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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: THE NEXT WAVE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

When we think of AI, the initial impression, at least today, is of science fiction. Perhaps that means robots and autonomous systems interacting with the physical world, or a central brain running the entirety of a business’s processes. While neither of those scenarios are fully realized, AI implementation is already here in a variety of ways that directly benefit service management, and will be imperative in the future as a key to making digital transformation work. 

Both IoT and Analytics may seem like powerful tools that are already ushering in true digital transformation for service firms, but these tools also represent the foundational bedrock on which AI will establish itself, and that combination will take digital transformation to the next level. If digital transformation is the act of focusing operations around powerful digital tools, there will be no tool more powerful than AI in the next ten years. Not only will AI begin to power and automate individual tasks, but as AI processes become more sophisticated, they’ll make natural recommendations about how to improve those tasks.

To understand the implications of that future state, we need to dig into what AI really means.

AI BASICS: GETTING A GRIP ON THE INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST BUZZWORD

Between terms like AI, Machine Learning, cognitive computing, and neural networks, the concept of computers systems that learn, adapt, and improve in their ability to understand presents us with a number of vague associations. AI, in its simplest form, is any technology designed to react to external stimuli in ways that were not initially programmed.

For example, you’re a commercial HVAC company, and your systems are connected via IoT-enabled sensors. For the last six months, you’ve been benchmarking internal data about how your HVAC’s output changes in advance of a breakdown.

"You can’t pick up AI off a shelf and install it in your business, the same way you could buy a computer or a phone, or connect to the internet..."

That information is fed into an AI-powered system, which can then take that data and take independent action. If two days before a system malfunction the AI identifies a pattern of three performance metrics that change, the AI functionality can set up an automated alert. Setting triggers based on specific set of criteria being reached is programming 101, of course, but learning what those criteria are, and evaluating how to handle it, defines AI. This sort of prescriptive repair will only increase as AI systems better learn and adapt. Rather than simply creating an alert based on what it has learned, the AI functionality may take unilateral action from ordering parts to dispatching a field service technician.

A question worth considering as it relates to AI is just how important it will be to digital transformation relative to the other triggers that have led us to our digital-minded present. Microchips, the internet, and mobile computing all represented major paradigm shifts in how we think about technology, leading organizations to transform themselves into digital businesses. Does AI represent a similar shift?

The answer, I’d postulate, is yes, but less obviously. This owes itself somewhat to AI’s form factor. You can’t pick up AI off a shelf and install it in your business, the same way you could buy a computer or a phone, or connect to the internet. Academically, Artificial Intelligence has more in common with a programming language that one of those utilities, and because of that, many organizations employing complex field service software don’t even realize that they’re using elements of AI in their business today.

Want to know more? The full white paper relating to this series is available as premium content to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

sponsored by: 

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, IFS, who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this content.