Creative Production

It’s time to take control of AI and automation

Why It’s Time To Take Control

“The reason is surprisingly simple – no-one is driving the bus”

Who is leading your AI strategy? Do you even have an AI strategy? Latest figures would suggest that only around one in 10 businesses has embedded AI across the organisation, with the rest either piloting projects, or still in the exploration stage. Given AI-enabled tools have been around for some time – and have proven their worth – it seems strange that it’s still approached so tentatively. 

The reason is surprisingly simple – no-one is driving the bus. 

The management of AI adoption in organisations doesn’t seem to fall to one designated owner or department. Some is being managed by IT as a tech resource, other parts by marketing or even customer success, when it comes to things like campaign automation or chatbot customer assistance. You wouldn’t treat your company’s finance needs this way, and yet AI is as critical a component of the organisation’s success as balancing the books. It’s way past time for the AAEE department. 

The AI and Automation for Efficiency and Effectiveness department, or AAEE for short, will be the cornerstone for how businesses operate in the future. We developed one for our own business as a priority and we’ll explain why. 

Chain reaction

As the figures above show, most organisations’ approach to AI and automation is reactive. The reasons for this are many, ranging from an ‘it’s not broken so why fix it’ mindset, to risk aversion and scepticism. 

Certainly, leaping into a full-blown, embedded AI-powered organisation could require significant investment, retraining, reframing workflows, changing business priorities. It’s a big elephant to eat in one go and doesn’t deliver the short-term wins businesses seek. When companies do adopt AI or automation, it tends to be because competitors are doing it, or to solve a very specific issue. There is no sense that it is being adopted as part of a broader transformation strategy or because its intrinsic value is appreciated. 

This reactive mindset limits AAEE’s potential. When it’s embraced as a fundamental part of overall business strategy, it can be transformative.

First, let’s debunk what most people think AI and automation are and, for that matter, efficiency and effectiveness. 

In many cases, businesses don’t need AI, they need automation. Many times, when a process needs to be fixed, it’s simple, repetitive automation that will do the trick. Most AI is taking those simple automations and learning from them to make better ones. Step one is to separate the things I need to do quickly from the areas where I might need to focus on real AI. 

Then there’s efficiency versus effectiveness. The first is quite simply the objective of least money or time in for the most out. But that doesn’t always mean it’s the best for the brand, or will guarantee growth. Cheap has a say in efficiency, but not effectiveness. Doing something effective for your brand may mean doing something complex. It may mean using sophisticated AI. It may be expensive.

Automation almost always only leads to efficiency. AI not only improves efficiency but can deliver effectiveness too. 

Business-wide benefits

One of the reasons ownership of AAEE is so ad hoc and fragmented is not only because what it is and how it benefits the business is poorly understood, but it’s often thought of as a client or customer-facing solution. In reality, it has myriad applications right across the organisation from back end to front of house. 

Automation’s impact on improved workflows is undeniable. By eliminating repetitive donkey work, employees can deliver on tasks faster and with fewer errors. But it would be a mistake to stop here – we’d be focusing purely on the efficiency element again. Businesses need to reframe what automation is freeing their employees up to do. Can they use that extra capacity to add value elsewhere or upskill? One of AI and automation’s proven benefits is improved employee experience, increasing employee satisfaction and retention. 

AI-powered technology integration is also behind improved workflows, and this looks set to only grow with agentic AI. This typically involves a group of AI-powered ‘assistants’ – AI Agents – with dedicated tasks that are, themselves, managed by AI – the so-called agentic AI. AI Agents may be tasked by agentic AI to go and find certain data sets or other information which the agentic AI then analyses, comes to a conclusion about an action to take and then learns from the results of that action to improve the process next time. All of this speeds up collaboration, improves data management and use and delivers not just efficiency but more effectiveness across the business. 

Of course, AAEE has well-publicised opportunities for customer-facing functions too, from powering chatbots to developing personalised products and services, and better administrative support. But it’s important to remember that AAEE at its best is not a series of point solutions, it’s a holistic approach that touches every element of the business and its importance is such that exploiting its potential cannot be left to chance.

Establishing the AAEE function

Just as marketing, sales, technology, service, manufacturing and many other departments all filter their financial needs through a dedicated finance department, so too AI and automation should have its own, standalone, strategic function. 

Finding the right integrations, making the best investments, determining the consequences of adopting these tools on the wider organisation and how their use will contribute to and change its future direction require a coordinated and expert approach. 

A dedicated AAEE function therefore must have a minimum of the following three elements:

A dedicated team: Formed of AI and automation specialists, with someone in a leadership role who communicates regularly with the rest of the business leadership.

Strategic planning: Moving away from reactive point solution adoption to building a long-term vision and a roadmap for integrating AAEE across the whole of the business. 

Continuous testing and learning: Combining both technical and strategic expertise to determine how new tools and processes are performing.

That this function is populated by both technical and strategic experts is key. AAEE tools are developing at an unprecedented pace. The continued popularity of SaaS tools means many organisations are adopting AI-powered solutions, possibly without even realising it. Making the most of what these tools have to offer depends on extensive market insight – something individuals within dedicated business areas such as marketing or sales simply don’t have the time or the expertise to manage.

A dedicated AAEE function assesses what is already available and what is in development, measures tools’ potential against key business objectives including cost reduction or improved creativity and then determines how easily solutions can be integrated into existing stacks. 

More than this, a dedicated AAEE function also explores the potential for ‘Human-in-the-loop’ – how a partnership between the organisation’s employees and its AI or automation-powered technologies can drive even better productivity (although remember the distinction between efficiency and effectiveness – it’s not always about volume and/or speed…). 

Indeed, workplace attitudes are changing along generational lines. While the arguments continue to grab headlines about hybrid working and work-life balance, the real battleground is in providing employees with the tools that help them fulfil their potential. Industries that fail to embed AI and automation are increasingly being rejected by the most talented applicants, in favour of companies with an innovative view of AAEE. 

While the importance of the dedicated AAEE function is clear from a logistical standpoint, it’s vital not to isolate it in a silo. AAEE isn’t just a department or a strategy, it’s a mindset, one that should be adopted by the whole organisation. It won’t happen overnight but, without an organised approach, it won’t happen at all. 

About the author

Hannes Ben is the CEO of Locaria