Every day, leading companies are finding new ways to use AI and related technologies more efficiently and better serve their customers.

However, despite the transformative impact of AI, these early adopters have discovered a fundamental truth: humans, with their creativity, ingenuity and other unique skills, are indispensable to their organizations. No matter how advanced AI becomes, people will remain at the heart of most companies, and will be critical to harnessing the full value of new technologies.

The challenge for executives goes beyond simply adopting AI. Equally important is creating an organizational structure that positions employees to succeed in an AI-powered environment. Such structures include introducing citizen developer programs, modifying the scope of certain roles, and providing required skills training for employees.

There’s no time to waste — dynamic organizations will maximize the value of their workforce in this new era of AI.

Why AI will complement, not replace, humans in the workplace.

As powerful as AI is, experts have realized that it cannot replace what humans bring to the table. As McKinsey & Company put.AI’s “real value lies in augmenting human capabilities, not replacing them.”

AI will continue to improve in the coming years, but the creativity, emotional intelligence, and judgment that only humans can provide will always be in demand. Daniel Dines, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of UiPath, spoke in detail on this topic. His forward VI keynote.

I think what we need right now are people who can engage in meaningful conversation, understand empathy, understand creativity, have imagination. The same is required in the next era as well. And I think the most important thing is what makes us deeply human, and that’s our ability to tell what’s true and what’s false… AI won’t help with that. In the era of ubiquitous AI, we have to deliver what is true and what is false.

Daniel Dines, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, UiPath

Humans and AI are better together — the combination of AI’s analytical power and human insight leads to better results than either could achieve alone. Yet, despite the benefits, few executives have made meaningful investments in AI. Fresh Bain & Co. report It showed that, while 79% of corporate leaders believe AI will “fundamentally change” the way their businesses operate in the next five years, compared to the size of companies surveyed, the current “investment “The level is quite low.”

So, what’s holding companies back from fully embracing the technology?

According to Bobby Patrick, Chief Marketing Officer of UiPath, it’s a combination of “skepticism, anxiety, and lack of preparation.” Executives worry that their employees are not properly trained in the use of AI, and many also question its economic impact due to slow adoption.

Forward-thinking leaders are not letting these concerns stop them. Increasingly, they are recognizing that automation is the key to overcoming these barriers and unlocking the power of AI. today (not two years from now).

Automation is the best way to realize the opportunities ignited by AI.

By acting as the ‘muscles’ that allow organizations to Activate the ‘brain’ of AI., automation bridges the gap between aspiration and AI implementation. Firms such as freight brokerage Total Quality Logistics (TQL) Leveraging this powerful combination has yielded impressive results.

Trust is fundamental to TQL’s business, making people its most important resource. “Transportation can be a parade of problems. Our job is to thrive in moments of chaos,” said Julia Fulton, corporate communications manager at TQL. When things are going wrong, customers don’t want to talk to a robot—they want a real person to help them solve the problem. “To focus on service to our people, we needed automation,” Fulton said.

Using its machine learning (ML) models in conjunction with The UiPath Business Automation Platform, TQL enabled its employees to make 33,000 decisions per day in less time, giving them more bandwidth to support customers. . This combination also helps them collect and analyze data to accurately generate customer quotes.

While automation is the path to real value from AI, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. To succeed in the new era, executives must prioritize employee empowerment through targeted training programs and restructuring.

How to Position Your People to Succeed in the Age of AI

Organizations leading the adoption of AI-powered automation have several recommendations for positioning your people to succeed.

Use citizen development programs to increase employee exposure to AI.

Urban development programs create tangible value for companies. All kinds of waysincluding greater automation capability and a wider pool of automation ideas. But hard-to-measure benefits are also important, such as increased employee comfort and familiarity with AI-powered automation.

Because citizen developers are both consumers and evangelists of AI-powered automation, they are the best resource for preparing the workforce for the broader changes associated with AI. Maxim Ioffe, Director of Global Intelligent Automation Wescosaw “every citizen developer as an automation ambassador” who helped promote the use and comfort of new technologies in his company.

Get the eBook: Lessons learned from successful citizen developer programs

Redefine roles and team structure as needed.

Accordingly Bain & Co. reportmuch of the ROI from AI-powered automation comes when organizations use efficiency gains to redeploy people and resources to areas of growth. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) also noted. that “AI offers an opportunity to rethink roles and focus human capabilities where it makes the most impact.”

As software robots perform increasingly complex tasks, employees will face varying degrees of change in their work schedules.

Many employees who gain significant time can use it to create more value in their current roles. For example, Finance team at Canon USA Automated much of their invoicing process through the UiPath platform, and now uses that time to talk with suppliers and help other departments build their own automations.

But in some cases, organizations can enhance the skills of their employees by moving them to different areas entirely. For example, within the Automation Center of Excellence (CoE). Telecommunications Group Orange Spain Grown from 13 full-time employees to over 100. They called it the Robot Factory, and many of its employees came from elsewhere in the company.

Moreover, AI has the potential to help managers become better leaders. Research from McKinsey It found that the average manager spends less than 30% of his time on leading people, with the rest being spent on individual or administrative tasks. About half of the latter tasks have the potential to be automated, freeing up managers to spend more time training and leading their teams. This will require more leadership training to reflect changes in manager performance reviews and their changed roles.

Finally, companies that maximize the benefits of AI will think about how and where to use the talents of their employees.

Create training programs for in-demand skills

As with any new technological era, employees need to learn new skills to maximize the benefits of the new technology. In the first industrial revolution, factory workers had to learn to use steam-powered machines. A century later in the Third Industrial Revolution, computer skills became a necessity.

Many experts believe that we are in it now. The fourth industrial revolutionwhich will require AI-related skills such as prompt engineering and Large Language Model (LLM) management. Brandon Dear, Chief Strategy Officer, UiPath; Noted that “Providing dedicated training services to ensure efficient and safe use of LLMs will allow faster deployments and results. Cross-department training will also ensure that reliability, security and maintenance of technology is an enterprise-wide priority.” Is.”

So did MIT that “telling when to question these tools—as well as teaching employees…how to get them to give the answer they’re looking for—is the next hill to climb with AI. ”

When thinking about your AI-powered automation rollout, implementing AI-powered tools as well as employee training programs should be a priority.

Organizations will look different in the AI ​​era, but people will remain at their heart and soul.

Source: Bain & Company, “The State of AI Powered Automation”

In the best cases, the fusion of AI and human ingenuity in the workplace will unlock new capabilities we can’t even imagine yet. This includes a strong bottom line — according to Thomson Reuters“We will see record levels of profitability at both the firm and individual levels as AI creates demand and time for specialist high-value skills.”

But rolling out AI-powered automation isn’t enough. To set up their people for success in the AI ​​era, tomorrow’s leading companies are redefining the work. How Their employees work today.

To learn more about bringing the power of AI to your organization, join us. UiPath AI Summit.