Will AI Complement Human Effort In 2025? Or Replace It? 6 Steps To Ensure Successful Integration

While the AI revolution has some glaring problems, companies that can include the tech in ideal processes will gain advantages over the rest. Let's find out how.

By Karthikeyan VS

Artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved from a sci-fi thought to a game changer across industries around the globe. By 2025, it will be a strength and a critical necessity for businesses to remain competitive. Expleo's report, Integrating AI: Navigating the next wave of business transformation, highlights how AI is being recognised as a game-changer across industries, with 72 per cent of companies actively using or planning to adopt AI technologies within a year to stay competitive in the digital economy.

AI's Promise

AI offers businesses immense opportunities to boost profitability by improving efficiencies, optimising costs, and accelerating time-to-market. Expleo's survey highlights that better time-to-market, financial gains, and improved quality are the top three metrics companies use to measure ROI from AI deployments.

Today, executives view AI not just as a new tool but as a critical enabler of achieving meaningful outcomes.

Complementing Human Effort, Not Replacing It

While concerns exist about AI displacing jobs, the reality is more nuanced. Evidence suggests AI is more likely to complement existing roles rather than replace them. Expleo's report mirrors this, revealing that 55 per cent of organisations have implemented training programs to upskill employees in AI-related tasks.

There is also a growing demand for AI experts, with companies creating dedicated roles for AI management and integration. This balanced approach to AI adoption ensures that employees are equipped to leverage AI's potential responsibly and effectively.

AI is being embraced in all parts of the economy, with each sector using AI uniquely. Across industries, AI has augmented, improved, or assisted in risk management, fraud prevention, and compliance automation.

AI is also beneficial to the construction business and the transportation sector in terms of enhancing customer service, inventory control, and logistics management.

6 Key Steps to Successful AI Integration

Step 1: Identify a Real and Viable Business Need

Businesses need to gauge the return on investment of using AI technology. They must evaluate whether AI can provide tangible benefits, such as saving costs or increasing efficiency.

Step 2: Evaluate Technical and Financial Feasibility

Assess the technical hurdles of AI initiatives, including aspects like data quality and infrastructure preparedness. Likewise, preparing realistic business financial models that include all overheads, such as data integration and algorithm refinement, is essential.

Step 3: The Right Technology and Architecture

AI is a complex and rapidly evolving technology. To ensure long-term scalability and effectiveness, companies must select the appropriate tools and infrastructure that align with their specific needs.

Step 4: Develop Robust and Automated Data Pipelines

Data is the foundation of AI. Ensuring that data is clean, unbiased, and regularly modernised is essential for the success of AI projects. Companies must invest in strong data governance to avoid data drift and maintain model accuracy.

Step 5: Train and Validate Models on Representative Data

AI models must be tested on data that reflects real-world requirements. This ensures that the model can handle large volumes of data and perform effectively in production environments.

Step 6: Monitor and Maintain Data Models

AI systems must be continuously monitored and maintained to remain effective. Regular checks for data drift, model accuracy, and performance are crucial for long-term success.

The AI revolution is reshaping industries, international business, and world politics as we speak. There are still some problems, but companies that can include AI in ideal processes will gain advantages over the rest. AI will help build more value for the company by improving operational costs and making better predictions. That said, AI can be successfully implemented after many technical, financial, and cultural barriers have been crossed.

All in all, organisations that are smart to invest in AI, with a strong presence of strategy, return expectations, and implementable solutions – are likely to emerge successfully in the global era of digitisation.

(The author is the Director & Head of Asia Business at Expleo)

Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, and views of ABP Network Pvt. Ltd.