With new software and AI tools appearing all the time, though, it’s hard to know where to put your money or which change will make the biggest difference.

Our survey says...

We asked 1,375 people working in UK organisations which business outcome would be most valuable if it were improved through better software or AI. Productivity came top, although fewer than one in five people picked it:

• Increasing productivity: 19.8%
• Increasing automation: 17%
• Reducing operational costs: 15.8%
• Faster decision-making: 14.5%
• Improving customer experience: 12.9%
• Enabling business growth: 12.3%

There’s less than eight percentage points between first and last place, so businesses clearly don’t all want the same thing from technology, and what matters most probably depends on where the pressure is at the moment. The outcomes are linked too. If people can get hold of reliable information they make decisions faster, smoother processes make life easier for employees and customers, and cutting down on admin gives people more time for the work that needs their experience. You tend to get the most out of technology when your systems, data and processes work together, rather than when you speed up one task at a time.

Plenty of interest, less commitment

Almost 88% of people said their organisation is either budgeting for or exploring new software or AI over the next 12 months, but only just under 38% have actually allocated budget, and about half are still looking at their options. A lot of businesses, then, want to invest but haven’t yet committed to it.

Software also seems to be doing more of the heavy lifting so far. 89% said it had already helped with operational complexity, against 78.5% for AI, and 56.9% said complexity in their organisation had grown over the past two years. The survey found that investing in AI had brought problems with systems, data, costs and people to light, which makes sense when you think about it, because AI doesn’t create those problems but it does show them up quickly. If your information is hard to find, your systems don’t talk to each other or your processes were already clunky, another tool is unlikely to fix any of that by itself.

Where do you start?

Usually with what you’ve already got. Look at where people are losing time and which improvements would make the biggest difference, because the answer might be using your existing software properly, connecting two systems, automating a manual process or building something bespoke when nothing off the shelf does the job. 

Before your next investment, it helps to ask yourself:

1. Which outcome matters most to us right now: productivity, lower costs, faster decisions, a better customer experience or growth?
2. What’s currently getting in the way, whether that’s systems, data, processes or skills?
3. Will this fit the way our people really work, given that a tool nobody finds easy to use won’t deliver much?

Making it work

At Propel Tech, we work with businesses to modernise existing applications, connect systems and build bespoke software around the way they need to work. If you’re thinking about your next step, please get in touch and we can help you work out where to begin.

Good technology should make things simpler and help people do their jobs better, so the question isn’t simply what technology comes next, but what you want it to make possible.