Over the last few years, technology’s role has reimagined the workspace by integrating itself in being the business, as well as automating the business.  Cutting-edge technology is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity to build high performance organizations, as seen in our increasing interdependence on AI, RPA, cloud-based software, devices and developing digital mannerisms of working that enable us to work more efficiently, deliver more effective employee solutions and maintain a fast-paced spiral. Big data analytics to deliver business strategy and depict accurate revolution has changed the role and delivery points of technology. 

The future of how we work lies in the way we shape our technology work solutions, in the face of a world that is fast-paced and more connected post pandemic where disruptive technologies are not just reforming industries and businesses and there is an active swelling of SaaS-based business models. 

It’s interesting to observe that previous barriers to existing digital implementation have been broken during and after the pandemic, such as the shift to more cloud-based business activities, which is a contributing drive factor to embrace investments in AI, blockchain and IoT. 

The implementation of work technology does not need to, and frankly is no longer, as expensive as it was made out to be, especially when it is compared to other regular business expenses. Case in point: a bot in a revenue cycle management system that works around the clock without requiring breaks or vacation to provide error-free reports on insurance claims. The happy side-effect is the motivation provided to smaller business groups and start-ups to actually provide such tech services, software, apps and the like. 

The need to continue and improve seamless communication with customers has been augmented in the last 2 years: consider chatbots, voice assistants who are able to provide instant responses in this era of impatience thereby generating better customer interactions be it on a formal platform or social media.  

Driving digital transformation

There are a few factors that have to be first considered to ensure the right drive for a digital transformation. One cannot ignore the general fear of the working populace in how AI might be potentially taking over or making jobs redundant. Empowering people to embrace tech and work in new ways, requires having the right, digital-savvy leaders in place who can envision building capacities for the workforce of the future as well as effective communication.

In a post-covid setting, from healthcare to finance, every company has been coerced to employ technology to reimagine strategy, operations, employee engagement and ROIs. In favour of building digital footprints, companies are abandoning legacy processes. Perhaps one of the biggest and almost immediate implementations of work tech has been observed in the healthcare segment with the rapid adoption of telemedicine services. According to a CB insights report, almost 48% of US-based physicians have claimed to treat patients virtually, while 60% consumers are more willing to adopt telehealth services. 

The ability of Artificial Intelligence bots to imitate human behaviour or intelligence by using algorithms to trace and depict patterns and then accordingly plan futuristic actions is inherently useful to RCM function. Bots are not restricted to identifying tessellations anymore but can actually help improve accuracy and achieve cash-positive outcomes even when dealing with the most tenacious RCM issues, be it out-of-pocket costs or claim status checks. When processes are refined to a certain degree, this helps deliver a fecund workforce that can focus on more human-related matters and personal interactions – such as allowing patients to enjoy more face time with their doctors – instead of being overcome by tedious operations. 

Bots can help detect incongruities in seconds as compared to human resources – they are not only 8X times faster or 400 percent faster than human processes, they are also error-free and can work around the clock to deliver results using large data sources that are then implemented 5x times faster as compared to training a person for the same task: considering up to 80 percent of claims have to be reviewed by adjusters on an approximate, this is an investment that pays for itself many times over. 

Not only are AI bots able to reduce outstanding accounts receivable and manipulate tedious tasks (such as sifting through medical records) seamlessly, but they can also be educated to make judgement calls based on probability patterns. What’s more they do it without taking vacations or falling ill and operate at 100 percent productivity constantly. 

With the need for increased cyber security from one end, competition rippling in through technology-based fintech startups, and the increasing adaptation to cashless systems, the banking sector is ripe for disruption.  Post-COVID 19, banking organisations have had to amend their product-based approach to a consumer-centric one that involves real time data integration. With vast amounts of unstructured data at its disposal, RPA and machine learning will (and already does) have a huge role to play in vastly improving and innovating customer experience. AI, on the other hand, helps analyse data to provide a more seamless and advanced decision-making process across multiple operations in security and cyber threats, marketing, risk management and compliance, amidst others. The employment of big data analytics in cyber security in particular to predict potential threats and attacks before they even happen needs to be severely looked into to combat the rise of data breaches and leakage of sensitive information.

Considering the compression of what would ordinarily have taken 5 years of digital progression into a matter of months, one of the industries that has and can continue to reap vast benefits of work tech is Human Resources, HR was put through the test as ‘Work from Home’ became and continues to establish itself as an integral norm. Digital technology can help improve HR function by expediting processes right from hiring, and screening to real-time performance tracking, and a birds-eye view of progress to decipher long term employees who add value to the organisation.  The precocity of HR tech then lies in its ability to speed up on time and control errors: according to a report by Software Testing and Big Data Hadoop, the maximum number of hours are divested in multiple and diverse repetitive tasks. RPA is a technology that deploys software fortified by bots to take on multiple tasks by imitating the human workforce – only it works better because the bots employed can take on repetitive and predictable tasks in a fraction of the time it takes human capacity, without errors, and can work around the clock without succumbing to illnesses or exhaustion. Bots concentrate on apprehending data, interpreting, and rendering responses and then effectively communication with multiple devices strategically. 

It’s important to consider here that ultimately, and in contradiction to what is said about tech consuming labour markets, it is the people that command the tech, it is the people that tech solutions need to be created by and for, and not tech itself.