Thriving In The Automation Economy – A BFSI Perspective
Every industry today is exploring ways and means to leverage Automation and Generative AI and looking at seamlessly integrating it with their digital core. The very personality of enterprise computing, as we know it today, will change, and the time is now to look at things from a lens of 'Intelligent Automation', which will be the pivot to a smooth induction of generative AI.
Let's look at some stats. In a recent Gartner, Inc. poll of more than 2,500 executive leaders, 45 per cent reported that the publicity of ChatGPT has prompted them to increase Artificial Intelligence (AI) investments. Seventy per cent of executives said that their organization is in investigation and exploration mode with Generative AI, while 19 per cent are in pilot or production mode.
The poll was conducted among 2,544 respondents as part of a Gartner webinar series in March and April 2023, discussing the enterprise impact of ChatGPT and Generative AI. The results of this poll do not represent global findings or the market as a whole.
Interestingly, despite the economic headwinds, the survey revealed that only 17 per cent of executives indicated cost optimisation as the primary purpose of Generative AI investments. Customer experience was the most common primary focus of investments, cited by 38 per cent of respondents.
At a roundtable discussion organised by BW Businessworld and Automation Anywhere, we invited leading IT decision makers from the BFSI space to gain a pulse check on how the BFSI sector is taking on to the disruption created by 'Generative AI' and how 'Intelligent Automation', helps in manifesting the true power of automation.
While Generative AI's impact is felt across sectors, let's look at how BFSI leaders manage this new disruption and see it as a means for more remarkable business outcomes. Hoshie Ghaswalla of BW Businessworld moderated the discussion.
Companies such as Automation Anywhere, the #1 leader in cloud-native ‘Intelligent Automation’, believe that Generative AI is fuelling the intelligent automation wave.
Let's decode some of the pertinent questions and views from experts.
LEVERAGING AUTOMATION
Insights from Gartner reveal that as organisations begin experimenting with Generative AI, many are starting with use cases such as code generation. While these efforts can be a robust initial value-add, Generative AI has vast potential to support solutions that augment humans or machines and autonomously execute business and IT processes.
Shanker Ramrakhiani, Chief Information Security Officer & Head of Business Continuity at IIFL Securities, says, "We started with a pilot during the COVID pandemic. Despite Automation's challenges, we are mindful that no enterprise can afford to ignore it. We started from the pilot, and it is maturing by the day, and it's a constant learning experience for us. So, we are still an early adopter and with a few of the processes we have automated, we are seeing the results, but we are still not on the core business processes yet, which we want to achieve as we move forward."
Clearly, enterprises are looking to integrate Automation along with Generative AI, but each has its own adoption curve and the value they see out of it in the short and long term. Reflecting on this, Kayzad Hiramanek, Chief Operating Officer of Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance, says, "We are in a unique position regarding automation as we are the youngest private life insurer in the industry. This has helped us in terms of skipping one generation of legacy platforms. We were very clear from the start that with evolving customer needs and personas, we need to invest in the right technologies. Seeing things from that lens makes automation and data-based AI tools a must for enterprises as we move forward. Of course, it's not one big-bang approach. We are building all solutions comprehensively, based on compliance and regulatory frameworks."
The recent developments in the AI space signal that automation is becoming a strategic business imperative. It is also the next logical evolution to usher in more significant employee stakeholder and customer experience.
Dhairya Shah, Chief of Staff INDmoney, says, "Automation is in the DNA of INDmoney. INDmoney started with automating the individual's financial life, and we continue to believe it can span across everything in the organisation. While Automation can be integrated across business processes, it must be prioritised by keeping the users first. We must start with a proof-of-concept and mature it only after a clear cost-benefit analysis."
Agrees Krishnakant Gaitonde, Sr VP, IT, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance. He says, "I am talking from my own domain requirements. From an enterprise-wide strategy for AI, there are a lot of back-office processes that we can do with automation. It can bring in many operational efficiencies by simplifying and automating many manual processes."
