Stories about jobs lost to artificial intelligence (AI) are legion: for instance, in warehouses, mundane, manual jobs are known to have been replaced by robots though, to be fair, semi-skilled work has also been lost to robots, for example in the automotive industry (stretching back decades, if we’re honest). And that’s the public’s common perception of what AI is – it’s about taking jobs from humans and giving them to robots.
However, we need to back up a bit here. AI is not all about taking away jobs, it’s also about improving productivity for people in their jobs. An AI revolution is taking place in the use of information and processing systems: new techniques and approaches (of which blockchain is just the most high profile one) are being introduced by companies across complete supply chains to improve visibility and transparency of information flows to all stakeholders.
Another beneficial development in AI is that more sophisticated algorithms are changing the roles of office staff in a beneficial way. Already, customer service enquiries have been transformed and improved by giving staff and customers alike the ability to track orders online, with proactive notifications of the status/delivery of products. Also, today’s algorithms are now planning and optimising deliveries, whether for business-to-business or business-to-home and allowing planners to focus on more value-added functions. Typically, office staff can now focus on delivering key performance information (KPIs) in a timely manner that allows management to undertake proactive, rather than reactive, interventions.
An additional benefit of this new approach is that important information and regulations are now being owned by the organisation, rather than being the responsibility of individual employees. More management time can now be spent planning how to implement strategic improvements to the business rather than simply trying to maintain operational stability.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is an internet-based model that enables the most seamless and easy to integrate flow of information across diverse systems – it’s AI, but not as most people know it. Indeed, our own CarrierNet TMS avails itself of this technology.
If you’d like to know how any the above can help your business, please contact Bashir Khan here.