Emerging blinking into the light, we’re all currently stumbling back to some sort of ‘normality’, in life and work. Like the three bears, going out for a walk whilst their porridge cools down, we come back to find that there have been changes and challenges in how we eat our breakfast. Someone (a robot..?) has been sitting in our chairs and eating our porridge – and now they’re threatening our jobs, roles, and… sense of value?

Well, that is one way to look at automation – I’m glad to say it’s not a prevalent one, but I do still hear fear, uncertainty, and doubt being uttered and muttered.  

What is the reality of the spread and growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation technology? What are the expected benefits? In particular, what are the issues associated with making this technology work successfully and with a focus still on humanity and what we do best? Also, what really is best for our customers and other stakeholders?

There are clearly many great potential benefits in terms of new capabilities, freed up resources, with ability to focus on innovation etc, plus of course the obvious options to save on costs.

So, there’s a clear need to clarify what the expected benefits are in using this technology successfully. We should also be clear on the potential issues and challenges that must be met and mitigated.

Let’s take a look at what’s involved in building a successful approach to automation, and build some of that clarity – and also scare away some of these misconceptions.

This blog by @BarclayRae looks at what’s involved in building a successful approach to automation, and build some of that clarity – and also scare away some of these misconceptions. #automation Click To Tweet

Objectives, features, and benefits

Firstly, using automation, AI, and robotics, needs clarity on objectives. Simple, fundamental, and non-negotiable. What will this do and what benefits will there be that outweigh any risks identified?  

No matter how much hype and pressure there is to keep up and to use new ‘cool’ tools, it’s vital that any organization embarking on using these tools has a clear set of expectations on what this will deliver. Some standard benefits that can be achieved from using automation are:

• Automation of processes, or steps in processes, such as approvals, to e.g. remove human delays and blockages
• The ability to provide fast automated responses to alerts and specific triggers, to speed up response and proactive working – e.g. when systems start to fail
• Interactive dialogues using natural language – bits that can respond to pre-defined criteria, searches etc.
• Decision making based on a number of criteria, plus ‘learned’ activity (i.e. statistical analysis).
• Interrogation of multiple types of data (data lakes) to find options and solutions.

Using automation, AI, and robotics, needs clarity on objectives, says @BarclayRae. Simple, fundamental, and non-negotiable. What will this do and what benefits will there be that outweigh any risks identified? #automation #AI Click To Tweet

This by definition also requires a good level of understanding on the various types of technology available, and what these can offer. Robots, AI, and various forms of automation are not all the same thing. These cover a number of the core functions (initially identified in the Turing Test*):

*Turing 5 AI Elements

• Learning – being able to understand and build data and knowledge
• Reasoning – the ability to build some arguments from connected data
• Perception – monitoring and tracking on events and triggers
• Problem Solving – using data, logic, and perceived knowledge to build solutions
• Language understanding – the ability to interpret unstructured data into loosely coupled data, with some clarity and intelligence.

Core functions that you’ll hear about include:

• Skills based Routing – fast escalation and triage to move work to the right place
• Self-Healing – tools to take action and reset or resolve issues automatically
• Machine learning – where tools can build up arguments, ideas, solutions themselves, from data and by making assumptions
• Automated testing – plus monitoring, diagnostics
• Orchestration – integration and intelligent management of work activities and outcomes, systems and run-books 
• Customer Support – chat and support via bots, also using natural language interfaces

Also, the benefits that can be achieved from these technologies include:  

• Optimized use of available resources
• Improvements in practices and productivity
• Better utilization of resources
• Reduction in operational costs
• Improved service levels and customer experience
• Higher availability of business services
• High productivity, lower costs
• Scalability and agility in how to work and deliver services.

Clearly there are many options and potential benefits from automation, so it’s vital to be clear on what you want this to deliver.

It’s also vital to ensure that all data and processes to be automated is up to date and working – automation will only speed up a bad process and spit out wrong data reports faster. It’s a key element in the rebuild of any manual process that the opportunity is taken to improve and polish this. If your processes use poor data or also include some manual steps that are not documented, then the automation of this will only speed up failed or incorrect outputs.

