Thriving with AI Technology: Enjoying Tangible Returns from Digital Transformation

Every successful business has a blindspot!

Reducing operational costs, reducing friction and increasing motivation in business are key, together with a culture of continuous improvement.

In a recent blog of mine “Digital Transformation Groundhog Day,” I wrote “It’s no longer the big fish eating the little fish, it’s the fast fish eating the slow fish.”

The tangible benefits of any new technology depend on a number of factors; including levels of digital maturity of the business in relation to the competition. And of course taking into account fixed and variable costs that are impacted from the new 'leaner' approach being applied.

A lot has happened since the film The Forbidden Planet (1956) when robot Robbie spoke 187 languages and sub-tongues, made clothes and diamonds to order overnight.

With the latest developments in speech technology we are now able to translate into over 200 languages at light speed and use these databases for speech interfaces and text versions of Chatbots.

Being “Customer Centric” is not just about delivering the right product at the right time for the right price, it incorporates many other factors.

Many people don't want to wait to speak to someone on the phone or spend hours searching on the internet for information that could easily be found if the right technology was available.

To ensure that your business does not become the next Blockbuster, having a culture of innovation & continuous improvement is crucial.

Revisiting the death of Blockbuster

The Blockbuster CEO John Antioco discontinued some of the late fees that created friction with customers. He invested heavily in a digital platform and was planning to spend a further $200 million on that approach and eliminate late fees in all the stores. Antioco was seen by many as a retail genius after his previous successes at 7/11 and others.

The Blockbuster board were not behind his approach and their adoption to technological change was not rapid enough. Netflix then capitalized on their business blindspots.

Blockbuster didn’t seem to realize what business they were actually in. The board seemed to have thought “We rent out VHS and DVDs”. But in fact they were really in the business of providing personal entertainment on a rental basis – no matter what the delivery method was and that technology was changing under their feet.

The company declined to zero from $6 billion in revenues due to the wrong business and technology strategy; against this background, not keeping up with customer expectations & recognizing the threat of technology disruption they increased prices and made cuts on marketing spending. . . !

To quote HBR "I didn’t believe that technology would threaten Blockbuster as fast as critics thought.”

John Antioco left three years prior to them filing for bankruptcy. He sold his stock and bought shares in Netflix!

Embracing today's innovation

Today, business leaders are faced with continuous disruptive change. Companies like Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft and others are helping businesses to embrace many of the associated new technologies.

Chatbots in particular are an exciting development. Business interactions can be tailored with a highly customer-centric approach and are continuously optimized.

“They cut down Operational Costs. Per year there are a reported 265 billion customer requests. Businesses spent nearly $1.3 trillion to service these requests. Using Chatbots can help you save up to 30% of this.” Chatbot 2019 Trends and Stats with Insider Reports

Chatbots provide the ability to give just the right information that people need to make a buying decision or perform other important actions. A good example is HR departments providing candidates with the information they need in the easiest possible way, reducing friction and increasing motivation. Leaving even unsuccessful candidates a positive impression of your brand.

For example, you can see how Uncubed helped Buzzfeed evolve its hiring process here in this short video:

There are many other examples of Chatbots and the underlying technology being used successfully to reduce overheads and improve the customer journey. I recently heard Chatbots and their databases being used to help people recover from PTSD, where people speak to virtual therapist Ellie. Programmers have been attempting to get this right since my earliest days of  having a computer in the 1980s. They have come a long way since then. “They can help you, but they can't judge you.” Wired. There is the DoNotPay Chatbot which gives free legal help in under 30 seconds and Duolingo helps people to practice conversations in other languages.

What can Chatbots do?

Many other useful applications exist within business and the public sector and the only thing limiting the growth of Chatbots is imagination....

Where there is data and a conversation with a human, a Chatbot can be used to improve the experience, saving time and resources sifting through myriads of information to answer specific questions people have.

Eliminating inefficiencies in business is crucial, not necessarily reducing employees but giving them important and more rewarding work, whilst maintaining the strength of the company means that they will probably be around for the long term. This is just one to increase employee motivation by removing mundane tasks. 

Efficiency is so important....as is answering people's questions internally and externally. The processes and business rewards are vast. The question is are you ready to secure your future?

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