What’s Next? Examples of How to Use AI and Robotics.

In this blog we address What’s Next? Examples of How to Use AI and Robotics.  As a reminder, our final and third installment comes next week, How to Future Proof your Payroll – Working now to Embrace Innovations of the Future.  Our second topic in this article is an exciting look at How to… and window into how other companies are using and getting results partnering to take advantage of smart automation.

Focusing on examples of the explosion in AI, we can start with the industry’s growth. In 2016, the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) market grew to $1.4 billion, and by 2020 the global AI market is expected to grow to almost $60 billion according to TechJury, an online reference for the Technology Industry.  Not many industries are reporting this type of phenomenal growth and certainly not in less than 5 years.  We start with this incredible growth, because it solidifies that AI is transforming our lives both personally and professionally all around the world.  

The payroll professional commitment is to deliver accurate, timely and compliant payrolls and somewhere in all of those things is an inherent belief that payrolls are and should also be efficient.  To keep that commitment and add speed of results and lessen errors and manipulation of data, start to consider the world of AI for your everyday tasks.  The growth numbers quoted earlier for AI are industry wide and those billions, may not be a match for the fraction of what you and your 250 to 1,000 headcount or 2,000 to 5,000 headcount organization can consider as an investment. If AI is not a financial investment your organization can make individually, there is another option for the successful payroll team.  Small or even enterprise level organizations can work with an innovative vendor partner to achieve the value of automation and bring technology and best practices into their processes.  In the last conference held by Global Payroll Management Institute it was stated that the software payroll market would experience a growth rate from $7M to $13M in the next 6 years. That is another leap we can most likely attribute to emerging technology and automation.   

Let’s explore more information on what to do and how to get there.  Below are three examples of using AI in payroll:

1. Customer Engagement – many organizations are moving away from Tier 1 service; not because they do not want to support their employees, but because you cannot be everywhere all the time.  Through the use of AI and applied intelligence; however, you can provide an immediate resource to handle commonly asked questions with AI and eliminate 90% of the human interaction. The time saving alone will allow payroll team to dedicate themselves to those truly unique calls and situations that require time and attention.

• Silos and Collaboration – Automate and scale distribution of information across all channels, business units and departments, with robust timely reporting.  The call for business intelligence is great, but it also comes with an insatiable appetite for getting it done now.  With AI or using a partner that can support timely and accurate reporting you solve the problem of providing information to your colleagues in the corner office or around the globe.  Issues of time zones and availability are obsolete when AI or auto generated reporting packs can be scheduled and delivered in the desired format, to respective departments.  This means no manipulation of data to get the information to the right person in the right timing on a regular basis.  It’s a high visibility, AI capable activity and it also supports an interaction across departments that allows for strategic conversations.  You and your colleagues work together on information built, retrieved and dispersed, by AI–  eliminating errors and increasing speed are two of the best ways to reach across the table and gain great support from other departments.

• Financial success – AI and smartly powered solutions are good business and good business means financial success.  Harvard business school made popular the term “doing more with less” that’s smart business for you and for your organization.  AI or even choosing to outsource your payroll to a vendor using smart automation doesn’t have to mean a loss of talent or less resources.  These tools can support new opportunities to evaluate, develop and grow your current talent.  Using innovative technology doesn’t have to eliminate teams or team members it opens the opportunity for the optimization of payroll professionals.  Increased digital adoption means your employees get more done in a shorter amount of time and they also provide more value by concentrating on strategic issues.  Resolving complex issues that require human interaction and support company vision is another revenue plus for AI.  Saving money and using time wisely go hand in hand when working with automation.

With the processes above you can scale your team and your tasks using artificial intelligence; you are redefining what’s possible and not only tackling the how, but the who what and when to better payroll practices.  Freeing up employee time, and providing business intelligence across borders (multiple countries, business units, currencies) and 24/7 access to “chat” to respond to your core audience the employee, this is a game changer you can’t afford to ignore. 

AI and Robotics are not all there is in the world of emerging technology and you and your organization should not be saddled with learning every innovation.  Consider how you can serve your company and start to explore partnering to achieve the results you want in advanced payroll processes. To learn more about what to consider when partnering go to the iiPay website and download an industry RFP template. This template, reveals the most asked questions by organizations looking for innovative technology, customer service excellence and functional expertise in payroll.   Whether the decision is to outsource, invest in AI and Robotics or both  your team, your organization and your business, should move forward using the information in the RFP to make sure you are asking the right questions to get the desired results.