Podcast: Robotics is just one tool in the intelligence toolbox

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Katie Sadler
Katie Sadler
01/23/2018

“What works today might not work in the future and you have to accept that,” says Swiss Re’s Cyndi Creamer

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Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash

Over the course of her two-decades-long career with Swiss Re, learning from the perspective of nine different roles has propelled Cyndi Creamer to the top of her career.  “You learn something different wherever you are and if you put it all together you’ll be successful,” she says.

This week on the AI Network Podcast, Creamer joins host Seth Adler to discuss working within business transformation on the Swiss Re robotics team.

Business transformation should be approached with a broad focus, despite the hype surrounding robotics alone, says Creamer. “You have a whole toolbox and robotics is just one of those tools.”

Creamer also warns of the risk of applying robotics where they’re not necessarily required. “If you’ve put your system together by piecemeal for years and then all of a sudden realize there are lots of gaps, do you want to keep filling in those gaps with robotics? Or do you relook at your platform? Perhaps you don’t need RPA right now but need something else,” she says.

“You need a process to be repetitive, rules based and have structured data” in order to warrant automation, Creamer adds. Processes require granularity. This is often overlooked by managers who “underestimate the maturity of a process,” she says.

“If I can’t automate via a robot, you can’t automate it via a system, such as cognitive learning. If the data’s missing, the attributes are not there.”

Tune in to hear why convincing mid-level stakeholders is a stumbling block in process transformation, how to ensure a pilot is successful and self-fulfilling, and why continual learning is critical.

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