Does AI mean the end of shared services?

Shared services is by no means a new concept. The idea of combining forces has existed for thousands of years, but in modern business it is regarded as common operational strategy that’s designed to reduce costs and streamline organisations. By providing a service in one place, a company can keep everything centralised and offer its services at a lower cost.

It’s a brilliant idea and companies have utilised this to the fullest in order to create a single organisational structure that benefits both customers and staff. Organisations quickly learnt that they could provide a better service quality, a much faster turnaround, greater consistency and, most importantly of all, an increased business value.

But if the last few years have shown us anything however, it’s that we are truly embarking on the digital age. The introduction of new technologies have not only affected the way in which we conduct business, but they have also changed how we interact with one another as well as evolving the customer-employee relationship.

Just like robots helped leverage the manufacturing industry, increasing production rates and improving quality, artificial intelligence is now changing the way we think and communicate. As a result, many businesses are starting to adopt the use of these digital technologies throughout their infrastructure.

From IT support and analytical reports, to the implementation of Shared Services; AI can be considered as an integral step towards the advancement of business in terms of accuracy and efficiency – with greatly increased productivity in transaction processing.

What does this mean for the workforce?

Much of the work that is completed by a shared services workforce involves procedures that could be considered fairly straightforward. Some activities range from processing transactions to handling varying requests, while many of them could be easily resolved if employees were granted access to the appropriate systems. This is where AI comes to the fray.

It is growing increasingly evident that many of the skill sets required by businesses are becoming broader, and in many ways more technical, as the trend for AI becomes more common in the workplace. That’s why organisations must make it a priority to build and maintain a skilled workforce that will help businesses stay one step ahead of change.

As a result, HR teams will be needed in order to manage the shared services AI technologies in order to ensure the company is reaching its full potential. The human element of these departments will also need to adapt as more administrative tasks are taken on by smart software and automated processes.

These services can work harmoniously alongside shared services in order to provide a more rounded experience for the workers, helping take away some of the less favourable administrative work so that teams can focus on working towards a more strategic mindset.

As AI continues to grow, it is slowly but surely taking the robotic element out of its human interactions, bridging the gap like never before.