KUALA LUMPUR: As businesses maintain hybrid remote-working models and anticipate other potential disruptions in 2021 and beyond, the role of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is set to grow.
SAP Concur senior vice president and general manager for Asia-Pacific, Japan and Greater China Andy Watson said automation and AI would progressively become essential in the workplace post Covid-19.
"Many companies were in the early and mid-stages of digital transformation when the pandemic struck.
"These companies pivoted and sped up transformation to address unprecedented global disruption and customer needs, and are now expected to continue operating within this new context.
"These technologies may include enabling efficient day-to-day communications between knowledge workers doing their jobs from home, and automating invoicing and expenses to keep partners paid and to preserve budgets," Andy said in a recent statement.
Andy foresees more businesses leaning on AI algorithms to make quick decisions backed by real-time financial transparency in order to meet the business needs brought on by the pandemic.
"These algorithms include managing spending in near real-time to improve budget management and liquidity, increasing compliance and eliminating errors, and maximising profitability," he said.
The broader use of AI and machine learning to add intelligence to applications and eliminate manual processes also gives firms a much-needed competitive boost by improving their productivity.
He cited a recent SAP Concur-commissioned study that found that as much as thirty-eight per cent of employees in the Asia-Pacific region submit expenses manually by filling out a form and enclosing physical receipts.
"Firms can save tens or even hundreds of thousands of ringgit each year − and improve staff satisfaction − by automating their finance and administration processes," said Andy.
He suggested for businesses to make the transition into becoming 'intelligent enterprises'.
"In the 'new norm', intelligent enterprises can do more with less, deliver best-in-class customer experience, build resilient supply chains, while inventing new business models and revenue streams where everything and everyone is interconnected on one common platform," said Andy.
Such transitions involve businesses to embrace three components - an intelligent suite, running on a digital platform, together with deploying and applying intelligent technologies.
"SAP's intelligent suite of solutions helps customers to automate their day-to-day business processes so that customers can better interact both internally and externally," Andy said.
"This scenario is achieved through applications that have intelligence embedded in them, and powered by a digital platform to facilitate the collection, connection, and orchestration of data."
In the area of network and spend management, the various systems could automatically integrate with SAP Concur, so that businesses can better manage company spend.
SAP Concur is a cloud-based solution which improves automation, integration and analytics across travel and expense processes.
"End-to-end, automated data synchronisation between SAP Concur and other business applications provides management with more visibility into employee spend," said Andy.
"This way, management can more effortlessly and accurately manage expenses to get a complete view of company spend in one place," he said.