Digitalization in my field of expertise
Although digitalization and AI is not a new thing I think we are now entering interesting phase where the masses, the more traditional companies are starting to think what they can do in this area and how to benefit from AI. I am interested to see and hear about all the new innovations that are popping up all the time but as majority of them is beyond the reach for most of us, it is more interesting to see what can be done with more simpler and more available solutions such as Chat GPT, robotics, machine vision etc. I am not worried about people losing their jobs because of digitalization but more interested to see how jobs and employee demands are going to change because of it.
I work in logistics field and my job is tightly linked to especially logistics purchase invoice handling and development of different logistics systems. I have worked in the same company for 10 years and it is clear how much things have changed in that time.
6 years ago we started to use RPA in invoice processing and a year later we tried to implement machine learning into the process but this was not a successful try. We tested it for months but never received good enough results so we had to drop it. Those RPA processes that we implemented are still in use today as well as electronic invoicing in couple different formats to make sure automation in invoice processing is continuous. Covid pandemic in 2020 fastened the development rapidly as employees weren’t able to sit in an office and do things as they have always been done. In just a short period of time we transformed into a completely paper-free office and increased automation by a significant amount. Despite the fact that there was nothing good in the pandemic itself I have to be glad about the fact that it forced many companies to start operating more in a digitalized way. In the past 4 years my main responsibility has been in system development which of course is in itself already a form of digitalization as we are doing everything in an IT systems that have been linked to each other so that messages are flowing fluently between different systems without any need for manual actions. This is the field that I will also be focusing on during the future years and this is the place where AI and digitalization is highly welcomed in a more bigger way than now. We have tried to automate for example system testing but so far that is not taken into use as there are too many things where human consideration and validation is still needed. Maybe at some point AI is sophisticated enough to be able to make same kind of thinking processes as humans do and we can rely on AI doing this for us. Right now the risk of AI making wrong decisions is too high as the result could be un-functioning (or wrongly functioning) logistics system.
Next year we are starting to use process mining to streamline our processes and find out what parts of the processes are not working as well as they should. I am not sure what the future holds for us in the digitalization area but I am willing to find out and luckily we have some motivated people in our organization to take this challenge on with me. What is sure, is that we will be taking next steps towards more digitalized company and I am hoping to get AI actively working with us – in a coordinated way of course.
Open digital society
Open digital society comes with some significant risks that we all should be even more familiar with, as an example the risk of privacy challenges and cybersecurity threats. It will be harder for users to know what is true and what is fake when it is much more easier to create misinformation online. Algorithms may cause polarization or even manipulate the public opinion into a desired direction without users even realizing what is happening. Illegal behaviour may increase as plagiarism and piracy is easier than before and also bad behaviour in total may increase as on-line toxic behaviour (bullying, trolling, harassment) is made more easier when you can do it behind the screen without even seeing the person you are being toxic towards. Biases may increase as well as people mostly interact with same-minded persons on-line rather that interact with persons who don’t see eye to eye with you. Digitalization will most likely lead to a loss of traditional manual work, as some jobs will be made obsolete by machines. Definitely environmental challenges cannot be excluded either as more and more servers are needed to keep up the increased power amount which requires a lot of energy grids.
GDPR definitely changed a lot in many fields as well as in our personal lives. However in my line of work it had really minor effect on anything. Only point where I am seeing the effect of GDPR in my work is the fact that we are now required to delete all employee information from our logistics system quite soon after employment ends. Especially after summer it is sometimes a struggle to find out who should check the tasks done by summer workers when we cannot anymore see who that summer worker has been and therefore we do not know who has taken over his/her tasks after summer. At the same time I personally highly appreciate my data to be protected especially as a customer in many companies so this struggle after summer periods is not a big thing when we look at the whole picture of GDPR and why it exists. One might question if employee information is so significant that it cannot be stored for longer as we are only talking about a name and email address but I think it is better to have a bit more strict rules that too loose ones. If I would look at the whole company GDPR would be more visible in many places (for example how we store customer information) but this is not visible to me as my job is focused on a relatively small part of all the things happening in our company.
Chat GPT
I personally think AI in the form of Chat GPT, Copilot etc. is a great tool but one should never blindly trust the outcome. User should always validate the outcome as the answer may not be correct at all or it may only focus on one side of the topic and regard other sides there is to it. The risks of open digital society apply to Chat GPT too.
