AI, AR and VR will improve outcomes
AI is dominating the transformation conversation.
But the question shouldn't be:
"How can we use AI?"
It should be:
"Which business problem could technology solve better, faster or more economically?"
I've seen AI, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) create genuine operational benefits when they are applied to a clearly defined problem.
The technology isn't the transformation.
The improved business outcome is.
AI – augmenting people and improving decisions
AI can increasingly support activities that traditionally consume significant amounts of management and operational time.
Examples from Aludum include:
• Analysing large volumes of information
• Identifying patterns and exceptions
• Automating repetitive activities
• Supporting decision-making
• Producing management insight
• Accelerating training and knowledge transfer
The greatest opportunity isn't necessarily replacing people.
It is giving people better information and more time to focus on the activities where human judgement creates the most value.
However, it will reduce headcount in existing roles! Just like robotics has permanently changed production and assembly lines and then Robotic Process Automation allowed smaller teams and supervisors to automate workflows. How many people will be required to produce the same output once the process has been redesigned around AI? The AI changes are significant as the work is completed with unstructured information.
The technology doesn’t necessarily produce an employment shock. There will be less hiring but there will be attrition, redeployment, restructuring and fewer roles.
At Aludum we also have examples of using AR and VR in manufacturing and production
AR – putting information where the work happens
Augmented Reality can bring instructions, information and expertise directly into the working environment.
For example:
• Step-by-step maintenance instructions
• Remote expert support
• Equipment identification
• Quality inspections
• Real-time process information
• Technical training
We have great examples of “what if” scenarios being tested and trained using AR. We know the expected maintenance routine and the operator instructions but what happens when there are additional variables that occur but very infrequently? This “tribal knowledge” is known by the deeply experienced operators but is oftentimes not included in the operator manuals. For example – what happens when a bolt sheers during routine maintenance to ensure the correct pressure of a closed system? These can be loaded into AR and operators safely trained.
This can reduce errors, accelerate learning and reduce the need for experienced specialists to be physically present.
VR – learning without the operational risk
VR provides an opportunity to train people in situations that would otherwise be expensive, dangerous or difficult to reproduce. This is when we can really test the “Gotcha’s”. What are the items that could “bite you on the backside” and how to do you train for them? Or what happens if you are dealing with one emergency and another emergency then arises?
Employees can practise:
• Complex procedures
• Emergency situations
• Equipment operation
• Customer interactions
• Safety procedures
• New processes
And they can repeat the experience until they are confident. Safely.
The real opportunity is combining the technologies
Imagine an engineer learning a complex procedure in VR.
They then perform the real task using AR-guided instructions.
AI monitors the process, identifies exceptions and provides additional support where required.
The result isn't simply a technology implementation.
It is a different operating model.
That is where digital innovation becomes transformation.
But there is an important warning
Technology should never be implemented simply because it is available.
Start with:
Business outcome → Process → People → Technology
Not:
Technology → find a problem to solve.
The most successful digital transformations I've experienced have started by understanding the process, identifying the constraints and determining which inputs drive the required outcome.
Only then is the appropriate technology selected.
For Aludum, that's what AI Advisory means.
Finding practical opportunities to use AI, AR and VR to improve cost, quality, speed, capability and predictability.
The objective isn't to create a more technologically sophisticated business.
Our underlying philosophy at Aludum is straightforward:
Start with the outcome.
Identify the critical inputs.
Align People, Process and Technology.
Control what drives performance.
Make the result predictable and sustainable.
The objective isn't to create a more technologically sophisticated business.
It is to create a better-performing business.
Technology is simply one of the tools available to achieve that.
The organisations that will benefit most from AI, AR and VR won't necessarily be those that adopt the technology fastest.
They will be those that understand where technology can fundamentally change the way work is performed — and then redesign the operating model around it.
That is the difference between implementing technology and delivering transformation.