The UK is battling an ongoing productivity challenge. According to recent Office for National Statistics findings, the UK experienced yet another decrease in productivity in the public service in April. The Centre for Economics and Business research predicts that Chancellor Rachel Reeves could be forced to spend more than £5bn and employ 92,000 extra workers across the public sector if levels continue to decline until 2030. Meanwhile, governments and employers are searching for solutions.

AI is being pitched as the answer to the productivity crisis, but it’s not the all-things to all-people solution we’re being sold. Yes, AI can be used to speed up tasks in isolation and contribute to productivity, but expecting to see huge benefits by simply plugging automation into existing workflows and hoping for the best isn’t going to work.

Before introducing AI tools, it’s essential to understand your processes inside out to understand what’s working, what needs improvement and where automation can actually add value. Many clients we speak to have no idea how much work is being done in their organization, or how long it takes. They lack the visibility and control needed to improve matters. This is where orchestration comes in. It’s essentially a glue that binds your people, processes and systems together.

The role of orchestration

Orchestration brings all the elements of business operations together under one roof. Orchestration enables you to run all your service lines using one simple, cohesive platform. . From assigning work to solving issues as they arise, with orchestration in place, you’ll have full visibility and control across your operations.

For global organizations, the benefits of orchestration are vast. Service leaders can access operational metrics in real time, gaining real-time information about how teams in different markets are working. This insight helps to identify gaps, broken processes, and areas needing more resources. It also tells you where you’re spending too many resources, and where you can afford to scale back. Once you have this bird’s eye view, you can identify where IT automation can bring the most value. 

Gaining X-ray vision into your operations

One of the biggest challenges for business leaders is getting a 360-degree view of operations. Just like you wouldn’t start driving a car if you couldn’t see out of the windscreen, you can’t fix operations if you don’t know where the issues are.

Despite this, many service leaders implement automation regardless, expecting to see immediate changes in efficiency just by adding AI into their operations. However, this approach leads to work getting stuck, errors persisting, and teams remaining bogged down in firefighting and manual work.

The inefficient, unstructured processes will still cause the same issues, and won’t be properly addressed because service leaders can’t see them. AI is smart, but it’s not that smart. It still needs guidance to function effectively, and a team of humans kept in the loop to oversee everything, which is the vital role that orchestration plays. 

Know your use case

The first and most important step when implementing AI is to know exactly what you are intending to fix. To do this, use data to analyze current processes and identify areas for improvement. Based on this data you’ll be able to identify areas that need to be improved before introducing AI, and you can then understand how to make the biggest impact with it.

 AI truly shines when automating mundane tasks such as categorizing emails or performing sentiment analysis. However, it still needs structure. You can’t just plug and play AI into a broken process and hope for the best. This is where orchestration takes the reigns. Orchestration ensures work is co-ordinated, data flows smoothly, and automation occurs in the right place at the right time. 

When to skip orchestration

Generally, anyone running a sophisticated service should orchestrate before automating. However, there are some business roles and departments that can safely adopt AI right away.   

For example, creative jobs like Graphic Designers, Coders, or Copywriters can use generative AI in a relatively low-risk fashion. Even in our own organization, our marketing team leverages AI for content creation, and our coders use AI to speed the process up. These teams already have structured workflows with built-in testing, quality control, and approvals, making AI a no-brainer for automating repetitive tasks. It’s like having your own (affordable) personal assistant.   

In any large service organization, there is a different level of risk and that’s where orchestration becomes essential. It ensures human and digital teams work together cohesively, while service leaders maintain full control.  

The possibilities with AI are endless, and it’s important that organizations stay competitive and implement it where appropriate. However, AI won’t fix chaotic processes. Get your house in order first and then look at implementing AI. Organizations that adopt this approach will crack the productivity crisis, while others will fall behind.

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Founder and CTO of Enate.