Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just a futuristic concept—it's rapidly transforming how businesses operate and redefining traditional roles and job functions. While headlines often paint a picture of mass job displacement, the reality is more nuanced. AI offers a unique opportunity to rethink how work is done, optimizing productivity and enhancing decision-making processes. It’s not about replacing jobs but evolving them. This article explores how to identify the impact of AI on organizations, roles, and jobs, using a structured methodology to assess this technological shift. We're not just forecasting changes; we're mapping out the current transformation happening within industries.
How to determine the impact of AI
When evaluating the impact of AI, it's crucial to consider both quantitative and qualitative aspects. On one side, productivity gains are clear indicators—like reductions in the time required to complete tasks. Key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the speed of activities, provide concrete evidence of AI's influence. But it's not just about speed and efficiency; it's also about the qualitative shifts AI brings, such as the variety of new products and services it enables.
Given that AI is still a relatively new field, publicly available data on its full potential is limited. Therefore, we rely on informed estimates to gauge its impact. Two key indicators can offer valuable insights:
- Potential for automation: the extent to which AI can take over routine and repetitive tasks, leading to time and cost savings.
- Potential for role enhancement: how AI can augment human capabilities, improving decision-making, accuracy, and efficiency.
These indicators offer a preliminary measure of AI's impact, highlighting both the efficiencies gained through automation and the enhanced capabilities it brings. When precise measurement isn't feasible, expert estimates can provide a valuable starting point. Classifying the impact as "high," "medium," or "low" allows for a more nuanced understanding that can be refined over time.
Determining the impact of AI for organizations
Determining the impact of AI on an organization can be done by determining the impact on its processes. However, before diving in headfirst to do estimations, let’s take a step back and look at the primary processes of a typical organisation in that sector. This is often done by looking at a typical Target Operating Model (TOM) which can serve as an effective proxy. The TOM outlines, among other things, the key components of how a business functions. By evaluating how AI affects each of the components of a TOM (using the approach described in the previous section), organizations can quickly gain a clearer picture of AI's overall impact.
Determining the impact of AI for roles
One can start with a deep dive based on how specific roles are described in an organisation. However, a general idea of the impact can be determined by looking at more generic role descriptions. Bodies of knowledge (BOKs) are a good starting point for this. Many professions have BOKs that are created specifically for a given role. Using these documents, key knowledge areas and tasks can be identified. These can in turn then be classified on the indicators.
Determining the impact of AI for function
Determining the impact of AI on specific functions follows a similar approach as that of roles. The main difference here is the absence of reference documentation. As a result, the function profile itself can be used as the main reference to extract tasks from.
Using AI to help determine the impact of AI
When determining the impact of AI on either an organisation, a role or a function, not all analysis must be done manually. AI can assist in a variety of ways from helping to find a relevant TOM or BOK to extracting key processes, tasks, or activities. AI can even be used to assist in determining the impact AI has on each of them resulting in removing humans from the loop until validating results.
This is where BearingPoint’s GenXplore comes into play - we map and analyze AI’s effect on roles, and identify the specific type of impact that AI has on your organization. This data-driven analysis, correlates the company’s activities with the GenAI’s capabilities to paint a clear and rapid vision of the uses and possibility of enhancing the impact of office automations. In just a few days, this output can serve as a basis for building ambition and identifying where transformation makes the most impact.
We map and analyze AI’s effect on roles, and identify the specific type of impact that AI has on your organization.
Joris Schut, Business Advisor at BearingPoint
Conclusion
The impact of AI on organizations, roles, and functions is both vast and complex. By automating routine tasks and enhancing human capabilities, AI offers a transformative potential that organizations and individuals must understand and embrace. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all scenario; it’s about adopting a structured approach to measure how AI affects each layer of the organization. By leveraging AI's analytical capabilities, we can make informed decisions about integrating AI, ensuring we are not just reacting to changes but actively shaping the future of work. Those who strategically integrate AI will lead the way in this evolving landscape.