Business resiliency- use AI to move from survive to thrive

Organisations need to focus on managing and reducing costs in a crisis, whilst simultaneously ensuring there is available scope to perform over the longer term. It is essential to have a strong focus on productivity and to create the ability to pivot to new opportunities as the economic landscape continuously changes, as we emerge out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What can we learn from companies that successfully navigated the previous economic downturn in 2008? Research undertaken on publicly listed companies, found that the best performing companies increased financial flexibility by deleveraging their balance sheets and that these resilient businesses also managed to decrease operating costs more effectively and consistently than their peers both ahead and during the downturn.

However, the world has moved on since then. Competition within global markets has intensified, alongside increasing compliance obligations and pressures on margins. For many businesses, further cost cutting seems almost impossible. However, new technologies such as AI and NLP are now available and can uncover potential cost management opportunities from within structured and unstructured enterprise data. 

By delivering a 360-degree view of enterprise activities, AI-driven data-capture can identify productivity improvements, reduce the cost and risk of compliance requirements and use data and analytics to drive improved enterprise decisions.

Based on discussions we have had with C-Suite executives from across the financial services industry, FeedStock has identified three strategic phases that contribute to enterprise resilience and enable organisations to move from surviving to thriving in today’s crisis environment.

Define: What cost reduction measures are required given the current environment?

The swift move to remote working has created a new paradigm for many businesses. Although there has been a reduction in some operating costs, such as travel and accommodation, there are other operational costs such as the appropriate IT infrastructure which have replaced them. In addition, workforces that sit separately can increase the challenges around adherence to financial services regulation. One example of this is the increase in the risk, cost and burden of research compliance. Smart use of data and analytics can help identify which research providers are generating value and fully understand research relationships despite the growing challenges presented by remote employees, clients and providers.

Build: Invest in business productivity and the “new normal”

AI data-capture technology can be used to effectively manage costs; and crucially, the investment in that technology will lay the foundations for businesses to thrive in the “next normal”. The Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a dramatic acceleration of digitisation on a global scale. As our use of digital channels increases, so too does our reliance on effective management and analysis of data. Embracing the trend of accelerated digitisation which has been experienced across every sector following the outbreak of the pandemic has enabled FeedStock clients to streamline workflows and boost the productivity of key revenue-generators.

Accelerate: Faster adoption of digital solutions

In today’s increasingly digital and disparate working environment, many business models need to undergo an extensive re-evaluation and need to accelerate the adoption and deployment of digital solutions.

Our conversations with C-Suite executives from across the financial services industry have centred around the four following outcomes:

1. Refocus digital activities on delivering improved customer experience and refining the sales process
2. Incorporate new data and train new models to enable real-time decision making
3. Accelerate IT modernisation such as cloud adoption
4. Harness the agile mindset to deliver tech solutions to customers and colleagues at scale, quickly

Move from Surviving to Thriving

These four points summarise the strategy and outcomes of the acceleration of digital adoption. As we move into the post-COVID 19 era, enterprises which are rapidly accelerating their adoption of AI technologies will be able to move from surviving to thriving in tomorrow’s economic environment.