Operational excellence is a strategic approach focused on continuously optimizing business processes, workforce capabilities, and enabling technologies to maximize organizational efficiency. While it requires cross-functional collaboration among executives, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) play a pivotal role. Modern operational excellence hinges on the office of the CIO deploying and managing enterprise-wide technologies that touch every business unit—from cloud infrastructure to AI.
A 2024 Gartner CIO Survey found that nearly half of technology leaders are struggling to demonstrate the value of AI investments. Third generation AI-powered automation platforms can be transformative in delivering return on investment by growing efficiency, accuracy, and innovation by orders of magnitude over previous generations of automation tooling.
CIOs focused on an operational excellence strategy have a tremendous opportunity to position IT as both an efficiency engine and a growth catalyst for the organization.
AI Automation for Operational Excellence
Unlike legacy automation solutions like RPA, IPaaS, IDP, and others, AI automation platforms offer the sophistication needed to tackle a wider variety of use cases while drastically lowering barriers to implementation. The newest generation of agentic process automation solutions can analyze inputs, make decisions, and execute autonomously based on documented business processes, freeing valuable personnel from mundane, repetitive tasks. Here are some reasons why your organization should consider using automation to achieve operational excellence strategies.
Marked Increase in Productivity
AI automation systems maintain consistent output and productivity without fatigue. This enables organizations to roll out increased operational programming like shifting to a 24/7 and 365 operation. Likewise, the inherent scalability ensures that operations run smoothly and efficiently, even during short-burst, high-demand periods and cyclical seasonality, significantly reducing volatile shifts in productivity associated with manual labor processes.
Automating business processes has a direct relationship with employees’ satisfaction. In fact, a survey conducted by Salesforce reported that 90% of automation users felt that automation improved their productivity, and 85% said automation tools boosted collaboration between different teams. As automations become smarter with AI, they’re more reliable than ever, saving employees’ time in performing mundane, repetitive tasks. Instead, employees can significantly boost productivity in more strategic tasks requiring collaboration to drive toward key business objectives.
Resource Optimization and Cost Reduction
Efficiency gains offered by AI automation platforms translate to a direct reduction in costs. This has certainly been a key driving force in both AI and automation adoption. Organizations can take a leaner approach to business operations, leveraging every resource effectively for maximum impact.
Data entry is a prime example of an unnecessary, resource-heavy activity that can be easily automated to save substantially on labor costs. In supply chain management, for example, AI automation can allow for closer monitoring of supplier performance and inventory levels, thus optimizing sourcing within the supply chain.
In finance, AI can automate reconciliation and compliance tasks, ensuring accuracy and reducing burden on team members. And with self-maintaining AI automation systems, enterprises can reduce their dependency on skilled-labor workforces that are challenging to source due to high demand and skill gaps in the job market.
Agility and Scalability
The fundamental flexibility of AI-powered automation platforms means that organizations can adjust their operational capabilities in the blink of an eye, catering to new business requirements as they arise. These are scalable, bot-free, and no-maintenance SaaS platforms that can run business processes, easily integrating with critical ERP, CRM, and other systems directly through APIs.
The inclusive software category convergence occurring through AI automation allows for horizontal scaling. Put a different way, because AI automation easily integrates multiple technologies and replaces others while automating tasks, organizations reduce their dependency on point solutions that drive up technical debt and silo department technologies. This option to pursue truly dynamic, cross-functional technology is pivotal in industries like retail, information technology, and financial services, where programming like Know Your Customer (KYC) are top-of-mind.
Improved Compliance and Error Reduction
AI automation is revolutionizing governance and compliance by standardizing processes without error. Unlike humans, who naturally introduce variables, advanced AI systems consistently execute processes with remarkable precision. The most advanced platforms even provide full transparency into the AI’s autonomous decisions—read: no black boxes—and make regulatory oversight easier by creating comprehensive audit trails.
Consider how an AI system might handle something as intricate as the American Tax Code. It can track historical processes, automatically adjust to annual regulatory updates, and ensure that each and every transaction is well-documented. This is about more than just reducing human error. It’s about creating a dynamic, responsive compliance ecosystem capable of evolving in real-time. The result is a powerful approach to governance that combines the rigor of Lean Six Sigma principles with the adaptability of cutting-edge AI, giving organizations unprecedented control and insight into their operational compliance.
Driving Strategic Change with Operational Excellence
CIOs prioritizing operational excellence will directly benefit from investments in AI automation. They will see their businesses stay competitive against emerging challenges and also position themselves to seize the advantage over competitors less equipped to respond rapidly.
The use of AI-powered automation will be vital for maintaining efficiency and achieving strategic goals. CIOs must harness these technologies to ensure their organizations not only meet but exceed their operational objectives, setting the stage for a future characterized by innovation, efficiency, and sustained success.
If you’re a forward-thinking CIO looking to achieve operational excellence goals, reach out to a member of our team to see how Kognitos can position you for success.
Discover the Power of Kognitos
Our clients achieved:
- 75%manual data entry eliminated
- 30 hourssaved on invoicing per week
- 2 millionreceipts analyzed per year
