What can AI do? The Art of the Possible: Interview with Kit Cox, Founder and CTO at Enate

OK, we all know that AI offers immense potential for the world of commerce. But here’s the thing: where do we start in order to harness that potential? Kit Cox of Enate has some answers.

It’s great having you around again, Mr Cox! In our last interview, you mentioned the potential risks associated with generative AI, such as deep fakes and misinformation. What safeguards do you think are necessary for businesses adopting AI to ensure ethical use and mitigate risks?

Thanks for having me back!

Jumping into AI is like navigating a minefield with huge rewards but equally big risks, such as deep fakes and misinformation. It’s crucial for businesses to be picky about where and how they use AI, similar to conducting a risk assessment of ISO271001 security standards. Ask yourself: Is the planned use of AI ethical? What are the reputational and financial risks? And importantly, does it benefit your customers and staff?

Also, with laws constantly evolving, staying updated is key. For instance, the US just banned AI robocalls with deep fake voices, as this threatened the upcoming election. It’s a wake-up call for businesses using any similar tech in their services, for instance in a customer service environment.

Lastly, stick with a machine learning model that’s got street cred, something reputable and off-the-shelf. If you try to cut corners or go off the beaten path without really knowing what you’re doing, you’re opening up a can of worms. Bad data is not just a headache, it’s a fast track to a whole mess of risks.

As a founder of Enate, can you share some key lessons or insights you’ve gained from building a SaaS platform that facilitates operational efficiency through automation and AI?

We find that a lot of businesses think they’re ready for automation and AI but, the truth is they’re often not. You’ve got to have your house in order first. If you don’t know who’s doing what and with what resources, jumping into automation is like putting the cart before the horse. You’ll just end up redoing everything a year later.

Then there’s the real talk about automation. It’s not just about slapping some tech on a process and calling it a day. It’s a whole business shift. We’re talking about fundamentally changing how people work and interact with their jobs. Sure, the tech part is cool, but the real magic happens when you see how it changes the work dynamic for the better, though for some, the idea of it can be a bit daunting.

Finally, building a company like Enate has taught me that you’re only as good as your team. You need folks who aren’t just brilliant but also gel well together. It’s those relationships and that team spirit that really drive a company forward.

So, in a nutshell, get your basics right, understand that automation is a change maker, not just a tech upgrade, and build an extraordinary team that loves working together.

With the evolution of human roles alongside AI, how do you envision the collaboration between human workers and AI evolving, and what steps can companies take to facilitate a smooth transition and collaboration between the two?

AI is set to become the ultimate co-pilot, taking over tedious tasks and freeing humans up for work that adds real value – tasks like enhancing customer engagement. To make this transition smooth, companies should engage those excited about AI, providing a framework but avoiding unnecessary micromanagement. It’s crucial not to rush everyone at the same pace; some will embrace AI quickly, while it’s only natural that others will take a while to warm up to its benefits.

Understanding “the art of the possible” with AI is vital, but it’s changing literally weekly at the moment. Companies should bring in experts to demystify AI’s potential, making the magic of technology accessible to all. Knowledge plays a key role in this transition; it can either empower or intimidate. By educating and inspiring employees about AI, companies can ease fears and foster a collaborative future where humans and AI work together seamlessly, enhancing productivity and creativity.

As businesses explore AI integration, what role do you think the collaboration between industry leaders and AI developers plays in driving impactful innovations for operational enhancement?

Most industry leaders have little understanding of “the art of the possible” and most AI developers have little understanding about what businesses need. This is where intermediaries such as Enate play a key role. We’re not direct AI developers; instead, we serve as the essential link, enabling collaboration between industry leaders, who often lack insight into AI’s potential, and AI developers, who may not fully understand business challenges.

The key to driving impactful innovations lies in this collaboration, facilitated by intermediaries. Unlike big consultancies or global systems integrators (GSIs) that may not provide the necessary freedom for exploration, entities like Enate offer a platform for truly innovative solutions. By demonstrating how generative AI can solve real business problems, we not only bridge the knowledge gap but also foster operational enhancements that are both meaningful and practical. This collaborative approach ensures that AI integration is not just about technological advancement but about creating tangible value for businesses.

What simple yet impactful steps can businesses take to make their AI implementations more transparent and understandable to employees?

To make AI implementations more transparent and understandable, businesses should empower their employees to take the lead on these projects. The key is to move beyond seeing AI as simply a to-do list for the IT department. When off-the- shelf AI models are made accessible to business users, they can directly apply these tools to their work areas, enabling a deeper understanding and ownership of the technology.

For instance, at our company, we’ve embraced this approach by purchasing and deploying an AI testing platform that our testing team (not the IT department!) has configured and installed. This hands-on involvement demystifies AI, allowing employees to see firsthand how it can be tailored to meet their specific needs and challenges. By enabling those who are directly impacted by AI to lead its operationalisation, businesses can create a more inclusive, transparent environment that encourages everyone to engage with and understand AI technologies.

How do you believe that businesses can effectively integrate AI innovations to streamline operations and remove manual work, fostering increased productivity?

Orchestration is the backbone of any automation endeavour. You need to start with an end-to-end workflow tool such as Enate, which will enable you to stand back and view your entire service line from start to finish, get the right task to the right worker at the right moment, and enable you to identify bottlenecks and make impactful changes.

The main steps involved in any service delivery life cycle can be distilled into three main steps: 1. understanding the request (what is the customer asking?); 2. gathering the necessary data (get the data to do it); and 3. executing on the task (go and do it). The first two steps must be meticulously completed to ensure that the third step is executed effectively. Implementing a robust orchestration tool facilitates this process, ensuring that AI and automation technologies can be implemented and leveraged to their fullest potential to boost efficiency across the board.

What quick wins can businesses achieve by leveraging AI in their day-to-day processes?

AI is essentially a productivity super-boost. It enables people to do fewer of the mundane, repeatable tasks and focus their attention on the more challenging and rewarding aspects of work, such as customer success. For instance, with Enateʼs AI capabilities, businesses can automatically categorise emails, check the sentiment of communications, intelligently extract data from a range of documents, and automate queries. The time saving is massive.

For example, in email classification environments alone, using AI saves 30 hours per 1,000 emails. For a mid-sized operation, that’s a huge saving over the course of a year.

On a personal note, how would you define success?

Feeling happy. I don’t view success as a specific number or end point. It’s much more personal and immediate than that. I define success by satisfaction – mine and that of the people around me. If I’m happy and I can see that my actions or achievements bring happiness to others, then I consider that a success. On the flip side, if the people and team around me are not experiencing satisfaction, then it signals to me that there’s still work to be done.

Executive Profile

Kit Cox is Enate’s Founder and CTO. Kit has been obsessed with technology from a young age, he began coding at the age of 10 and is an engineer by trade. Kit built Enate’s workflow orchestration and AI platform to help businesses run operations smoothly, automate manual tasks and deliver SLAs on time. Today, global businesses such as TMF and EY rely on Enate to work efficiently and seamlessly.

About Enate

Enate is an end-to-end orchestration platform designed to help businesses run operations smoothly and produce consistent work on time, view, manage, and track the flow of all work, identify automation opportunities, assign tasks to the right resource, and become more efficient.

EnateAI, powered by GPT-4, is the latest product release from Enate. It’s integrated into the platform and offers five exciting features to help businesses leverage AI in operations, including: categorise – automatically categorise emails to create the right ticket category; data extraction – extract data from your emails and auto-populate forms; sentiment analysis – identify the emotional tone of communications from your clients; thank you analysis – know whether incoming “thank you” emails need action; foreign language fluency – understand and process foreign-language emails.