Presented by Deloitte Consulting

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The growth of the internet was fueled in part by industry’s obsession with digitization and the fervent belief that everything that could possibly be digitized eventually would be. And for the most part, that prediction has become reality. But digitization was only a first step to automation, and even those two developments in rapid succession fell short of truly emancipating workers charged with repeatable functions such as sourcing, procurement and accounts payable. The monotony of functions remains a burden, both to the bottom line of companies and the strategic potential of operational professionals.

I have always believed that the primary goal in bringing technology to the everyday tasks in business is to enable autonomy and redesign work for greater human sustainability. In spearheading the development of AIOPS.D — an AI-infused plug-n-play, industry-agnostic modular microservices platform and subscription offering that leverages the deep domain experience of Deloitte and our ecosystem collaborators — I am proud and excited that Deloitte is achieving this goal.

With AIOPS.D, any business process that has been digitized can be utilized to leapfrog over the automation process. This is not incremental innovation — it is game-changing. Built on Deloitte’s leading-edge CortexAI platform and seamlessly partnered with a broad range of ERP and non-ERP applications, AIPOS.D brings the AI deployment period to weeks or months, not years, with minimal upfront investment. Most importantly, in working with us to bypass automation and empower autonomy today, organizations are freeing themselves from having to conduct a complete overhaul in five years.

The future of work is changing. Organizations are turning to microservices to quickly build, test and deploy cloud-native applications. But many are finding that currently available solutions aren’t fast or flexible enough to interact with a broad array of partner applications. In response to our ongoing dialogue with the leaders who rely on our ability to deliver tangible and resilient solutions, we built AIOPS.D on four main foundations:

1. Autonomous operations: Organizations at every scale and in every sector are looking to do more with less and get back to focusing on what matters. AIOPS.D capitalizes on true artificial intelligence to fully enable autonomous business process operations. Real-time, in-transaction insights support decision-making with minimal user inputs.

• Touchless transactions: In providing dynamic rules-based ingestion, analysis and processing of routine transactions with human intervention on an exception basis, AIOPS.D elevates the IQ of an organization to make decisions for the business, from start to finish.

• Ecosystem orchestration: Only an agnostic solution that sits outside the box can successfully navigate and integrate the diverse ERP landscape within the box. By connecting to a broad range of ERP and non-ERP applications and enabling seamless orchestration across the ecosystem, AIOPS.D is designed to leave no ERP or boundary system behind.

• Human-centered work: People today are beholden to their inbox, with demands often being addressed on a first-come, first-served basis. AIOPS.D elevates the human experience through more productive interactions and decision-making. In addressing workforce challenges of transactional systems and embedding human capital perspectives, we are bringing work to people, not people to work.

Because the autonomous, outcome-based microservice solutions of AIOPS.D™ are especially suited to process areas with high transaction volume and low-value manual human processing requirements, we are initially targeting four key autonomous operational process areas: source-to-pay, billing, finance and data management. 

On the face of it, innovative technology always sounds more complicated than the process that it is updating or replacing. To this day, most people have an easier time explaining how the candle works than detailing the mechanics of the light bulb. While the combination of digitization and automation ushered in new levels of convenience and created economies of scale, it kept the user tethered to day-to-day processes in a way that hampered strategic thinking.

With AIOPS.D, human oversight can be “as needed” through prompts, or otherwise non-existent. While there has been a tendency among tech elites to judge AI solutions by the scope and complexity of their algorithms, we assess AI by the number of tasks it eliminates for the workforce and its power to empower the strategic thinking of the individual worker. For AI to reach its full potential, it has to move beyond user-friendly and become user-optional. We know that many people are intimidated by the thought of user-free technology, but the future belongs to those who are inspired by it.

Jag Bandla is AIOPS.D™ and Innovation & Assets Leader, Enterprise Performance Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Deloitte Consulting LLP.

This article contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this article, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This article is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor.

Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this article.

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