This blog was authored by: Nick Vradis | 25 November 2024

Autumn is a magical time for reflection, and as I strolled through the wet Brighton city streets, I thought about all the different businesses I have spoken to who are grappling with operational inefficiencies. Over a cup of coffee, I pondered how I’d recently got off a call with a guy who had just had the ominous “AI” badge stuck to their job description, “We need to use AI, now John.” He mentioned how introducing “AI” into business operations seemed daunting. He was eager to leverage technology to streamline processes and make data-driven decisions, but didn’t know where to start.

As a Pre-sales consultant, I’ve witnessed first-hand the transformative power of integrating AI through Microsoft Power Platform. Today, I want to break down the approach I suggested to him—a clear, actionable framework to harness AI capabilities using tools like Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and the new, powerful, AI Builder.

Let’s dive into this framework to supercharge your business operations:

Step 1: Identify the Operational Bottlenecks

Start by assessing your current business operations to pinpoint inefficiencies. This will help you filter out some of the noise and provide a focus. Are there repetitive tasks that consume your team’s time? Look for processes that suffer from delayed decision-making due to lack of data insights.

Think process improvement with helpful digital tools, not plastering AI all over the place without a clear problem that needs fixing – otherwise this all becomes a big distraction, something I think we can all relate to. How do we differentiate between improvement and distraction, business metrics, and asking if this is an improvement that will impact a clear business metric?

Example: My friend realised that his team spent excessive time manually entering data from different systems, leading to errors and delays. This is obviously a clear process issue – a problem in the business that needs fixing and can be fixed.

Step 2: Leverage AI Builder for Automation

AI Builder in Microsoft Power Platform offers pre-built AI models that can automate these repetitive tasks without requiring deep technical expertise. From form processing to prediction models, it’s a powerful ally.

Example: Use AI Builder to create a model that extracts data from emails and automatically uploads it to your CRM system.

Step 3: Optimise with Microsoft Power Automate

Use prebuilt AI models with Power Automate to streamline workflows. Automate notifications, data transfers, and task assignments to free up your team’s time for more strategic initiatives.

Example: Set up a Power Automate flow that triggers when a customer inquiry email arrives, uses AI to extract key data points, and updates relevant systems while notifying the sales team.

You can do this now; Office 365 lets you build your own power automate flows and Power BI reports.

Step 4: Gain Insights with Power BI

Hopefully, after implementing the changes that steps 1-3 refers to has had impact, and reporting should now be much more straightforward. Power BI is your tool to turn numbers into actionable insights.

Example: Create a Power BI dashboard that visualises sales data trends, customer feedback, and operational efficiency metrics, enabling data-driven strategy adjustments.

Step 5: Empower Your Team with Power Apps

Now, without any grand AI roadmap we have come a long way and used the technology to help us improve the business. As we start to embrace the process improvement cycle we can look to build some simple applications with Power Apps and use simple apps to bridge process gaps and get real time updates. Whether it’s a mobile app for people working on-site, or a portal for customer interactions, this can be a straightforward approach with no coding required.

Step 6: Foster a Culture of Innovation

The key to all of this AI “stuff” is taking both the team and the organisation on a journey. Getting the people who have shown keenness for change to become champions and evangelists for the new way of doing things.

Empower them to identify new opportunities for improvement and bring their ideas to life using these readily available and simple to use tools.

Why This Approach Works: This framework is effective because it starts with identifying tangible business problems and applies proven technology solutions to solve them. By combining AI capabilities with the flexibility of the Power Platform, businesses can streamline operations, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge – all while fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.

Getting Started: The beauty of this approach is its scalability. You don’t need a massive upfront investment or highly specialised skills to begin. Start by identifying a single bottleneck, apply AI Builder and Power Platform tools, and scale from there as you see results.

Stick with this plan, and you’ll likely be surprised at the operational efficiencies you can achieve. The key is not just adopting new technologies, but integrating them in a way that aligns with your unique business goals.

That’s all for now.

Go on, harness the potential of AI with the Power Platform, and transform your business operations for a brighter future.

P.S. If you’re interested in diving deeper into how AI can revolutionise your business, stay tuned for our upcoming webinars where we’ll explore real-world applications and success stories.