to pursue ever-greater levels of both “doing things right” and “doing the right things”.

 Digital + Data, done well, promises the double-whammy benefit of both greater volume AND fatter margin.

While scale-ability is attractive to almost all companies, there is a BIG however in the ‘Digital + Data Scenario’, as outlined above. Because where is the client-servicing in automation?

It is well recognised that no one wants to feel like a cog and no one endears to the thought of being treated like a number. In the age of Big Data, it is all too likely that everyone becomes treated like an algorithm. And while, as the algo's get smarter, our automated encounters will feel more tailored and appropriate, those interactions will remain a very poor substitute for the personal, human touch. 

There are certain tasks that people will always be able to do better than any machine, however smart that machine might become. As author Megan Beck argues in The Network Imperative: How to Survive and Grow in the Age of Digital Business Models, “Skills like persuasion, social understanding, and empathy are going to become differentiators as artificial intelligence and machine learning take over our other tasks.”

It could be fairly posited that within these dynamic and interloping forces, the emerging outline of a backward bending curve becomes visible. To continue increasing performance and productivity (in this instance, our y-axis), there is a point at which automation reaches its point of ultimate assent, before then bending back (effectively reducing), in order for human (read: emotional and personal) influence to continue driving a company’s commercial performance forward. While this might arguably not apply to truly mass-market business, it certainly will to niche businesses, and it is a consideration for all businesses that ‘deal with people’. 

With the rise of AI, automating practices and ‘Robo-Advice’ players, emotional intelligence and a genuinely human touch becomes not only more important, but potentially more commercially valuable to companies than ever before.

One could easily imagine a clear polarity emerging in the future. Industry verticals based on ‘real people and real businesses’ on the one hand, and business models based on automation and algorithm on the other. 

SP.