Unlocking the Potential of AI in Field Service: A Roadmap to Success

By Ellisen Wang

I’m sure everyone has heard of AI at this point. I don’t think you can go through a single day without hearing somebody say “AI” or seeing that word written somewhere.

It has impacted almost every industry we can think of, including field service.

According to a WBR Insights US study with 100 field service leaders (With the support of our all-star partner, Zuper !), 85% of respondents said they’re preparing to increase their investments in AI in the next two years [1].

And why wouldn't they?

AI has the potential to improve any service organization in areas like….

? Predictive maintenance

? Resource allocation optimization

? Automated scheduling and routing

? Customer service

….which can lead to improved first-time fix rates, reduced resolution times, increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, and many more benefits!

Improvements like these are huge competitive advantages for any service organization. So if you’re not implementing AI to your day-to-day operations, you certainly will fall behind by being less efficient than your competitors. You might struggle with resource allocation, for example, (E.g. Inefficient technician scheduling), which can lead to longer wait time for customers and unnecessary travel.

Overall, it would create bad experiences for your customers, leading to missed upsell or cross-sell opportunities, or worse, lost business.

So if your organization hasn’t taken the crucial step to integrate AI technology, it’s best you get on it ASAP.

However, I understand it’s not as simple as it sounds, especially if you’re part of a huge organization. It’ll take some prep work and baby steps. So here are a few tips you can follow to help your organization prepare for AI implementation:

1. Create a roadmap

It’s always great to have a solid idea about where you’re working towards. Aimlessly implementing AI to random areas of your company is not going to do you any good. It can lead to wasted time and money. This is the step where you’d start asking yourself questions like:

“Where would AI have an immediate impact?”

“Which areas of my company can do without AI for now?”

“Before I even begin to implement AI, are there other things that need to be in place first?”

“What are the bottlenecks in my day-to-day operations that AI can help resolve?”

“What do I want the end result to look like?”

Which brings me to number two.

2. Determine your goals

Like measuring the performance of any new initiative, establishing goals and KPIs to prove some form of ROI is the first thing you need to do before implementation. Otherwise, how would you be able to decide if AI will be worth your investment?

First you have to determine your overall goals. Do you want AI to help improve predictive maintenance? Automated scheduling? Personalized customer service? Once you have those in mind, then you’ll be able to set clear KPIs to measure the impact of AI.

For example, if you want to use AI in predictive maintenance, maybe you’d want to see if AI will help:

? Decrease unplanned downtime

? Speed up service resolutions

? Field technicians spend less time onsite

3. Start small

To make this huge initiative a bit less intimidating, start integrating AI with a tool you already use, ideally with one tool that your workers use regularly and can impact their day-to-day lives. That can be your CRM, FSM software, ERP software, or any other tool in your tech stack.

But let me emphasize starting with one tool because moving too fast can cause a lot of issues, especially when you introduce new technology. And if you implement AI to multiple departments in your company? Then you’ll potentially be dealing with major setbacks.

4. Expand slowly

Had success with your first AI integration project? Great! You have one team that’s familiar with the technology, they’ve seen the benefits, and they know the potential challenges to look out for. In other words, you have a case to continue integrating AI to other departments.

What’s your next area to integrate AI with? Then keep going from there. Integrating little-by-little will not only prevent major disruptions, but will prevent catching workers by surprise, or making their days feel unstable. One thing most people don’t like is change, so this will be a way to ease them into the new technology.

5. Create training materials

One other thing to keep in mind as you slowly integrate AI to your day-to-day work life is to make sure your employees are actually using it, and teaching any new hires how to use it so the technology stays relevant. Even the newest, hottest tool can be forgotten by companies once the novelty has died down.

Have plans in place to enable your employees to use this new technology with confidence, and to let them know that AI integration is going to be the new normal.

There are many different ways to integrate AI into your operations to improve efficiency and productivity for your team. The variety of AI use cases is something we dive into at our Field Service events. If you’d like to be a part of the conversation, join us our upcoming events:

Field Service Europe | October 28-30, 2024 | Amsterdam, Netherlands

Field Service Connect | November 18-20, 2024 | Austin, TX

Field Service Medical | March 3-4, 2025 | San Diego, CA

Field Service Palm Springs | April 22-24, 2025 | Palm Springs, CA

[1] Optimizing Field Service Operations with AI and FSM Solutions: How Field Service Leaders Will Leverage the Latest Technologies to Streamline Back-end Processes and the Customer Experience, WBR Insights, Field Service, Zuper (Download your copy of the report)