Magical or a lot of work?
Developing, deploying, and supporting artificial intelligence can be a daunting venture that calls for an often-confusing array of new skills and technologies. Yet, ostensibly, it’s supposed to reduce complexity. Can we have it both ways?
The Complexity of AI
AI can’t just be dropped into an organization to start churning out insights — among many other things, it requires budgeting, rollout, and performance measurement, Chris Howard, global chief of research for Gartner, explained in a recent video. "AI seems like this magical, really easy thing, and it can do all kinds of amazing things," he said. "But once you start to work with it, you realize that it’s actually hard, and there are aspects of it that are really complicated."
The Need for Simplicity
Of course, AI itself offers a way to automate and abstract away this complexity. "AI has great potential to help resolve complexity in the workplace and expand productivity and employee and customer happiness," Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom, told ZDNET. When done right, AI enables simplicity, cutting across layers of complexity — but with limits. "AI is not a silver bullet," said Richard Demeny, a software development consultant, formerly with Arm. "LLMs under the hood actually use probabilities, not understanding, to give answers. It’s humans who design, build, and implement systems, and while AI may automate some entry-level roles and certainly bring significant productivity gains, it cannot replace the amount of practical experience IT decision-makers need to make the right trade-offs."
How AI Can Benefit IT Operations
With the growing complexity of IT systems, "businesses are up against a conundrum like never before," said Bill Lobig, vice president of product management and observability for IBM Automation. "Teams are managing massive amounts of applications, leveraging different clouds and on-premises environments — and applications need to stay up and running. Right now, over 1,000 applications are used by organizations, and 82% of enterprise leaders say IT complexity impedes success." This creates challenges, "especially from siloed apps, to potential outages, to resource and energy waste, and a lack of performance," Lobig added. Here’s where AI steps in. "How can IT leaders manage the risk of these potential issues and get ahead of looming situations of downtime? The answer is observability and application resource management — all made possible through AI-powered automation."
The Need for Thoughtful Deployment
To keep both AI and IT complexity at bay, "deployment of AI needs to be thoughtful," said Hashim. "Focus on the simplicity of user experience, quality of AI, and its ability to get things done," she said. "Uplevel all your employees with AI so that your organization as a whole can be more productive and happy." Consistency is the key to managing complexity, Howard said. Platforms, for example, "make things consistent. So you’re able to do things — sometimes very complicated things — in consistent ways and standard ways that everybody knows how to use them. Even something as simple as definitions or taxonomy. If everybody is speaking the same language, so a simplified taxonomy, then it’s much easier to communicate."
Conclusion
In conclusion, AI can be a powerful tool for reducing complexity in the workplace, but it requires thoughtful deployment and careful consideration of its limitations. As Demeny noted, "AI might offer informed suggestions, but it is still humans who make the final decisions and bear the consequences. Every product, every AI infrastructure, is different, and the complexities of each require human insight. AI’s role should be seen as a tool to assist, not a replacement for the judgment and expertise that comes with experience."
FAQs
Q: Can AI really reduce complexity in the workplace?
A: Yes, AI can help simplify tasks and automate processes, but it requires careful deployment and consideration of its limitations.
Q: How can organizations keep up with the evolving complexity of AI?
A: By staying up to date with new developments, adapting to new technologies, and scaling with hybrid architecture.
Q: Can AI replace human decision-making?
A: No, AI can assist and provide informed suggestions, but human judgment and expertise are still necessary for making final decisions.
Q: How can organizations ensure successful AI deployment?
A: By focusing on user experience, quality of AI, and its ability to get things done, and by upleveling all employees with AI.
