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Machine learning is beginning to transform the way businesses organize their operations and benefit from technology investments.

To learn more about how far along organizations are in deploying intelligent automation and in developing plans and strategies for its adoption, the IBM Institute for Business Value, in collaboration with Oxford Economics surveyed and interviewed 550 technology and operations executives.

The primary purpose of intelligent automation is to augment employees’ skills, experience and expertise, extending the human mind in ways that allow for higher productivity, creative problem-solving and more engaging jobs for employees.

Automation is not a plug-and-play solution: companies cannot just buy the technology, flip the switch and watch robots run the business without any human intervention.

This recent survey of operations executive with specific knowledge of their companies plans provides insights into best practice. Executives believe that layering new technologies on top of old business processes is apt to be less productive ? and less cost-effective ? than rethinking processes to make the most of intelligent automation. Executives must optimize workflows for automation; this means envisioning the end result, enabling it through logical steps and prototyping the process ? then repairing as necessary before scaling.

IBM research sought to identify the characteristics and strategies of the world’s most prosperous digital companies. The goal was to learn, “What is the secret to successfully leveraging platforms, AI and other digital technologies in today’s digital race? What strategies and operating models are winning?”

The IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) conducted a comprehensive worldwide study of 1,500 mostly C-level executives to learn about their investments, leading practices and cultures.

The capabilities that differentiate Leaders from others–learning, speed and ongoing exploration–enable their strategies. Leaders are passionate about developing customer experience-based connections, integrating workflows with artificial intelligence (AI) and automated technologies and personalizing their brands and employee experiences.

The six top strategies Leaders employ to perpetuate success are: 10; 10;1.9; Orchestrate digital ecosystems and platforms. 10;2.9; Build trust to build your brand. 10;3.9; Reimagine customer behavior. 10;4.9; Curate data that “thinks” and “acts.” 10;5.9; Create an exponential learning environment. 10;6.9; Foster a culture of inclusion. 10;

The study has significant value because it identifies the strategies of the Leader group and explains the processes and culture changes that empower them. The study also reveals numerous surprises such as the eagerness of the leading companies to step outside the norm and disrupt their markets, and then prepare to do it again..

The aims of this paper is to show how supply chains can become a lot smarter to deal effectively with risk and meet business objectives.

For this Global Chief Supply Chain Officer Study, IBM group leaders interviewed 400 senior executives from North America, Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific region who are responsible for their organizations' supply‐chain strategies and operations.

Findings in five key areas summarize the state of supply‐chain management today: cost containment; visibility, risk; customer intimacy; and globalization.

IBM sees a different kind of supply chain emerging – a smarter supply chain with three core characteristics: Instrumented – supply‐chain data previously created by people will increasingly be generated by sensors, RFID tags, meters, actuators, GPSs, and other devices and systems; Interconnected – smarter supply chains would take advantage of unprecedented levels of interaction that will facilitate collaboration on a massive scale; and Intelligent – to assist executives in evaluating trade‐offs, intelligent systems will assess myriad constraints and alternatives, allowing decision makers to simulate various courses of action.

Smarter supply chains would have the analytic capability to evaluate myriad alternatives in terms of supply, manufacturing, and distribution – and the flexibility to reconfigure flows as conditions change. Executives could then plan for contingencies and execute them.

The author explains how networked interaction, propelled by the internet and the forces of digitalization, ubiquitous connectivity, globalization and social media has become the new locus for creating value. And how that networked interaction is accelerating the shift of value creation towards the experiences of individuals who want to define choices in a manner that reflects their view of value and their own expressions of personalization. 10;

The article explains that every enterprise is now faced with the challenge of learning how to create valuable impacts of experienced outcomes through smarter, connected offerings and the networked interactions of individuals.

Instead of having fixed economic value, offerings are increasingly a means for the dynamic creation of experience value through ongoing and new types of networked interactions.

Rather than simply elevating the user experience of a good or service, the co-created experience itself becomes the product.

The Starbucks and Burberry examples suggest how offerings are being enhanced by interactive technologies that open up new sources and avenues of experience value creation. The article explains how any enterprise can now adopt a strategy of ‘capabilities as a service’ by innovating its own ecosystems of customer and stakeholder experiences.