If you have a Google Pixel phone you’ll recently have seen some changes; you can now have a real-time conversation with Gemini, its ‘personal AI assistant’, which can also perfectly edit your photos, write an email, or recall important information from a phone call. While not the only one, it’s the latest high-profile developments in the world of Artificial Intelligence – a technology that looks set to change the world as we know it, and has already started to do so. Here we look at how AI can create operational efficiencies in the workforce and help to save organisations money.lthy approach.
AI has the potential to radically change the way we work, and save healthcare, education and public services organisations money thanks to enhanced efficiency. It can do that by optimising and streamlining processes, improving productivity, reducing costs and enhancing the end-user experience through automation and augmentation of operational tasks.
By stripping back manual processes and instead relying on AI to perform routine tasks, it can enhance output, save valuable time and free up thinking time to drive initiatives with ever-increasing efficiency and creativity. McKinsey has estimated that AI has the potential to add between $2.6-$4.4 trillion in value to the global economy (for comparison, the UK’s GDP was $3.1 trillion in 2021).
Many organisations are already using AI such as Chatbots on websites to assist online customers and present information to them but AI has many more applications across a wide range of functions than simple interactions. Let’s look at some examples.
Reaching a good work-life balance is vital for good mental and physical health. Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 17.1 million work days lost in 2022/23 with an average person taking almost 20 days off because of their symptoms.
Working people who achieve a healthy balance manage their stress better and reduce their risk of developing chronic conditions such as anxiety, depression or heart disease. Maintaining that balance promotes mental resilience and well-being, helping people cope more easily with the demands of their professional and personal lives and avoiding burnout.
A work-life balance also brings individuals greater job satisfaction, higher motivation, improved performance and productivity and heightened loyalty to an organisation.
For organisations, supporting a healthy work-life balance amongst employees leads to being viewed more favourably amongst potential talent, helping to attract and retain the best possible people.
Streamlining workflows – AI has the ability to function on a predictive level, forecasting trends, identifying potential problems and anticipating what challenges an organisation might face in the future. This enables them to pre-empt issues that may arise, such as low stock levels, bottlenecks or unexpected downtime, enabling the allocation of resources and staff more efficiently.
Automating repetitive tasks – AI is already handling repetitive tasks such as data entry, automating multi-step workflows, extracting data and sending large numbers of emails accurately and quickly. This enables staff to concentrate on other, more meaningful activities such as generating new business, strategic planning, problem solving and interacting with customers.
Optimising resource allocation – once AI understands your organisation, it can use its algorithms to make real-time decisions that enhance both the business’s responsiveness and agility. By continuously monitoring different resources AI can optimise their allocation enabling organisations to respond rapidly to unforeseen challenges and mitigate their impact. It’s a little like a smart fridge that you might have in your home, only on a much grander scale.
In March of this year the National Audit Office (NAO), the UK’s independent public spending watchdog, published a report entitled ‘Use of Artificial Intelligence in Government’ in which it investigates the use of AI in public services. AI, it states, offers the UK’s public services potential productivity worth billions of pounds, and funding for a number of initiatives were announced in the Spring Budget as part of the Government’s plans to involve AI in its Public Sector Productivity Programme. £3.5billion has already been invested in the AI ecosystem since 2014 aimed at reducing the time which is spent on public administration activities and increasing the use of AI and digitisation to boost public sector productivity.
Of particular importance was the announcement of the upgrading of the NHS’s IT systems including scaling up the use of AI and upskilling NHS staff to use the technology required. This, the report claims, will reduce the time which is spent on non-clinical work as well as ensuring that technology is integrated – it cites digitised Integrated Care Systems which have a 27% shorter wait time in A&E, 14% lower referral to treatment times and less costly care delivery.
Current examples of AI being used directly to benefit patients include Mia™, or mammography intelligent assessment, which analyses mammograms to detect signs of breast cancer. The former system was labour-intensive and slow, leading to potentially life-threatening delays but the Mia system speeds up the process, frees up clinicians to spend time with their patients, and can screen larger numbers more quickly.
A recent news story about a ‘teacherless classroom’ in which pupils will be taught by AI instead of a real live human teacher sparked controversy, and exemplified the divide about its use in education. One the one hand, the £27,000 a year private school says that AI will allow for ‘for precise, bespoke learning’ while its critics worry that the learning experience will be soulless and bleak. Despite this extreme version of the use of AI in this particular classroom, it already has applications which are set to continue – AI can assist in the day-to-day management and administrations of schools, it can monitor pupils’ attendance and raise concerns, and it offers resources for learning, curriculum planning and delivery.
In wider public services successive governments have advocated the use of AI and has fostered a relationship with The Alan Turing Institute which claims that the technology has the potential to deliver public services which are ‘more responsive, efficient and personalised’ with the aim of improving the delivery and provision of public services and to save money. The UK government is already using AI in fraud detection and to answer HMRC customer queries and a recent scheme highlights its use to maintain the National Grid’s network of wires and pylons which connect power stations to homes and businesses, ensuring that they are in good condition and preventing faults and problems.
AI, as we’ve seen, has the potential to create efficiencies in crucial public services, where financial constraints mean that budgets are being cut and services impacted. Its continued use requires investment, training, education and an ethical framework to prevent its misuse but it’s already impacting organisations both in the private and public sectors and creating operational efficiencies which are saving the UK millions of pounds every year.
For expert advice on any of the topics discussed in this blog, contact Brighter Consultancy.