How to Ensure the Most Return on Investment in an Automation and AI Initiative

When talking Return on Investment in an Intelligent Automation initiative, usually the conversation revolves around “hours saved”.

My experience has been that in reality, there are many ways in which AI and Intelligent Automation can help ensure significant Return on Investment, and unfortunately, often times it is not the most obvious. As a matter of fact, this was the number one question that customers and consulting companies used to ask me about. Beyond hours saved, you’ll hear as well that other ways in which Intelligent Automation initiatives will help save money are some of the these below.

• Improved speed and data quality — Digital robots usually operate faster than a human, they do not take breaks and don’t get distracted with TikTok, get tired or need breaks. They do not make mistakes and as a consequence, the data resulting out of the work performed by the robots is of higher quality. Additionally, with digital robots, you can gather metrics and data of the work they are doing, how long they’re taking, etc., which is data that is usually not accessible when done by humans.
• Scalability — As volume [of orders, cases, items, etc.] grows, digital robots, when well designed, can easily spawn new copies of themselves and be able to manage the additional volume. I have seen a good number of companies that are precisely unable to grow because their operations are already maxed out.
• Enhanced customer experience — Digital robots can interpret natural language and monitor a website and even email, the experience of the customers as a consequence can become a better one in a rather simple way.
• Better decision making and data insights — One of the best capabilities of digital robots is that they can pull data from any of your systems of record, and aggregate it. This opens to possibility to aggregate said data, feed it into a data lake, data warehouse of even a simple database and then be able to pull all kinds of reports.
• Compliance and risk management — Digital robots are the perfect complement for compliance and risk management, they can monitor the systems of record, they can validate data, they can assess gaps, etc.
• Cost savings — This is an interesting one, because it can encompass many things. As mentioned, it is often associated with hours saved. With less frequency -unfortunately- it is associated with expenses avoided (adding intelligence be), avoided fees and fines (i.e. gov penalties, service late fees or disconnection), less expense due to faster processing time, etc.

However, oftentimes the ways in which intelligent automation are pitched to improve business are the ones above and perhaps a few more. In my opinion, the views above are technology-centric; as I’ve maintained before, AI and automation technologies are such powerful technologies that we do them a disfavor in boxing them like this. In contrast, the usual way in which companies embark in cost saving initiatives has a somewhat different mindset. See below:

• Cost Reduction Initiatives — Companies often review their expenses and look for areas where they can reduce cost, such as negotiating better pricing with suppliers, supply chain optimization, workforce adjustments, streamlining operational process, etc. Oftentimes, to be able to achieve some of these, they need to gather and aggregate data from all different sources; which ironically, this is one of the many things digital robots are perfect for.
• Outsourcing — Maintaining internal operations of some areas sometimes can be expensive, not only in that it requires added cost burden, it also invites to groups getting set in their ways and it becomes difficult to implement performance metrics. With outsourcing, the company solves the most poignant problems, and the operation becomes dependent on metrics. Digital robots or digital automation companies are a perfect candidate to outsource to, as they are incentivized to make the operation outsourced more efficient, which is the end result being sought.
• Technology Optimization — AI and automation are per se optimization technologies, but the beauty of these is that they can also be used to operate, organize and monitor legacy technologies. Take the case of Equifax and their 2017 data breach, reading the timeline and details of the breach, it was evident that many things could have been done, one of them although not evident, is that AI or digital robots could have been actively monitoring network traffic and combing through logs to detect anything that was off-pattern.
• Efficient Resource Management — resource planning, reducing idle times, inventory and equipment management are things where it is crucial to ensure they’re being used in the most effective way. Take the case of a medical device company where digital robots collect the information and machine learning crunches the numbers, detects patterns and provides information on whether certain resources will be needed or not.
• Negotiating Contracts — Negotiating favorable terms with vendors, suppliers, and service providers can result in cost savings. Companies may seek volume discounts, extended payment terms, or better pricing arrangements to optimize their procurement processes. Where it gets interesting, is that AI and digital robots can analyze historical data related to a contract and help find patterns that can be useful when renegotiating contracts.
• Budgeting and Expense Control — Implementing effective budgeting practices and expense control measures helps companies manage their spending. This involves setting budgets, tracking expenses, and enforcing spending limits to ensure financial discipline. Digital robots and AI are perfect for this, as this type of initiative requires data collection and analysis. Robots can send reports and alerts with any desired frequency providing information on what is being tracked.
• Energy and Sustainability Initiatives — Implementing energy-saving measures and adopting sustainable practices can lead to significant cost reductions over time. This includes using energy-efficient equipment, optimizing resource consumption, and adopting environmentally friendly policies. There are leading edge technologies that can provide all this financial-grade information with ease, such as Glynt.ai; digital robots can navigate your legacy systems and gather all the data to feed to such sustainability engine.
• Lean and Continuous Improvement — Lean principles are seen as a key to eliminate waste, improve processes and enhance efficiency and as a consequence, cost savings. The interesting thing I have observed is that these are often times the precursors to effective process automation and AI implementations.
• Financial Management and Risk Mitigation — Everything that has to do with managing a company’s finances helps companies avoid unnecessary expenses, penalties, or losses. It is not uncommon for a lot of this information to be in spreadsheets under someone’s folders. Digital robots can help collect all information and can be programmed with the right algorithms to prepare the data for the decision makers. They can also help monitor the data and compare historical vs current data, etc.

It is evident that the tech-centric ROI conversation differs in some degree from the business-centric conversation. In my view, this is the reason why many intelligent automation and AI initiatives fail to scale and to embody their promise. When you look at things from a business and finance perspective, you can see things from a higher level, which allows you to see automation and AI as powerful tools in achieving those goals, and not as the end itself.

When I have witnessed the partnering of the finance organization with the digital transformation initiative, it has been when I have seen unheard of return on investment. When 2-times return on investment in less than a year starts looking more like a low hanging fruit and 5X, 10X, or even 100X return on investment don’t sound so crazy.

It’s about following the money, plain and simple.

#intelligentautomation #artificialintelligence #efficiency #returnoninvestment

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