AI is already being used by millions of organizations for a number of important business functions, including customer service, manufacturing, managing workloads and advertising. In fact, over a third (37%) of organizations have implemented AI in some form over the last four years. So how will COVID-19 and the new remote workforce impact how businesses use these technologies?
AI will play a key role in promoting social distancing
While we’re all hopeful that one day we’ll be told ‘it’s all over’, unfortunately COVID-19 isn't going to disappear overnight. It’s going to take time to manage the virus and find a vaccine and until then, social distancing is still going to be the key to slowing the spread. This means that thousands (if not millions) of professionals will continue to work from home. And AI can play a vital role in making this possible for businesses.
These technologies allow employers to support a remote workforce and their customers through technologies such as CRMs, tech support and more. The result of this is that less people (if any) need to be in the office, allowing AI to handle many of the back office or admin tasks, this in turn reduces the amount of people having to commute as well.
Post-COVID-19 workforces will be more remote
Remote working was already on the rise before COVID-19 struck, with many employers choosing to offer this flexible working option to attract and retain staff. In fact, a report from Merchant Savvy revealed that in 2016, around 60% of employers were offering telecommuting as an option to their employees. Post-COVID-19, this number is likely to grow, as businesses have seen first-hand how they can continue to run a business effectively even with a remote team.
What has this got to do with AI? Post-COVID-19, businesses are going to have to invest more in choosing the right artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) tools to keep employees connected and ensure they can still assist them while working remotely.
AI will be vital for managing remote teams and serving customers
AI and intelligent automation allows employers to support and manage their staff in a number of different ways, as well as assisting employees in doing their job. For example, CRMs which capture and sync employee and customer activity can be viewed by managers to monitor progress. Chat interfaces are also available to foster relationship-centric collaboration between colleagues and provide a way to seek HR support or get in touch with managers.
It’s also good news for nurturing customer relationships while still being able to offer a top-class service. As a result, more organizations will be relying on and using AI than ever before, to allow staff to work remotely whilst still being able to support customers and keep up with demand.
Data analysis will be more important than ever
COVID-19 has had some serious economic implications for businesses across the globe and as such, data analysis is going to be a very important tool as we emerge from the pandemic. Organizations are going to need to rely on AI technology to handle and analyze large amounts of data, to see the effects of recent changes and plan for a future where social distancing and remote work might be more common.
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Kofax intelligent automation solutions help organizations transform information-intensive business processes, reduce manual work and errors, minimize cost, and improve customer engagement. We combine RPA, cognitive capture, mobility & engagement, process orchestration, analytics capabilities and professional services in one solution. This makes it easy to implement and scale for dramatic, immediate results that mitigate compliance risk and increase competitiveness, growth and profitability.
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