Jag Randhawa

In my previous post I shared four types of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and discussed what is real and what is hype. In this post, I will expand on Augmented Intelligence. Unlike artificial intelligence (AI), which aims to replace human tasks and decision making with computers, augmented intelligence emphasizes collaboration between humans and machines to enhance human abilities.
Artificial Intelligence has a long way to go to master all nine forms of human intelligence. There are a lot of researchers, dreamers and entrepreneurs pushing the envelope to reach that ambitious milestone, but so are people trying to colonize Mars. While admirable, we have plenty of work to do here on Earth. For us mere mortals facing day-to-day problems, augmented intelligence provides a synergistic approach to be more effective in decision-making, create efficiencies, and develop innovative solutions.
Generative Transforms has shown the power of modeling. You can have augmented intelligence systems that use Large Language Models based AI tools to improve experience and reduce training time, but there are countless situations where these systems can add value without the use of these AI platforms. Solution providers are realizing this, and we will see a surge in Small Language Models (SLM) focused on targeted outcomes.

Examples of Augmented Intelligence Application:

1. Customer Service: Augmented intelligence in combination with AI chatbots can handle routine inquiries, providing real-time information, automatically initiate workflows, assign tasks to experts, update data in multiple systems at the same time, and monitor calls/chat to identify when a customer is getting annoyed, or a service representative is providing poor service. This allows human experts to focus on more complex issues, improving overall customer satisfaction.
2. Healthcare: In healthcare, augmented intelligence systems analyze patient data to provide doctors with insights and recommendations. These systems can detect patterns for very targeted anomalies and predict outcomes, aiding in diagnosis and personalized treatment plans. A simple program that prefills or makes suggestions as the doctor type notes can go a long way in reducing time spent on data entry. Healthcare coding is another area where the program can automatically classify based on notes. Did you know that there are more than 55,000 health-codes for various diseases, injuries, and health-conditions? Who can remember that?
3. Finance: Financial analysts use augmented intelligence to sift through vast amounts of data, identify trends, and make informed investment decisions. These tools can also help detect fraudulent activities by analyzing transaction patterns. Companies like Amazon have trillions of transactions so random sampling isn’t as easy or effective. Augmented intelligence systems can review these transactions for anomalies a lot more efficiently.
4. Marketing: Marketing teams leverage augmented intelligence to analyze consumer behavior, predict market trends, and optimize campaigns. Marketing is a directional game. Nothing is constant in Marketing. Read Seth Gordon’s book Purple Cow to learn more. Augmented intelligence tools can help segment audiences, personalize content, and measure campaign effectiveness and change campaign much more effectively and in real-time.
5. Manufacturing: In manufacturing, augmented intelligence systems can monitor production processes, predict maintenance needs, and optimize supply chain management. Augmented Reality can reduce training time and reduce manufacturing defects.
6. Security: Whether it is physical security or Cyber Security, it requires constant vigilance and monitoring, which is a nearly impossible task for humans. The security industry was the first sector to adopt augmented intelligence. The augmented intelligence systems can monitor video surveillance and review millions of log entries generated by systems 24×7 for anomalies.
   There are countless other industries and areas where Augmented Intelligence can aid humans in decision-making processes, including research, conservation, drug discovery, banking, risk management, construction – the list goes on and on.

And of course, not to forget – automating those Excel spreadsheets that most businesses cannot live without 😊 I wonder what will happen if that employee leaves or gets hit by a bus?

Strategies for Implementing Augmented Intelligence

1. Invest in Technology: To leverage augmented intelligence, businesses must invest in the right technologies. There is no single tool that can do it all. Augmented intelligence tools are specific to the task, so identify use cases that will benefit the most from augmented intelligence and implement best of the bread solutions for each area you want to tackle.
2. Foster a Data-Driven Culture: Organizations of all size and shape are filled with manual tasks. Most organizations have gone digital, but they are simply pushing papers digitally – same old processes but done via digital medium. Digital transformation is about rethinking processes from the ground up and capturing data for complete customer journey – from intent to buy. Process data is as valuable as the transaction data. Combining transactional and process data provides better insights into customer behavior, operational activities, seasonality, performance, and external factors. Embed these data insights into your processes when decisions are being made.
3. Lean into Technology: Future belongs to businesspeople who know technology and technologists who know business. Implementing augmented intelligence requires expertise in both technology and business. To businesspeople: learn technology and learn it beyond just reading magazine articles or listening to keynotes. To technologists: learn business and learn beyond what systems do.
4. Collaborate with Experts: Technology is advancing so fast that it is hard for people like me to stay abreast of everything going on. In-house experts can function as the general orchestrators, but you will need deep expertise in each domain where augmented technology is deployed. For example, customer acquisition vs customer retention requires quite different strategies, tools, and data. Partner with best solution providers that bring domain expertise to make the most of your investment.
5. Train Employees to be Idea Spotters: Augmented intelligence is not a system or singular tool that does it all. It requires knowing the business and the capabilities of the technology to spot ideas how augmented intelligence can help streamline the process or automate it. The best people to generate these ideas are the employees. The field of AI is changing fast, so providing regular opportunities to learn about technological advances. Brown-bag lunches anyone?
6. Measure and Improve: All the augmented and artificial intelligence technologies are in their infancy. Not all implementations will produce immediate results. Continuous monitoring, evaluation and refinement of augmented intelligence systems are essential to ensure they deliver the desired outcomes. Businesses should establish metrics and Governance Structure to monitor performance and avoid reputational risks.

Augmented intelligence offers a powerful way to enhance human potential and improve business outcomes. By leveraging the collaborative power of humans and machines, businesses can make better decisions, improve productivity, enhance customer experiences, foster innovation, and manage risks effectively. AI is not a magic pill. Do not wait for AI to become advanced enough to save your business. Start with what you have and where you are. Embracing augmented intelligence will lead to transformative results, driving growth and success in the digital age.

Please share your thoughts, insights, predictions, success stories, failures and lessons learned in your AI journey.