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no reason why this same technology can’t
be as useful in the office as it is at home.
Business leaders believe AI is going to
be fundamental in the future, with 72%
terming it a ‘business advantage’ and
by 2018, 45% of the fastest-growing
companies in the world are due to ’employ’
more smart machines and virtual assistants
than people, underscoring that the business
opportunity is huge.
The initial use of AI-based assistants at
work might not be through voice-based
technology, as some people may be reticent
to speak out loud and it could be disruptive
to the work environment to have five
‘Alexas’ talking at once. However, intelligent
text-based services – or ‘chatbots’ – are
already taking off, providing the autonomy
to employees to solve their own problems,
rather than having to rely on other people
or departments. This includes handling HR
enquiries such as holiday requests or an IT
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issue like reporting a broken printer. This
helps to take the pressure off service desks
and other departments, while ensuring that
employees have access to services 24/7.
Working with cloud-based
service management
Chatbots of this kind are typically
integrated into existing cloud-based
service management applications. Service
management tools create common
processes to evaluate, process and track
demands, based on structured workflow
approaches. IT departments have led the
way in developing this technology, through
automated service management, which
might provide things like the ability to order
a new piece of equipment in a self-service
portal or log a support request and get
notifications about its progress. However,
other departments are now starting to
catch up in the automation of internal
service provision as the same principles
apply, whether it’s the responsibility of
HR, facilities, marketing, or finance. The
introduction of AI adds further friendliness
and takes even more pressure away from
service delivery staff, empowering employees
to help themselves. Three key examples of
this are as follows:
User-enabled IT support
When it comes to employee frustrations,
IT problems frequently top the list. Many
find when they have a problem it can take
a long time for it to be resolved. In recent
years, many organisations have made some
headway by using IT service management
(ITSM) platforms to deliver a better service to
employees. But even then, in most cases these
rely on ‘to and fro’ conversations or require an
engineer to be sent to fix the problem. Even if
it is easier to have these conversations, it still
doesn’t negate the need for them.
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