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I would like to take a moment to explore how AI, which we now hear about constantly, could be used in our everyday business operations.

Lately, I have been seeing the term AI agents a lot at events hosted by SAP and other companies.
Despite the growing popularity of the term, many people may still wonder how AI can actually be used in their daily work. I certainly did. That is why, starting in the latter half of last year, I attended several AI seminars and events, and I am finally beginning to form a clearer picture of how it might be applied.

 

Let’s take common, everyday tasks in the wholesale business as an example:

1. Receiving an order e-mail from a customer.
2. Checking the inventory of the requested products.
3. In case of insufficient inventory, confirming the delivery date with the supplier.
4. Based on the delivery date provided by the supplier, confirming the shipping date with the customer.
5. Receiving the customer’s approval and creating the sales order.
6. Placing a purchase order for the supplier.

In the seminar I recently attended that showcased AI in action, steps 5 and 6 were handled by AI, requiring human approval only for final decisions, while all other steps were fully automated by AI, including decision making.

Naturally, enabling AI to perform these types of tasks requires a significant amount of configuration, and it is still difficult to say how much capital investment in IT would be needed to be able to automate processes to this extent. Nonetheless, the demo offered a very clear and relatable example of how AI could be integrated into everyday business processes.

 

This example illustrates automation using AI envisioned in Industry 4.0, initiated by the German government over a decade ago. While Industry 4.0 focused mainly on the manufacturing sector, Society 5.0, proposed by the Japanese government, expanded this concept to encompass the whole society.
I also believe that the use of AI will have a wide range of applications across society, surpassing the example mentioned above.

 

Lastly, whenever I see an AI demo where a user and an AI are having a conversation, it reminds me of a particular movie scene.
In an 1980s “Star Trek” movie Chief Engineer Scotty has traveled through time, from the future to what was then the “present day” of the 1980s. He tries to use a Macintosh computer by speaking to it, saying, “Computer?” After an awkward silence, an engineer from that time hands him a mouse and a keyboard. Scotty then lifts the keyboard and tries to speak into it like it is a microphone.
It is a wonderfully heartwarming moment.

 

Back then, voice input was seen as a technology of the future. Nearly forty years have passed since then, and voice input has become commonplace. Yet, whenever I see voice input in action, I can’t help but remember that movie scene I watched all those years ago, and it still brings a smile to my face.