The automation market has been thriving in the wake of COVID-19. Experts have suggested that businesses embrace artificial intelligence and automation for years, and the pandemic gave the world a concrete reason why. 

“Companies that invested ahead of time in automation technology … flourished,” said Ed Lynch (pictured), vice president of IBM Business Automation. “Companies that didn’t, they’re not flourishing. So what we’re seeing now is skyrocketing demand … on the supply side, we’re seeing competition, more competition in the automation space.”

Lynch spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during IBM Think. They discussed how businesses are transforming through AI and automation after COVID and how that transition should take place. (* Disclosure below.)

Starting small and with data

AI and automation’s potential is vast, but this can tempt businesses to dream big without thinking of the first steps. Even the Mayflower, an autonomous ship IBM is helping program, starts with many small considerations, like sensors and relevant data, according to Lynch. If businesses want massive, impressive results, they need to build to it slowly.

“My advice is start small,” Lynch said. “You have to decide which piece to focus on, and then you have to act, and then act leads to optimization … so start small, and start with the data.”

Even a project as large as the Mayflower started as finding solutions to a problem, namely, how to navigate a ship safely into a harbor. Effective AI and automation implementation starts with finding an issue, solving it, then expanding these investments to fix adjacent problems. To help businesses in this process, IBM recently acquired myInvenio, a process mining company.

“[Process mining] allows you to identify weaknesses you have in your workflows,” Lynch explained. “This tool gives us an excellent addition to our automation portfolio, which allows clients to understand where the weaknesses are and then we can apply specific automation to fix those weaknesses.”

Once businesses know where they need to improve, they can start applying AI and automation. As they use these tools to address more problems, they’ll slowly build the hyper-automated workflows that they desire, Lynch concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Think. (*Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE