Productivity. Every organization needs it. But they also need to constantly push the boundaries if they are to stay and thrive in business.

One of the most effective ways of achieving increased productivity is through digital work assistant. There are several reasons you might not have thought about why this could be one of your best moves, which we will cover in a moment.

Now, lots of companies are trying to replace people by investing in tech. And this is not bad for human workers. If anything, the global pandemic has proven that digital technologies are no longer the preserve of disruptive technology companies. Every business must embark on its digital enablement journey if it hopes to survive and thrive in the global economy.

Robots help employees with every day, routine, digital tasks.  But as low hanging fruit are completed by RPA robots, high hanging fruit will need to be picked by AI and human workers.

But organizations will only experience this future perfect scenario, when we have a truly intelligent digitally augmented, autonomous workforce working within our enterprises.

What does a fully autonomous or a digitally enabled workplace look like?

AI tools, such as digital assistants, won’t replace humans, they will improve them. Digital workers, RPA and AI tools will sit on the desktop of human workers and provide them with direction as to how to do their jobs better. Or in fact they will do the work for them, freeing the person to complete more productive, creative, cognitive, value add work.

Humans will be freed to perform tasks which AI is incapable of completing by itself whilst their digital assistants learn, engage and assist with manual and unstructured work.

And whilst employees have left work for the day their e-workers can still be left to get the job done by emulating human-like work skills. For example: engage with customers; complete employees or agents work handed to them as their human owner went home; process documents and images; and generally, automate manual process work. The next morning the human arrives with a lot of work that has been done for them

Companies that introduce a digital assistant for everyone will benefit from:

1. Better employee and customer experiences. Removing mundane, repetitive, low value tasks from knowledge workers in trays will help improve work life experience. With digital assistants supporting and delivering high quality services accurately and consistently, this can only lead to higher customer satisfaction.
2. Digital assistants make work easier for people to complete more tasks. Digital Assistants can free colleagues up to complete more complex, cognitive tasks leading to capacity and productivity benefits and ultimately financial benefits for an organization.
3. Elevate and amplify human potential at work. People are an organization’s most innovative and creative asset. The more time knowledge workers can spend innovating the more likely a company is to benefit financially from their thinking.
4. Accelerate learning, accelerate productivity. An AI infused digital assistant is able to watch and learn as an expert completes their work. Overtime that individual or team can start to pass more and more work to digital assistants who learn quickly.   The sooner the digital assistant is taught and learns the faster it can be given tasks to complete freeing the person to be more productive than before.
5. Handle spikes and troughs in demand as well as unlock cost efficiency at scale. Digital assistants are valuable workers who can support their human colleagues complete work at scale. This results in improved operational efficiency with 24/7 operational availability
   
6. Improve process quality and reduce process risk. Digital assistants do what they are told and learn to do consistently and at pace. The same quality output can be expected time and time again resulting in right first-time products and services, reduced customer complaints coming into a contact centre and rework.
7. Appear more professional.
   Your brand will look more professional with 24/7 support and obviously with more efficient processes your prospects and customers will perceive you to be a more professional organization.

Every organization has its own unique needs. But every organization wants more capacity and productivity, happy employees and customers and more profits. Digital Assistants is one of the most effective ways to make that happen. Providing every person with a digital assistant requires careful planning that fits into each company’s business and operational strategy. But the benefits for an organisation, its workforce and customers can be incalculable.