Intelligent Assistance is the human dimension of automation and artificial intelligence.
When implemented well, Intelligent Assistance brings dignity and meaning to an area of industrial operations that thus far has not benefited much from information technology: physical work of frontline, industrial workers.
For decades, industrial planners have brought the power of technology to the back office work of accounting, inventory, supply chains and human resources. More recently, industrial operations have instrumented their production processes and equipment with tens to hundreds of thousands of sensors and computers.
The rise of always-connected processes, cloud computing infrastructure, and artificial intelligence now shines a harsh, bright light on the principal barrier for realizing the promise of Industry 4.0: most of frontline work remains manual, offline, and data-less.
Intelligent Assistance brings the power of technology to connected work and closes the data-feedback loop for industrial job cycles.
Why is Intelligent Assistance strategic for Digital EHS, OSH, and ESG audit firms?
Most industrial audit and consulting services understand the coming disruption of their industry by aggressive or upstart firms using the power of digital technology.
Their services include the audit, remediation and ongoing optimization of client operations for
- Environmental, Health and Safety
- Occupational safety and health
- Environmental Social Governance, a rising component of corporate social responsibility
- Operational excellence
Digital audit and remediation firms use Intelligent Assistance software and related technologies to deliver service on a remote basis to clients, including
- Initial site or plant walk-throughs, capturing photos, videos, voice notes, and voice-input worksheets
- Structured, step-by-step inspections, using embedded procedures and worksheets for offline data capture
- Collaborative onsite / offsite assessments, working in a synchronous real time or asynchronous store-and-forward modes
- Remote or guided remediation and validation, creating comprehensive job-cycle journals and traceability reports as well as certification with ratings
- Activity and job-cycle benchmarks, calculating the economic benefits of process improvements as well as making the business case for further improvements
- Monetization of insight data wrappers (client data + predictive insights with recommendations), performance support materials (worker and expert-generated content + transmediation), and microlearning curricula.
Intelligent Assistance can accelerate the digital transformation of EHS, OSH, and ESG firms, monetizing “non-billable time” into billable no-traveling-required revenue streams.
Why is Intelligent Assistance strategic for Industrial IoT OEMs?
All major industrial OEMs have made multi-billion commitments to retool their products for connected IoT platforms and artificial intelligence-based data lakes.
Intelligent Assistance brings crucial new datasets (workforce productivity and job-cycle efficiency) to these IoT platforms and data lakes.
Intelligent Assistance also solves one of the biggest bottlenecks in deploying new equipment and connected products:
- Configuration and installation
- New operator onboarding and training
- Troubleshooting and customer service
- Commissioning and recommissioning
- Servicing and maintenance
- Upselling and contract renewals
Industrial OEMs use Intelligent Assistance to
-
- Cut quote-to-cash cycle times by weeks or months, pulling revenues from next fiscal year into the current one, and receivables from next quarter into the current one
- Establish performance/bonus incentives for customer service and partners, using connected workspaces to collect detail worker activity and job-cycle data
- Deliver “wow” customer experiences, exceeding their expectations with digital innovations and proactive, data-driven measures
- Offer premium subscriptions for performance analytic advisory services and advanced training and certification (adaptive microlearning) of equipment operators
Intelligent Assistance can accelerate CALL
Why is Intelligent Assistance strategic for developers of industrial learning and development courseware?
Epic forces of change now drive courseware developers and publishers of industrial learning and development to transform their business models and revenue streams for the always-connected customer.
In a manner similar to magazines and professional journals, courseware developers must shift to new business models and reconstitute their core offerings, or face bleak and uncertain futures.
In the most stark terms, industrial customers do not want nor will they pay a premium for content.
Rather, industrial customers demand:
- Practical solutions to their problems, focusing on concrete and measurable improvements
- Elimination of redundant, low-impact work, prioritizing action-based on-the-job learning over non-productive classroom or lab-based learning
- De-emphasis on conceptual knowledge and badges, stressing job performance and rated competencies
- Proven and inexpensive ways to reduce training decay, using technology for learning reinforcement
Courseware developers and publishers use Intelligent Assistance to create, deliver and monetize “flipped” courseware and implicit learning experiences to industrial workers while they work their jobs.
In particular, these developers and publishers use Intelligent Assistance to transform worker- and expert-generated content into reusable digital assets and fungible microlearning courseware.
