It feels like vendors are announcing AI advances daily. It’s easy to become numb to it or to think that it doesn’t matter to you. Please pay attention!
Vendor AI advancements can - and should - be valuable to your business! After all, you’re likely spending millions on these tools. You should have a dedicated team thinking about how to leverage recent announcements like last week’s from IBM and ServiceNow.
Below, I quickly explain the announcements, define some key terms, offer practical examples of applying the new capabilities, and then close with action recommendations. Remember - everyone who owns these tools will have the same possibilities for success. Only those who actually APPLY advances will benefit from them.
Recent IBM and ServiceNow Announcements
Generative AI Integration
IBM announced the integration of IBM watsonx with ServiceNow’s Now Platform, enhancing productivity through advanced AI capabilities such as summarization, multilingual support, and virtual agent interactions.
IT Operations Automation
IBM Watson AIOps combined with ServiceNow IT Service Management and IT Operations Management to automate and prevent IT issues, improving efficiency and reducing incident resolution times.
Talent Development
A new solution to revolutionize talent development by leveraging AI to map skills and accelerate workforce upskilling and reskilling.
Key Terms
Before diving into how these developments can be useful to your business, let’s remind ourselves of some key terms:
Artificial Intelligence (AI): The development of computer systems that can perform tasks requiring human intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving, and decision-making.
Machine Learning (ML): A subset of AI involving training algorithms to learn from data and make predictions or decisions without explicit programming.
Natural Language Processing (NLP): A subset of AI dealing with the interaction between computers and humans in natural language, enabling computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language.
ServiceNow: A cloud-based platform offering software as a service (SaaS) for IT service management, customer service management, and other business applications.
IBM watsonx: A cloud-based AI platform providing a range of AI and ML capabilities, including NLP, computer vision, and predictive analytics.
Generative AI: AI that can generate new content, such as text, images, or music, based on learned patterns from existing data.
IT Service Management (ITSM): The process of designing, delivering, and managing IT services to meet an organization’s needs.
Workflow Automation: Using software or tools to automate repetitive tasks or business processes, freeing up human resources for more strategic work.
Real-World Applications
Let's explore some concrete examples of how organizations can leverage these new capabilities to transform work and drive competitive advantage or mission attainment.
Automate IT Service Management
With IBM Watson AIOps and ServiceNow IT Service Management integration, automate incident resolution to reduce downtime and improve overall IT efficiency.
Example: Imagine a large retail company with hundreds of stores. When a store’s point-of-sale system goes down, the IT team receives an alert and must quickly resolve the issue to minimize lost sales. With AI-powered automation, the system can automatically detect the issue, identify the root cause, and trigger a resolution process without human intervention. This frees up the IT team to focus on strategic initiatives, such as improving the customer experience.
Enhance Customer Service
Leverage AI-powered virtual agents to provide 24/7 customer support, freeing up human agents to focus on more complex issues.
Analogy: Think of AI-powered virtual agents like a team of super-efficient customer service representatives handling routine inquiries and issues, freeing up human agents for more complex tasks. Just as a GPS navigation system provides turn-by-turn directions, AI-powered virtual agents provide step-by-step solutions to common customer issues, reducing wait times and improving overall customer satisfaction.
Streamline Workflow Automation
Connect ServiceNow workflows to AI models trained within watsonx.ai, enabling more advanced automation capabilities and reducing manual errors.
Example: Consider a financial services company processing thousands of loan applications monthly. With AI-powered workflow automation, the system can automatically review and approve loan applications, flagging only those requiring human review. This reduces manual errors and frees up staff to focus on higher-value tasks, such as personalized customer service and advice.
Upskill and Reskill Your Workforce
Use AI to map skills and accelerate workforce upskilling and reskilling, ensuring your team is equipped to tackle future challenges.
Analogy: Think of AI-powered skills mapping as a personalized career coach for every employee. Just as a fitness tracker provides personalized recommendations for improving physical health, AI-powered skills mapping offers personalized recommendations for improving professional skills and advancing careers. This enables organizations to develop a more agile and adaptable workforce, better equipped to respond to changing business needs and market conditions.
Conclusion
These are just a few examples to kickstart your thinking about how vendor AI advancements can be valuable to your business. My advice to you:
Expect (and pressure) your vendors to innovate with AI. They should be investing in R&D on your behalf. If your vendors aren’t innovating, get new vendors.
Have a team focused on quickly leveraging the ongoing flood of advancements. AI is only valuable in the hands of competent humans! You need line of business experts aligned with your technologists to reap the benefits of this fast-advancing environment. “Vision without execution is hallucination.” Thomas Edison
Be prepared to shift work processes and job roles to maximize the value being offered by your vendors. For context, I advise reassessing job roles every 3-6 months. Ideally, it needs to be done on a rolling basis in concert with these capability upgrades. The days of job descriptions staying stagnant for 3-10 years are long gone.
Bottom line, everyone who owns these tools will have the same possibilities. Only those who creatively APPLY them will benefit and differentiate themselves! And speed matters.
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Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. If my team can be of help, reach out to us at admin@drlisa.ai
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