Can an AI co-worker really make work and life easier?

livemint.com:

Getting Things Done: The Art Of Stress-Free Productivity, productivity consultant David Allen emphasised the importance of workflow, saying its purpose is not to let the brain become lax but rather enable it to move toward more efficient and productive activity. The term “workflow automation" was coined in the 1920s by mechanical engineers and management consultants Frederick Taylor and Henry Grant, who tracked and depicted work processes graphically seeking to improve efficiency.

Half a century later, digital automation entered the scene, when German company SAP developed the first manufacturing resource planning software that standardised business practices through prebuilt processes. Today, every department relies on effective workflows, from customer interactions and marketing campaigns to financial management and human resources.

Traditional workflow management systems, however, face challenges in keeping pace with the dynamic requirements of modern businesses that have evolved into a complex web of interconnected activities and processes, all demanding efficiency and accuracy. These traditional systems tend to have a rigid structure that relies mainly on manual processes, making them prone to human errors and bottlenecks.

Therefore, it’s necessary for enterprises to prioritise ensuring their workflow automation is not siloed but cohesive. This means that every part of the process should work in harmony with others, ensuring end-to-end process automation.

The intricacies of enterprise operations and the imperative for intelligent automation have spurred the emergence of AI (artificial intelligence) assistants or AI co-workers. Unlike traditional RPA (robotic process automation)-based chatbots confined to predefined