A POWERFUL BLEND: AUTOMATION AND GENERATIVE AI
The combination of generative AI and automation is so powerful. At the same time, Automation provides an action layer to bring the power of generative AI models to life. Using AI, enterprises can manifest defined benefits. Take the case of NCDEX. Viral Davda, CTO of National Commodities & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), says, "NCDEX is a Market Infrastructure Institution (MII) and a critical infrastructure for India as we command over 85 per cent market share in the agri commodity derivatives segment. We are a technology organization providing a digital platform for price discovery and price risk management. Despite the challenges it may bring, we have to continuously embrace emerging technologies, including automation. All our core processes, from member onboarding to clearing and settlement, are entirely automated, and all our transactions are processed straight through using automated systems without any human intervention.”
Automation brings multiple benefits to the business, says Gaurav Agarwal, Vice President India Region, Automation Anywhere. "But we need to be grounded to challenges and find ways to navigate the maze. The way forward is an 'Intelligent Automation platform’. It brings in a lot of rule-based process efficiency and empowers your digital core, for greater decision-making and improved business outcomes. It impacts all stakeholders right from HR to Finance to Operations. It's like turbocharging your IT infrastructure."
INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION PLATFORM: THE WAY FORWARD
Given the rapidly evolving AI market, 'Intelligent Automation' aims to tune things for greater productivity and outcomes. Viral Davda says, "Certainly, Automation has evolved, and so have their use cases and adaption. Earlier, automation was a placeholder; now, it is a necessity. In that scheme of things, intelligent automation, which combines the power of AI and RPA, is the way forward.”
Experts say that in order to meet global GDP targets, businesses will need to increase productivity by an estimated 50 per cent. As CEOs and board leaders contemplate ways to solve the widening productivity gap, generative AI will become a powerful tool in daily life.
Shanker Ramrakhiani agrees that a platform-based approach will help enterprises to harness more significant results. Add to that every enterprise has its unique requirements and timelines, and to scale your AI initiative. Intelligent Automation is the right way to move ahead.
In the entire automation debate that is going on, we should also be mindful of the human element and seamlessly manage the human-machine or algorithm relationships. Putting that point in perspective, Krishnakant Gaitonde says, "In my opinion, Automation needs to try to reduce that human element. Also, ideally over a period, with learnings embedded in, it can be tuned for better outcomes."
According to Gaurav Agarwal, an intelligent automation platform will help create a holistic automation approach to enterprises. "We are constantly learning and exploring ways and means to harness the power of AI, of course, and intelligent automation is the right starting point. We gain speed and agility with AI and can granulate the needs and wants of the customers and the operational efficiencies it brings."
Generative AI, when combined with automation, opens myriad new business possibilities, and transforms the speed and scale of how businesses are run. An intelligent automation platform combines the productivity gains of automation. It compounds them with AI, making the path to ROI faster than ever and also helps manage the critical domain requirements of the industries.
Kayzad Hiramanek says, "For me, risk management, the ability to forge new business opportunities and the leverage it creates to gain predictability are all the outcomes of good AI strategy, and of course, your core organisational expertise, whether product or services gets amplified for growth with AI."
THE ROAD AHEAD
Dhairya Shah says," Automation as a concept should first be embraced at an organisation level (including top management), and you need to think about scale from the very start. Organisations must start with an innovative POC with a key use case looked at from an organisation standpoint. Automation, especially those involving Gen AI, comes at a significant cost and hence must be embraced at the top management level to avoid being plateaued.
Meanwhile, Shanker Ramrakhiani believes that the output quality out of Automation is precise, so we depend on it. The solution should not just be tactical; it must be strategic.
Viral Davda, however, recommends a cautious approach. He says, "We must be very careful about how we are using these technologies. Everything may not be a good candidate for Automation. We must be mindful of selecting the right use cases for automation and then align that with the right technologies available. Particularly for the usage of intelligent automation, which uses AI, we need to make sure we are using it 'responsibly'. Enterprises today should focus on ‘Responsible AI’ with an end-to-end governance framework to ensure that AI algorithms and data sets are being used ethically, safely and legally whilst achieving the organization's objective and delivering business value."
Krishnakant Gaitonde believes it all depends on how you train your AI bots so that it has greater accuracy and relevance and can eliminate human intervention. But I agree it's constantly evolving and getting refined by the day.
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