My first question to Chat GPT was: “What is the best transportation mode for logistics deliveries and why” Chat GPT was wise enough to comment that this “depends on various factors, including the type of goods, distance, cost, urgency, and environmental impact. Each transport mode has its advantages and limitations, and the best choice often involves a combination of modes (multimodal transport)” After this Chat GPT listed benefits and limitations of different transport modes and what each one of them is best for. Throughout the whole answer all of the key factors (type of goods, distance, cost, urgency and environmental impact) were included so different transport modes were easy to be compared against each other. In my opinion this was an excellent text book answer and probably something very similar already exists in most of the logistics study books. At the moment there are several struggles in logistics deliveries happening around the world (piracy in the red sea, wars, congestions in ports etc.) which were not visible in the answer. As Chat GPT is an AI technology based solution it would have been really nice to see an answer that would reflect the ongoing situation in the world and not just the text book answer that is not taking any real life struggles into consideration. Maybe my question should have been more specific or it would have required some follow-up questions to see if at any point these would have been thought of.
My second question was: “how to increase invoice automation if electronical invoicing is not enough?”. I was positively surprised to see how much of different solutions Chat GPT offered. For example using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Technology, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), AI-Powered Invoice Processing, Cloud-Based Invoice Management Platforms etc. Also some suggestions how to get the most out of existing systems by implementing invoicing systems to them and surprisingly suggestions how to train and educate users for the new solutions and methods. I think that this is most likely the best possible answer as my question was a bit vague. If I would have asked a more specific question I might have expected a more specific answer. As I did not tell a field where I am working, or if I’m talking about purchase invoices or sales invoices or gave any clues on what systems we are working with, this is the best possibility there is to answer such question.
Third question was inspired by this course and the videos I looked at: “How to get employees more interested in AI opportunities in work?” The short answer was: “requires creating awareness, addressing misconceptions, demonstrating value, and fostering a supportive learning environment.” Basically this means that employees will have to be educated and trained to use AI systems, they will have to understand what is possible with it (real life examples) and they have to be given a change to experiment the AI world with actual AI tools. Motivating with incentives is always good way to achieve something so tying the learning process to career growth may be a solution to “force” even the last sceptics to give it a try and even better if there is an incentive in place to motivate more. In general AI should be a visible part in organizations future goals and even the smaller victories with AI should be celebrated and shared with others. Our company is now in a state where AI is being pushed for everyone to use and still majority of our employees have not tested it even once and I wanted to see if the answer would give me any bright ideas how to increase AI usage in our company. I did get couple of ideas that we have not used yet, so definitely was worth to ask this question.
Self-evaluation
I enjoyed the videos in this section a lot! I even thought that it is a shame that I am working in such a traditional company (and traditional field) that I cannot be a part of the front line getting to know and use all new products and ideas that are being born all the time. Still I am eager to see what we can achieve with AI in future years. Personally I want to learn more on different possibilities that AI offers as it is more than just a Chat GPT. Not to diminish Chat GPT as it is a great tool in some places but it is not all there is to AI even though it is the thing everyone is now talking about. I look forward to the next section of this course.
First post I commented on was Kati’s article as I was especially interested on how GPDR affected health care sector in personal data of patients as in my own field of expertise GDPR did not have very big impact.
Second post I commented on was Karoliina’s article where I was really interested on her experiences with Chat GPT.
It’s fascinating to read about your journey in leveraging digitalization and automation in logistics! Your experience highlights how transformative technologies like RPA and electronic invoicing can be when implemented thoughtfully. I completely agree that the pandemic, while challenging, acted as a catalyst for necessary digital shifts, and it’s inspiring to see how your team embraced this change. The use of process mining sounds like an exciting next step to identify bottlenecks and optimize operations. While AI still has its limitations in areas requiring nuanced human judgment, it’s promising to see how motivated you and your colleagues are to explore its potential. It’s clear that you’re building a solid foundation for even greater advancements, and I’m excited to see where your digitalization journey takes you next!
Hello Heidi,
I browsed through the blogs and your writings stopped me (in a good way).
I really like how you open you work in the logistics that is not unknown to me. Very nice glimpse behind the curtain how digitalization plays the role in the business. I could surely feel your challenges during the pandemia. I do also agree about the findings and conclusions regarding AI.
All the best!