What marks an industrial revolution? From the economic perspective, they are signified by massive changes in economies brought about by transformative developments in productivity. Technology helped mankind shift from agriculture to industry, and industry into production. Fast-forward a few hundred years and production branched out to physical and digital.
It’s easy to see how technology has improved things physically. Developments in material sciences, engineering, and manufacturing have literally changed skylines, landscapes, architecture, and space. As for digital productivity, we have seen it grow through the internet and smartphones. While we do see our advances, I don’t think we as humans fully understand just how far we’ve come.
Let’s put things into perspective with two famous computers, shall we?
In case you’re not familiar with Apollo 11, it’s the first space mission that allowed humans to walk on the moon, a feat so complex and advanced that it required hundreds of millions of dollars worth of research to develop the technology to make it possible.
While it is a gross oversimplification of digital development, the fact remains that a smartphone is powerful enough to send a person to the moon and back while remaining pocket-sized. Mind you, that’s only one example of how far we’ve come in computing, with many more happening behind the scenes.
Today, we are in the era of software and automation. While many economies and governments still rely on manual processes (e.g. paperwork), programs and applications have made it possible to get a loan, own a house, and set up automated mortgage payments in just a few minutes.
Digital developments are not just about making computers faster but making processes more efficient. With smarter productivity in mind, Generative AI is looking to spearhead the next revolution with the concept of the digital workforce.
Instead of having humans do repetitive tasks and struggle to find and consolidate research, they can instead employ programs to simplify the work for them. Want to find relevant documentation for research? Use AI as a personal assistant to recommend useful texts, complete with abstracts and summaries to help you make research easier.
This concept extends to a lot of useful tasks. By maximizing data utilization, generative AI helps users speed up deliveries and increase productivity exponentially. From document processing to predictive analysis, Generative AI has the power to save companies precious time and money in their manual processes.
Companies stand to benefit the most from AI-enhanced processes. Instead of scanning documents one by one and sifting through the information, they can use a system like Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) to read all the data, organize it intelligently, and do all the necessary calculations and verifications to make document processing a breeze.
Now let’s see a simplified comparison between humans and software in such a case.
From HR to legal work, entire departments can be optimized just by enabling a simple system. That means more time for workers to upskill and focus on tasks that humans are best at doing. Who wouldn’t want an easier job?
By democratizing AI properly, securely, and fairly, companies can expect:
- Increase Operational Efficiency: Do more with your existing workforce; Blunt the negative effects of attrition
- Boost Productivity: Focus on more value-adding and engaging activities
- Create Connected Experiences Across Teams and Systems: Integrate processes across never-before-reached systems
- Improve Customer Experience: Quicker delivery of services by removing process
bottlenecks and human errors
Still, the case for AI technology comes with a lot of parentheses. Humans are still key components to making AI usable in the first place. We’re still the ones who will call the shots, find the inconsistencies, and improve the system as it runs.
AI won’t replace humans and technology will never replace ingenuity and empathy. What AI is best at is helping humans become more creative, productive, and informed. Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay. It’s up to us if we want to make the most out of it.
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