5 big questions on innovation

Everyone is talking about AI. The difference for Serviceaide is that we introduced AI into production all the way back in 2017.  Our approach is also different in that we are focused on an AI-First approach.  This means that our team considers how AI can take the operational lead in managing and automating routine requests and work tasks as we design and build systems; we don’t just add in AI where it’s easy. The industry will still need people, but Serviceaide is helping to shift their focus to more strategic, high value work.  This will result in increased productivity and efficiency.

Technology is evolving quicky, in some cases daily.  Take for example, Large Language Models, we have shifted our approach to monthly in order to maximize performance from the best model.  For many customers, it's hard to keep up with the pace of innovation which makes having both the knowledge and maturity to consider the benefits of new technology in their DevOps and overall planning incredibly important. One example is examining how to make Ai driven automation work with legacy systems, and implement the changes required. To this end, Serviceaide is often introducing innovation and becoming an advisor on Digital Transformations to many of our clients.

Bringing innovation to Service Management is our company and departmental mission. The development team is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies to maximize worker productivity. Our service and support vertical extends from IT to potentially all departments of an organization.  This passion for what AI can do touches everyone in the company from development to support to marketing and sales. When you have those “ah ha” moments and see all the ways the technology can be applied, it really motivates the team to drive even harder and naturally fosters creativity.

I see the issue as how a company adopts the newer technologies that either automates routine labor-intensive tasks or provides a boost to employees that must spend a lot of time searching for and working with information.  Generative AI is certainly the biggest news at the moment, and everyone is rightly looking to capitalize on it, or be a victim of their competitors that do.  But it can be scary to add something completely different that is not well understood and comes with risk if not leveraged properly. The great news is that Serviceaide and others are bringing new solutions to the market that will drive digital process transformation - not AI for AI’s sake but AI that solves real problems and makes quantifiable improvements that go straight to the bottom line. My advice is to look for solutions that have designed an AI strategy into the product, have a clear vision and roadmap, and can show true ROI. Too many vendors are looking for quick wins with AI, and they are very likely to create unsustainable architectures and have a lot of churn in their product as a result.

Knowledge federation is really making a difference for a lot of bigger enterprises that suffer from having information scattered all over the place. Many organizations have one place to store personal information such as One drive or One Note, another tool to collaborate with your team, another system to get IT help, another to ask HR questions, yet another for internal business procedures and operations, and then a whole different set of systems that provide online training.  Collaboration, operational and departmental and training systems being disconnected is a chronic problem for organizations.  By pulling all this disparate information together, via knowledge federation, employees can find what they need from one source.  Employing a good AI-based interface that can make inquires in natural language rather than using keywords or navigating to where the information is a productivity game changer.