Are we Unleashing the Power of Intelligent Machines?

As we have evolved, in our pursuit for safety, security and happiness, we have evolved machines around us to pursue our goals more efficiently and effectively. Our ancestors worked with simple machines like lever, pulley, wedge etc that helped them direct their energy to perform work. They then shaped new machines that could harness energy from nature like wind mills, water wheels and steam engines. Discovery of new fossil fuels, electricity, internal combustion engines led to creation of more sophisticated machines like automobiles and large factories.

As we shape new machines, they in turn, shape the organizations we work in and the societies we live in. They do so by enabling new methods of communication and execution. This leads to not just dramatic improvements in productivity but also enables us to create new machines. For example, Henry Ford’s assembly line enabled new productivity ushering us into the age of automobiles. These automobiles have in no uncertain terms reshaped the world around us. So have the computers, mobile phones and internet.

We are now entering the age of intelligent machines. In a few domains, these new machines are already showing the ability to observe more accurately, learn much faster, make better decisions and execute them with far more precision than we humans can. These intelligent machines are again reshaping organizations in many ways. Their ability to process large amounts of structured as well as unstructured information in near real time is making several jobs and several layers of management redundant.

One of the ways in which the new age machines are transforming organizations is how they engage with their customers and employees. Organisations have traditionally shyed away from proactively engaging customers in conversation as they never had the ability to respond and have feared that they will be overwhelmed if their internal and external customers start talking to them. This has made organizations transactional in nature and customer-centricity a lip service.

Many organizations are now leveraging these new age intelligent machines to proactively converse with customers, intelligently identifying issues and routing them to the right employees for faster resolution. The new age machines are also assisting the employees to respond to customers in near real time.

Through these conversations, information flows faster in these organizations, their internal culture, processes and systems are evolving to stay in sync with the changing market realities. They have a better understanding of customer needs and are better aligned to cater to these needs. These organisations are delivering personalized, precise and prompt experiences in an effortless manner. As a result, good customers and employees are gravitating to these organizations ensuring better productivity and higher profitablity. With better understanding of customer needs and highly engaged employees, these organization are also becoming breeding ground for next set of innovations and driving business growth.

Manish Srivastava is the CTO and Co-Founder of LitmusWorld. Follow him on Twitter