Top AI Priorities Revealed at Intelligent Automation Month

The world of intelligent automation is diverse and expansive. Just like there is more than one way to travel to any destination, so is there more than one way to apply AI within a business’s processes. Depending on your strategic goals, which AI initiatives take priority will impact whether operational efficiencies are customer-facing or internal. Ideally, one leads to the other.

This was evident when we celebrated our annual Intelligent Automation Month during September 2024. Narrowing the topics for sessions every Thursday proved challenging. There are so many issues that keep enterprise leaders up at night that we could have easily filled every day of the month with a session. In the end, we opted to balance regional-specific needs with industry-wide concerns to most effectively address the four most pressing intelligent automation priorities for global enterprises.

1. AI regulations. Navigating AI regulations and compliance is intimidating. The biggest governing bodies, the European Union, United States, and United Kingdom, are in various stages of adopting regulations, making it hard for companies developing AI and/or using AI to fully understand the risks, why regulation is needed, the proactive actions we can take, and how to audit and monitor compliance.

   The session “Inevitable Wave of AI Regulations” featured insights from ABBYY AI Ethics Evangelist Andrew Pery, ABBYY Chief Information Security Officer Clayton C. Peddy, and ForHumanity Executive Director Ryan Carrier. They discussed the balance between the ethical use of AI and cybersecurity to reduce bias and ensure trust among customers and employees. Read the recap, Managing AI Laws: Maintaining Security & Compliance in an Algorithmic World.



2. E-invoicing. Many companies are not ready for e-invoicing mandates. E-invoicing is the exchange of invoices between suppliers and buyers in a structured electronic format rather than by paper. Cross-border transactions make invoicing increasingly complex, with each country having a unique approach to requirements and tax policies.

   That’s why, beginning January 2025, many European countries are mandating e-invoicing to facilitate tax compliance and real-time reporting to government tax authorities. Governments see regulations as a way to reduce fraud in the system, increase compliance, and raise revenue. The session featuring Billentis owner and CEO Marcus Laube educated attendees on the e-invoicing landscape and how intelligent automation can ease and accelerate the transition. Read the recap, E-invoicing is coming! Are you ready?



3. Fear of missing out. FOMO shouldn’t be a driver for AI adoption. Our global survey, State of Intelligent Automation: AI Trust Barometer, found that 65% of IT leaders adopt AI primarily due to the fear of missing out (FOMO). This usually results in not having specific KPIs to determine the return on investment, causing projects to fall by the wayside and adding another technology to the technical debt pile.

   To ensure success, two digital transformation experts shared their experiences leading AI projects throughout their organization or working with hundreds of clients to help manage their intelligent automation journey. ING and Reveal Group gave tips and lessons learned, and most importantly, how they measured success. Read the recap, From the Forefront of Innovation, AI Insights with ING and Reveal Group.



4. Process intelligence. AI initiatives are easier to deploy when you understand how they’ll impact your business. However, knowing where to start and what to do about it can be overwhelming when you have a lot of legacy systems, or a mesh of solutions used in various silos. Rather than going with gut feelings or the most vocal stakeholder, innovation leaders can be confident with knowing where, how, and why to deploy AI for automation using process intelligence.

Process intelligence will reveal how your processes flow and where opportunities for restructuring or adding automation will increase efficiency. Innovation leaders Catherine Stewart, President & General Manager for the Americas at Novelis, and Marty Pavlik, Managing Director at Doculabs, are two of the leading consulting firms advising global enterprises on how to use process mining and task mining to not only discover opportunities, but to also continuously monitor. Using the power of AI and data, business and process analysts can use simulation and predictive capabilities to ensure digital transformation projects are performing as expected and whether adding more resources to a process will yield better returns. Read the recap, How Process Intelligence Takes the Guesswork out of Intelligent Automation.

Every organization has different priorities and KPIs to achieve. However, knowing where to use AI for automation and how to measure success will remain at the top of the list, no matter which industry you’re in. ABBYY purpose-built AI for document processing and process optimization has proven to be the catalyst for organizations becoming a digital-first company. Learn more about ABBYY AI in the Purpose-Built AI Center.