SEATTLE - February 7, 2017

Organisations have a brief window to experiment and become familiar with the strategies and technologies needed to get ready for an AI-first world, according to a new report from Avanade, the leading digital and cloud services provider.

The Avanade Technology Vision 2017, looking at emerging trends for the next three years, finds that we are on the cusp of a new decade of digital disruption powered by artificial intelligence and automation. It states that the emerging AI-first era will bring powerful opportunities and capabilities to organisations – similar to the PC revolution of the 1990s – but they must begin transforming now.

The Avanade report highlights that the emerging AI-first era is already creating new ways for organisations to interact with, serve, and empower customers and employees. For example, by augmenting employees’ capabilities using AI – including intelligent automation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and physical automation – organisations will enable workers to achieve far more, faster, with more intelligence-driven actions that deliver better results.

Additionally, as cloud, big data, and mobile continue to converge, the report predicts AI-driven user interfaces will lead to ever-deeper, more meaningful interactions – a “situational centricity” tailored not only to each individual customer or employee, but also to his or her unique situation.

The report also highlights the need for organisations to act with responsibility and adopt digital ethics as every digital action can have equal and potentially unintended consequence. It notes that the rise of AI is fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and understand our world, and this “digitisation of everything” requires a new level of corporate accountability.

“Not only is AI re-creating the digital customer experience, it’s about to be the single-most important set of technologies you give to your workforce,“ said Chris Miller, Chief Technology Innovation Officer at Avanade. “As more simple or repetitive tasks are automated, we will see an increase in people’s time and available cognitive capacity to focus on the items that are meaningful both to them, and the organisations they work for.”

The Avanade Technology Vision 2017 identifies five actions that companies can take now to survive and thrive in the new AI-first era:

1. Embrace AI as the new experience layer: Customers won’t just be on apps or the internet. They will expect AI-powered assistants and invisible user interfaces, as well as differentiated experiences such as voice, mixed reality, and haptics.
2. Augment your workers: The gains we’ve made from innovating workplace productivity have hit a plateau, but AI will help organisations reach new levels of efficiency and effectiveness. An augmented workforce powered by AI will also help organisations attract and retain new generations of workers.
3. Plug in to the Platform Economy: Organisations must be ready to create and join the AI-driven borderless platforms in their industry – and others – in order to reach customers where they want to be.
4. Take a DesignOps approach, everywhere: Combining design thinking and modern engineering principles will be necessary to the digital enterprise’s transformation as a completely user-centric entity. Organisations should start now to build up a culture, mindset, and business model ready for a DesignOps revolution – where everyone is focused on the user and value. 
5. Act with responsibility and plan for secondary consequences: The rise of AI is fundamentally changing everything about the way we live, work, and understand our world. Organisations must develop a digital ethics framework that addresses issues like data security, trust and privacy, and provides guidelines about how data should be obtained and used.

Miller commented: “Artificial intelligence has become a reality. Organisations that move now to take advantage of AI will reach new heights of innovation, productivity and growth, as well as workplace engagement and employee satisfaction.”

For more information on the Avanade Technology Vision 2017, please visit: www.avanade.com/techvision