Get ready for virtual digital assistants in the enterprise
VDAs are already widely used by consumers, and recent history suggests that it is only a matter of time before they become prevalent in the enterprise. As we’ve seen with smartphones and tablets, consumers are now technology leaders, and their new tech obsessions inevitably make their way into the corporate environment, whether IT wants them to or not.
And VDAs’ worth to the enterprise keeps expanding. VDAs that use natural-language processing will continue to improve their ability to transform raw text into structured data. Quill, Wordsmith and other offerings that use natural-language-generation tools can write reports and news stories from structured data using a style that mimics a flesh-and-blood writer. As the tools improve, VDAs will be able to assist with transaction processing in finance, HR, supply chain and other parts of the enterprise. In addition, VDAs will assist analysts who are trying to make sense of the large volumes of data found throughout the enterprise. They could be essential to improving call center operations. Clearly, any consumer who has encountered a service center phone tree will appreciate a better experience from a more useful VDA.
To get ahead of the demand tsunami, take the following steps:
While there are still limitations, the technology is improving every month. If you have not tried a VDA in a few months, experiment with a newer version. Recently, Gartner predicted that two-thirds of consumers in mature markets will use these tools regularly by the end of 2016. IT leaders need enough personal experience to be able to assist other executives.
No doubt some of the new VDAs will include useful features for your organization. Since it will be virtually impossible for IT to prohibit VDAs from most enterprises, IT is much better off evaluating the tools and guiding the rest of the organization toward tools that integrate well with the architecture.
In addition to building a business case, gain support from other executives. VDAs have the potential to change job content throughout the organization. If these tools are introduced willy-nilly without a plan or organizationwide support, change management will be a nightmare. Conversely, if tools are not made available as the demand grows, it will be one more reason to label IT as “no and slow.”
In the early days of IT, businesses had better technology than consumers. That shifted with smartphones and tablets; today, many technology innovations target the consumer market first and are only later adapted for the enterprise. Start preparing to include VDAs in your IT architecture very soon. The computer interface envisioned in Star Trek is about to become a reality. What’s next, transporters
Bart Perkins is managing partner at Louisville, Ky.-based Leverage Partners Inc., which helps organizations invest well in IT. Contact him at BartPerkins@LeveragePartners.com.