Discover the promised land of digital transformation and automation
In The Age of Invisible Machines: A Practical Guide to Creating a Hyper-Automated Ecosystem of Intelligent Digital Workers, celebrated author and tech leader Robb Wilson delivers an eye-opening and startlingly insightful blueprint to equipping your organization for the hyper-automated future that lies ahead.
In the book, you’ll learn to navigate the choppy waters of digital transformation, identifying the outdated processes and systems holding your company back and embracing new technologies and strategies you can use to propel your firm forward. The author describes what true hyper-automation looks like, the opportunities it unlocks, and how to avoid some of its most common pitfalls.
You’ll also find:
- Compelling discussions of the ethical dilemmas that lie in wait for people who adopt the latest conversational AIs
- Fascinating explorations of what it means for your organization to be self-driven and how to use that drive to create durable competitive advantage
- Strategies for effective digital transformation and hyper-automation that any company can implement immediately
An essential and practical discussion of the future of conversational AI and automation, The Age of Invisible Machines belongs in the hands of founders, entrepreneurs, business leaders, owners, employees, tech enthusiasts, and anyone else with a stake in the future of business.
ROBB WILSON is the founder, lead designer, and chief technologist behind OneReach.ai, the highest-scoring company in Gartner’s first Critical Capabilities for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms report. Robb has spent over two decades applying his deep understanding of user-centric design to unlocking hyperautomation. He built UX Magazine into the world’s largest experience design publication while creating a full-service UX firm that competed with IDEO and Frog Design. In addition to collecting over 130 awards across the fields of design and technology, Robb has held executive roles at several publicly traded companies.
JOSH TYSON is an author and producer who’s held leadership roles with a variety of organizations, including TEDxMileHigh and UX Magazine. Josh co-hosts N9K, a podcast from the future, and his writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times and Thrasher.
Visit: InvisibleMachines.AI
Preface By Josh Tyson xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction By Robb Wilson xvii
Part I Imagining an Ecosystem of Intelligent Digital Workers 1
1 Hyperautomation Is Already Here 3
Get ready for the implications directly engaging with technology through conversation will bring.
2 What Conversational Artificial Intelligence Is—and Isn’t 15
Automation solutions are part of an ecosystem of technologies working in concert.
3 Competing in the Age of Hyperautomation 25
Hyperautomating means accomplishing more with less while automating new and more sophisticated processes. You have to move fast, you have to take risks, and you have to be ready to fail.
4 The Ethics of Experiential AI 33
“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.”
5 How Hyperautomation Can Change the World 41
Where there are disruptive innovations being sequenced, there are hyperdisruptions.
6 This Journey Has Been Personal 67
The content in this book derives from 2,000,000+ hours of testing with over 30,000,000 people participating across 10,000 conversational applications.
Part II Planning an Ecosystem of Intelligent Digital Workers 71
7 Learning the Terms 75
The journey to an intelligent ecosystem of digital workers will likely be arduous and complex, but it’s also a journey of self-discovery.
8 The Dream vs. Reality 83
The ice-bath reality is that creating an intelligent digital ecosystem requires more than just a few machines thrown at a few different problem areas.
9 Ecosystem Evolution Explained 87
There are four evolutionary phases that an intelligent digital worker can move through as it becomes better at completing tasks.
10 Teams and the Co-Creation Mindset 97
The core enablement team will guide your whole organization as the creators and keepers of your strategy.
11 Preparing Tools and Architecture 109
This is a big undertaking, and you need to make sure you’re equipped with the right tools.
12 Vetting Your Vendors 135
Asking vendors the right questions early on can avoid time wasted exploring inadequate tools and platforms for hyperautomation.
13 Articulating Your Strategy to Others 143
The challenge is getting the decision makers to accept the fact that this requires involvement from—and potentially the restructuring of—every department inside your organization.
Part III Building an Ecosystem of Intelligent Digital Workers 153
14 The Process of Hyperautomating 155
A proper strategy for achieving and maintaining hyperautomation includes everyone in your workforce, leveraging individual areas of expertise.
15 Design Strategy for Hyperautomation 173
Users aren’t comparing their experience with your solution to experiences with other similar technologies—they’re comparing them to conversations with other humans.
16 Production Design for Hyperautomation 191
Production design finds conversational designers creating the experiences people will have conversing with machines.
17 Best Practices in Conversational Design 201
Through building thousands of conversational AI applications over the past decade, I’ve identified nearly 60 best practices for conversational design.
Part IV Conclusion 227
18 Where Do We Go from Here? 229
Notes 235
About The Authors 241
Index 243
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