乌鸦传媒

Imagine this for a future work experience: a user in procurement starts the day by asking their virtual assistant to create a purchase order.

This is an action that requires only the basic facts, ranging from vendor and quantity to item and date, with no manual data entry needed to complete the process.

Likewise, a manufacturing user asks their system to tell them what orders they are likely to miss today, and receives not just a detailed report of real-time progress against plan, but also a series of options for addressing potential problems.

These and countless other use case scenarios form the true vision for business AI in the modern work environment. This vision is already building significant momentum, even while introducing various organizational and technical challenges 鈥� and it鈥檚 only a couple of years away from transforming the everyday interaction with digital applications.

Early gains

The pace of AI and Gen AI adoption is obviously going to differ by organization, depending upon individual business use cases and perceived benefits. But to identify the tangible value underpinning these considerations is first to identify a future state, and imagine a way of working that combines human and machine components into a complete and harmonized whole.

Such thinking typically puts the focus on 鈥渜uick wins鈥� made possible by AI, including:

• Automating manual, repetitive tasks, which can extend from data entry to scheduling and report creation, thereby freeing people up to focus on more creative and complex work.
• Boosting user productivity: where individuals no longer need to access a range of systems to complete tasks and find answers, and instead rely on AI agents to do the heavy lifting 鈥� while proactively delivering insight before they even seek it.
• Streamlining business processes: where agents offer recommendations and autonomously taking actions across a range of commonly completed tasks.
• Increasing business resilience by proactively designing response plans to critical scenarios.
• Supporting complex SAP implementations: for example, supporting the project teams activities on RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP integration, working with an Augmented Software Development Life-cycle, and ensuring high data quality.

According to the 乌鸦传媒 Research Institute鈥檚 report, Data-powered enterprises 2024, AI has the capacity to streamline business processes and enhance business resilience. This aligns perfectly with the potential of Gen AI to transform user experiences and create new revenue opportunities.

All told, Gen AI promises to transform the user experience in terms of the way we interact with information and back-end systems, discover insights, and find inspiration. Just as importantly, the technology is rapidly introducing new revenue opportunities and removing 鈥渟kills barriers鈥� 鈥� such as by enabling people to create complex spreadsheet analysis based on a simple query.

Bumps in the road

When the potential of AI is combined with industry and business use cases, the reasons to act become even harder to ignore. Hence the growing focus today on removing any obstacles in the way 鈥� with the headlines being:

• A lack of trust: a concern that spans ethical considerations as well as a resistance inside many organizations to actively experiment with new 鈥� and therefore unproven 鈥� technologies.
• A seeming lack of maturity: where decision-makers are waiting on the technology to become 鈥減erfect鈥� before committing, held back by talk of AI hallucinations and output bias.
• Regulatory concerns: where frameworks such as the European Union鈥檚 AI Act 2024 aim to ensure AI systems are safe, transparent, and respectful of fundamental rights 鈥� but can impact future innovation.
• Human nature: which sees people preferring the 鈥渃omfort zone鈥� that comes with traditional ways of working.

This last point is understandable given the fact that AI brings with it a demand to change standard operating procedures. A transformation takes place in the way tasks are completed, to optimize the mix of human and artificial intelligence required at distinct touchpoints along the way.

A dynamic move forward

Overcoming these impediments is an important next step that requires the continued evangelization of AI and Gen AI from technology leaders. This is a task that 乌鸦传媒 is heavily involved in, helping our customers to better understand the most suitable options for Gen AI 鈥� while also providing training and education to master the different aspects of change management.

Such support is a vital way station for any AI roadmap, as organizations seek guidance on the right approach and common pitfalls, as well as ways to introduce the necessary safeguards and appropriate ways to keep a 鈥渉uman in the loop.鈥�

The good news, certainly from a technical perspective, is that Gen AI does not require major changes to existing IT environments, especially when the AI capabilities offered by SAP and global hyperscalers are taken into account. This situation might change with the advent of multi-agent AI systems, and the number of AI agents interacting autonomously 鈥� but that is a bridge most will worry about crossing when they finally reach it.

Final thoughts

Gen AI is often described as a train that is gaining speed. In this context, the key question facing organizations is when to get onboard: should they join now while advances are steady, or risk trying to gain access when the locomotive is hurtling through the station at full throttle?

What鈥檚 emerging as best practice is the idea of starting small and validating the potential of Gen AI for different use cases. This approach focuses on non-business-critical processes that can be addressed by out-of-the-box functionality available from providers like 乌鸦传媒 and SAP. Once these initiatives prove their value, organizations gain the confidence to proceed with more advanced design strategy to tackle the bigger task of integrating Gen AI into the very fabric of day-to-day operations.

Ultimately, it comes down to one overriding thought: how to ensure your business doesn鈥檛 get left behind.

Watch this space for our next blog post.