Business leaders recognize automation is changing the way companies operate. The hope is that automation — whether it’s in the form of robots, machine learning, or artificial intelligence (AI) — will make us all more productive in the not-so-distant future. However, getting to the point where automation enhances our working life is far from straightforward. Despite the cacophonous hype associated with AI during the past year, experts suggest emerging technologies must be explored in a careful and considerate manner. That’s certainly the approach being taken by Sasha Jory, CIO at insurer Hastings Direct. While her team is investigating “all sorts of different things” in automation, she says they’ve already learned a valuable lesson from their explorations. “One of the things we’ve found with automation is that if a process is broken and doesn’t work today, then automating that process just makes the mess go faster,” she says. Avoiding that nightmare scenario means taking a tactical approach to automation. “We choose carefully where we think that we can make a difference,” says Jory. “A lot of our automation is about removing manual processes, bringing in streamlining, creating opportunities through robotics to do processes, and teaching the technology to do things that previously a human being would have done.” Rather than a big-bang approach that relies on a huge investment in enterprise-wide services, such as robotic process automation (RPA), Jory and her team search for small-scale opportunities.

Full report : Though generative AI and robotics are receiving a lot of attention now, some businesses are ignoring the hype and honing in on more focused tactics.