Operationalizing AI innovation through delivery

Smart technology and innovation in AI shouldn’t be seen as a pipedream. Connecting AI innovation can help organizations to operationalize delivery and drive substantial benefits and business outcomes.

There is frequent discussion these days about the broad potential of artificial intelligence (AI), and we’ve recently seen much debate about the ramifications it may have for the way we live.

But if you’re like me, you’ll feel there’s no substitute for real-world examples. Rather than consider AI in the abstract, it’s always good to see tangible instances of how the technology’s innovations can be applied to business operations in order to achieve positive business outcomes.

Enhancing T&E processing

Capgemini has developed a smart chatbot for a leading global provider of pulp and paper products. The chatbot holds information about the organization’s travel and expenses (T&E) processes, and helps with issues related to expense reporting, approval flow and payment, giving instructions on how to resolve or correctly address an issue.

Employees aren’t always familiar with processes or terminologies at work, and so the chatbot provides a logical path, leading them through possible scenarios of their issue – so even when they are not sure how to put the exact question, they can select the most appropriate area of interest.

If people have a query the system can’t handle, the chatbot advises them who they need to contact and how, and advises them about what information they’ll need to provide to get the issue resolved.

By answering employees’ queries itself as well as giving them shortcuts to in-person issues resolution, the chatbot is expected to eliminate up to 25% of all transactions received each month by the organization’s travel and expenses team.

Easy access to medical records

We’ve seen that some employees may find modern technology challenging, but for healthcare patients – especially for the elderly – it can be especially daunting.

Capgemini has developed a Digital Avatar solution that combines robotic process automation (RPA), conversational AI, multi-lingual natural language voice processing, digital twin technology, and enterprise platforms with next-generation human avatar digitalization technology to translate incoming calls in multiple source languages into the patient’s desired language.

The avatar gives patients quick and easy access to all their medical records, ensuring they get the critical information they need, when they need it – without having to explain their medical history every time they connect with their healthcare providers. It responds to situations and requests just as a regular human adviser would, passing on critical information in simple and straightforward ways. It’s easy and natural for patients to use – and it lowers operational costs, too.

Improving data extraction accuracy

A major organization employed a team to painstakingly pick out relevant data manually from multiple documents and create summaries, but the process was slow and was also prone to errors and rework.

Capgemini introduced a smart solution that automatically scans documents using optical character recognition (OCR) technology, indexes and classifies them, retrieves the necessary data, validates it with reference to a defined taxonomy, and finally exports it for further use.

After initial tuning, the accuracy achieved for all document types is 95%.

Automatic invoice processing

A US media services organization wanted to reduce manual efforts and speed up the turn-around time for processing invoices through its accounts payable function. With a daily throughput of over 200 supplier invoices, the workload was substantial and its operational significance was high.

Capgemini’s smart solution collects unprocessed invoices from the shared mailbox, scans them, and extracts necessary data. Once validated, dedicated routines submit the invoice to the system. Any exceptions are identified automatically and flagged to the business. This automated approach lowers costs, streamlines processes, and reduces the need for manual intervention.

These are just a few brief examples of smart technology in action. They demonstrate that AI needn’t be regarded as a futuristic abstract: instead, it’s here, it’s now, and it’s providing substantial and welcome benefits to everyday operations.

This article is published in the new edition of our Innovation Nation magazine. Read more from our special feature on “Automation and the data-powered organization” and download the full magazine.