Robots Must Solve Business Pains To Be Successful

This article is co-written by Thomas Schultz and Anders Liu-Lindberg 

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Everyone wants their own robot(s) these days to increase efficiency and free up time for work that matters. However, to many, “robot” remains a buzzword and while more and more are starting to grasp the benefits of RPA (Robotics Process Automation) it becomes even more fuzzy when we start to talk about AI (Artificial Intelligence).  

That’s why I’ve teamed up with Thomas Schultz and Enversion to break down how you make AI work for you in practical terms as opposed to just having it on you “that I gotta have too” list. Last week we bridged the gap between RPA and AI so hopefully you’re well-dressed to start jumping into AI but if not re-visit our article from last week “A Tale Of Robots: From Assembly Lines To Knowledge Workers”. The key takeaway if that we introduced to you a five-step model to tackle AI projects. Here’s where we start. 

1. Anchor the projects to true business pains 

It seems like an obvious step but if you’re not purposeful about why you need AI and what to use it for then you run into troubles. Here’s how we see it. 

Challenge: AI is on the top of all hype curves at present. That makes it tempting to join the pack – “If they have one – we want one!”. Even hardcore business experts are not immune to that psychology. Since most AI-projects are not just a walk in the park – data collection and data preparation alone being an expensive and resource consuming task – you need to exhibit stamina and allocate the needed resources and needed executive attention. That’s why you must choose a business pain that’s important to alleviate for everyone to have the guts to see it through and not just ditch it mid-way when the going gets though. 

Fix: Ask what true gains you will get, by solving a problem with AI? Alternatively – ask what will happen if you do nothing. It’s simple: Even if it is “exciting AI-stuff”, do your business case home work. In short, you must treat an AI project like any other important project set up to solve real business pains. It’s fair you might want to do some experimentation first but if you’re serious about doing this you must put your money where your mouth is. 

Don’t become another one of the failed AI projects 

Reality is that many AI projects fail to deliver the benefits that were envisioned. Not just because you didn’t follow step 1 above but also simply because it’s still an immature technology where successful real-life application is still somewhat far between. That’s why, to not become another failed AI project, there’s more to it than just step 1 which we’ll uncover in future articles. 

How is this relevant to Finance you might ask? Well, AI can do wonders for Finance as any other function. Think about business intelligence as a self-service. It’s great that you have reports available at a click of a button but what if you could simply ask a bot to figure out WHAT happened, WHERE it happened, and WHY it happened? That would save you a ton of time doing long weeded analyses and instead jump straight to WHAT IF scenario modeling and HOW to make it happen. Powerful right? That’s just one of the potential uses of AI. 

Have you already had thoughts about jumping into AI or are you at an earlier stage where RPA or simple macros are the only “robots” working for you? If you have any examples of successful AI application we’d love to hear about it. Post in the comments or send us a message.

This is the fifth article in a mini-series about RPA and AI. Read previous articles in the series below. From next week we begin to discuss how to succeed with AI.

How To Make Robots A Part Of The Finance Family?

Why You Should Only Robotize Standard Processes 

Robots and Humans. A Marriage Made In Heaven Or Hell?

A Tale Of Robots: From Assembly Lines To Knowledge Workers?

You can read previous articles about robotics and other stories about finance transformation below.

Blip. Blop. Accounting Robot. Are You Ready?

Are You Ready For Robotics Process Automation?

Have You Met Your Robot Accountant Yet?

Robots Are The Future Of Analytics

Your Robot Accountant Has A Name, It's Dixie

What Defines A Finance Master?

The CFOs Roadmap To Transforming Finance

How Finance People Can Be More Successful

The New Career Path For Finance Professionals

I also encourage you to take a tour of my past articles on finance transformation, finance business partnering and not least “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” which is really the starting point for the transformation. You should join our Finance Business Partner Forum which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community where we will continue to discuss this topic and you can click here to follow me on Twitter.

Anders Liu-Lindberg is a Senior Finance Business Partner at Maersk supporting our largest product and I have more than 10 years of experience working with Finance at Maersk both in Denmark and abroad. I am also the co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more than 7,000 members. My main goal at Maersk is to show how to be successful with business partnering and drive value creation as a trusted partner. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 27.000+ followers.