In the 1990s, business process reengineering was all the rage: Companies used budding technologies such as enterprise resource planning systems and the internet to enact radical changes to broad, end-to-end business processes. Buoyed by reengineering’s academic and consulting proponents, companies anticipated transformative changes to broad processes like order-to-cash and conception to commercialization of new products.to live up to the sky-high expectations.
This AI-driven reengineering is already taking place. Banks are using it to transform wealth management advice for clients. Insurance companies are using AI to make client onboarding and underwriting much easier, and automating claims estimates for auto and home damage with deep learning analysis of photos taken by the insured. Industrial firms are reshaping maintenance and engineering processes.
Another good example is at Shell, where one of us leads AI initiatives. Shell has long been a process-focused company, and is presently engaged in a major AI initiative in areas like supply chain, operations, and maintenance. As part of this, Shell is reengineering its work processes. This shift involved some resistance. At first, it was hard to convince the inspectors, but gradually they are being persuaded as they’re shown that the processing of the images provides similar accuracy in much less time. Furthermore, Shell is engaging these engineers in rethinking their work processes with the remote surveillance centers, empowering them to drive the change.