The digital transformation boom of the early 2010’s gave way to use of AI and automation, speeding up and streamlining processes for businesses. When digital transformation really started to take hold in the enterprise, these solutions helped create value in the short-term. However, as time rolled on, these systems – often one-off point solutions – created a network of disconnected tools and information.
It became clear that an abundance of one-use solutions was creating a logjam of applications and systems and fragmenting data. Today, businesses must consider the ways in which they can use AI to achieve business goals, connect data, and empower employees to unlock their own problem-solving ingenuity.
Between generative AI like ChatGPT becoming wildly popular among businesses and consumers, and the rapid pace of digital transformation today, AI is at the forefront of business leaders’ minds. Deploying AI in the enterprise must be done with a careful hand, considering every element of where it’s going to help reach end goals.
We covered these topics and more in our recent webinar, Unleash Your Productivity: Building with AI in the Modern Workplace, with Senior Product Manager Harlean Stevenson and Product Marketing Manager Brian Cafferelli. Here’s some of the key takeaways for businesses looking to boost productivity with Quickbase AI in the workplace.
Gray Work and Fragmentation
AI is a transformational technology that can reap huge benefits for businesses. Whether organizations dive in headfirst or take a more prescriptive approach, the end goal must be boosting productivity.
If data and systems are siloed and hard to access, it can have enormous impacts on workplace productivity. A recent survey from Quickbase found that 70% of workers lose 20 hours a week in productivity due to navigating fragmented systems.
Beyond just point solutions, slow, manual systems like spreadsheets or handwritten notes drag down efficiencies across the business. We define these manual ways of getting work done as Gray Work, which can cause frustration, financial impacts, missed deadlines, and dissatisfaction from customers.
Gray Work costs businesses billions of dollars in lost productivity per year, and enterprises simply can’t run on spreadsheets and point solutions. The way work gets done now has shifted away from linear solutions in favor of a new, dynamic, workflow-based way of doing things. Business leaders can’t afford to spend months sourcing new solutions and tools to help accomplish their goals, and instead must consider developing their own. Organizations need to identify a potential area for improvement and be able to iterate on a solution within days or weeks. AI app building is enabling this.
Using AI to Create Problem-Solvers
The new way of doing work is dynamic. It’s based on leveraging workflows to easily see, connect, and control the most complex projects, and deliver tangible business results. Quickbase’s Dynamic Work Management (DWM) platform gives organizations the tools they need to build and improve upon apps, protect sensitive data and solve tough strategic challenges.
A lot of conversation today is around AI, and how users can leverage it for their own benefit. With DWM, the user is at the center of the AI conversation. The user is the change agent, not the tool itself. DWM leverages no-code technology to enable those closest to frontline business challenges to have a say in the solutions.
The AI capabilities within Quickbase’s DWM platform allow for users to build custom apps with simple drag-and-drop capabilities. This enables business leaders to unleash the potential workers to become problem-solvers and breaks the logjam of IT tickets. Typically, when a business needs a new app, they would have to submit a request to IT, who would review it, consider what they can do with the tools they have, and build it only as quickly as time permits.
With better tools driving the change, those who are most passionate about projects and solving challenges can now make those changes themselves.
Continuous Improvement
AI application building also allows for continuous improvement. When it comes to building tools, nobody gets it right on the first try. It’s crucial that post-deployment, users can iterate, experiment on ways to use it more effectively, and weave in feedback from other users. AI-powered, personalized recommendations can help users and builders find ways to further refine the app.
Data Governance
The automated functionality of AI app building with Quickbase also ensures that all sensitive data is protected. Quickbase apps are built with IT guardrails and data privacy compliance already baked in. This gives both IT and business leaders peace of mind that the applications fall well within regulations, avoiding compliance issues. Quickbase also offers granular, user-level permissions so that only the appropriate users have access to certain sensitive information.
Real-Time View of Data
Quickbase AI is also providing businesses the ability to solve strategic challenges within business operations. The DWM platform unites data and process into a single view, giving decision-makers real-time access to where the business stands. Personalized data dashboards also offer a simple way to track KPIs, and AI-powered predictive analytics help address KPIs that are lagging behind.
The enterprise use cases of AI are still emerging, but its business impact cannot be ignored – it’s here to stay. Building apps and tools to solve business challenges on the fly should be table stakes for any business leader. With app building through Quickbase AI, you unleash and accelerate your employees’ productivity, slash Gray Work, and create a seismic shift in the way problems are solved.
Q&A from Webinar
Are there any app size limitations?
With Quickbase, there are no specific app size limitations. We allow you to build out, rather than up, including operational data that you can adjust or scale any time.
How does this model protect the data and guarantee no data leaks?
When we think about the AI models Quickbase has, all data sent to the app is housed within Quickbase’s leading data privacy models. The data is siloed only to Quickbase and the guardrails put in by IT.
Where is the data coming from that needs to be analyzed?
AI Data Analyzer scans all of your data that already exists within Quickbase. It surveys the different users and the steps on the journey, which becomes really valuable as time goes on. When you run the Data Analyzer, you point it to an existing Quickbase app and it will analyze those records.
Is AI builder live in Quickbase now?
Yes, all Quickbase plans currently can use AI builder. Data Analyzer is available for Business and Enterprise plans, and Data Scanner is available for enterprise plans as well.
