Every digital interaction you have is powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Our online presence, our actions, our clicks, and our views create and power the machine-learning for AI that companies, governments, and organizations use in their daily business.
This is no surprise, and intelligent, or AI-powered, customer service is something we’ve come to expect. Real-time chat functionality that has answers at our fingertips and advertising that is served up based on our activities and preferences are the norm. AI has been used in marketing and customer service since the early aughts when data collection and analysis became possible through the internet.
Today, we can use the same fundamentals to power the modern age of workers.
The consumerization of technology can be seen in everything we do at work today. From the Bring Your Own Device trend that started in the early 2000s to the post-pandemic practice of availability and ability to work from anywhere, the on-demand, real-time, always available, application-driven world is how we are conditioned to work.
And now there is a new and exciting work world that is taking shape. All built on the effect of AI in the enterprise. The employee experience is being transformed, and employee productivity is at an all-time high because of AI.
Let me be clear though, employees are not being replaced by AI. In fact, the cases of the greatest value are realized when AI augments the human experience. AI-enabled does not mean human-less.
In talking with BMC customers, there are a few areas where AI has had the most effect.
First, Generative AI has taken the world by storm. In a survey from McKinsey, 40% of their respondents shared that that their organizations will increase their AI investments because of advances in gen AI. It has drastically improved employee productivity and efficiency to automate tasks and provide employees with the insights and access to knowledge that help them operate with fewer errors and much more quickly.
One example I’ve heard BMC chief product officer, Ali Siddiqui, talk about is supporting code and application release. For application owners, the test and deploy process can be quite time consuming and ultimately have impact beyond the release manager’s purview. Gen AI can now be used in the DevOps process to predict and rectify any release impact, enhancing the human judgment and expanding visibility into the impact.
Another area that is quickly taking shape in the IT world is AIOps—or artificial intelligence for IT operations. With IT organizations wrangling a complex world of tools, technologies, and multi mode infrastructures in a world moving as fast as we do, they are tasked with nearly the impossible: real-time, personalized, digital business. A world-renowned and respected ratings agency shared with me that they’ve started their AIOps journey simply by deploying observability across the organization so they can assure their clientele of always-on, always-accurate, and up-to-date market information. Sounds simple enough, right?
Their IT operations are dependent on global market data, publicly listed companies’ earnings, global geo-political impacts, the political climates, and a global workforce that needs the most modern and user-friendly tools to serve their clientele. The scope of systems spread, data sources, and business applications that are in play around the clock and around the world puts incredible demand on the organization’s central IT group. And now, using AIOps, they are able to observe, monitor, and respond (more often than not, autonomously) to the changing needs of the business with always-on reliability.
One last area that I want to call out—near and dear to my own heart—is in the area of sustainability. We have the great fortune as a global technology company to drink our own champagne to support our impact on the environment. The BMC Global Command Center (our name for our network operations) has been using AI in our own IT operations for four years to optimize the use of precious resources and manage our carbon footprint. We operate as a global organization with our own data centers and hosted facilities to serve our customers, with an eye on how we can best use our own solutions to monitor, manage, and autonomously adjust our own energy consumption and carbon outputs for less impact.
We can all do our part as employees and be proud of the organization we work for, knowing that we’re operating in a way that supports environmental efforts.
AI is now on every C-Suite agenda and is often the topic that dominates every conversation from the Board to the individual contributor. Along with the technological advances that AI, and the fast-growing use of generative AI, can bring to our businesses, there is an incredible impact to be realized in the employee experience.
Eduarda Camacho is senior vice president and chief customer officer (CCO) of BMC Software, Inc. She is responsible for a cohesive and impactful Customer Success function that helps BMC customers on their journey to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise. She also serves as the chief customer advocate, or the voice of the customer, focused on developing and implementing a value-driven customer success program that champions our customers and keeps them at the center of all we do.