It’s vital to ensure that all data and processes to be automated is up to date and working – #automation will only speed up a bad process and spit out wrong data reports faster – @BarclayRae #servicedesk #ITSM Click To Tweet

Governance

Good governance is the approach that is needed to set out the AI/automation expectations for an organization – the vision, mission, tangible expectations, and governance required to define and set these expectations. We need this to ensure that all of the organization is ‘bought in’ and aware of the changes and opportunities that will ensue from automation. It’s also important to have clear direction and support to manage change with people, during a difficult and challenging period.

Governance is not just the preserve of rather dull administrators or bureaucrats, it’s something that we should all be engaged with. Good automation therefore requires engagement and commitment across the organization in order to be successful. We all have a part to play in governance.

To be successful with #automation you must develop awareness and practical focus on good governance, says @BarclayRae #ITSM Click To Tweet

Organizational Change Management (OCM)

The introduction of new automation requires a formal approach to people change (i.e. OCM), including :

• The need to build adoption in stages
• Developing engagement through positive communications
• Involving as many stakeholders as possible in automation development
• Awareness that new tools will not  make change happen and deliver on expectations on their own  
• Ensuring buy-in through consultation with people before ‘implementing’ new ways of working with them.

Planning must also include the human impact and the potential impact of automation. There’s also a need to clarify the best possible breakdown of work – it’s useful to identify different types of work and what humans and robots are best suited to. So e.g. machines are good at processing large volumes of work quickly and without error, whereas humans are generally better at interacting with people and building positive relationships.  

It’s also important to remember that often the work requires support of people, not just technology. We need to get people on board with the changes, and be able to work and communicate well with them through periods of transformation. As a result, the success of this can rely heavily on our ability to act productively, positively, and professionally – in other words the design should always provide a simple route to escalate from an automated system to a human interface when needed.

Don’t assume that tools alone will simply make change happen – @BarclayRae #automation #ITSM Click To Tweet

Sustainable work

Whatever tools and technology are being utilized, these must be considered for their impact on people whether employees, partners, users, or customers – all in addition to economic or business value. In addition, there’s also the need to ensure that considerations are given to sustainable factors including the environment and ethics.

The ethical outcomes of using AI and automation technology are in many cases new or unknown, for example using machine learning can lead to unintended results, as was shown when a bot ‘learned’ to use bigoted language from social media.

It’s important therefore to ensure full and exhaustive testing is built into planning and development. This should aim to reduce the risk as much as possible of this new technology behaving unpredictably and causing damage to services and reputation.

Sustainability is becoming a mandatory element in product and service management – sustainable as a service, as a financial model, as a human interface, and also as a positive element in life and work.

Sustainability is becoming a mandatory element in product and service management – sustainable as a service, as a financial model, as a human interface, and also as a positive element in life and work – @BarclayRae #automation #ITSM Click To Tweet

In Summary

Whilst there is much hype about how quick and easy (and now also, how cheap) it is to implement new tools using AI, robotic automation, and other ‘Turing’ technologies, these must still be considered in relation to robust and proven business practice and positive human interaction. We should not ‘notice’ the technology, rather the outcome. We should focus on what it delivers rather than what it does, and ideally this should augment and improve the experience of both the user and provider of the service.

Key Points

• Develop awareness and practical focus on good governance
• Be clear on objectives and expected benefits of using AI
• Don’t assume that tools alone will simply make change happen
• Focus on people and ways of working – perhaps AI could speed up the cooking and cooling time for the three bears’ porridge? But there again, that would then remove the time they have to go for a walk and work up an appetite.

We must consider all these elements when building new ways of working… Not just faster and cheaper, but better for all.

Whilst there is much hype about how quick & easy it is to implement new tools using AI, #automation, etc, these must still be considered in relation to robust and proven business practice and positive human interaction – @BarclayRae #ITSM Click To Tweet