Seeing problems through the "eyes" of AI
The practice of good management means, among other things, refining mechanisms and implementing changes that may seem easy, but that do not always happen naturally in an organization.
One of them is to give people more and more means – and to encourage them in this direction – to see problems with their own eyes. And, with that, to truly understand why and how errors and imperfections happen. In this way, they increase their real ability to develop effective solutions that eliminate deviations for good.
Sometimes, in practice, doing this is much harder than it seems. Because “seeing with your own eyes” – one of the essences of lean management – requires time and energy, resources that are scarce in increasingly digital times. We are not always able to be physically present where problems happen.
However, new technologies show enormous potential to make this not only more feasible, but also more effective. For example, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, once developed from this perspective, can become our “eyes and ears” in the face of remote realities.
An example of this is a very interesting initiative that recently brought together digital transformation, AI, and health management. In São Paulo, a renowned hospital developed, in partnership with technology companies, an AI that can monitor patients who have recently undergone surgery after they are discharged from the hospital.
Through the patient's cell phone, once they are already at home, the AI, fed by the hospital's database, actively interacts with the person, helping them make important decisions regarding their care. For example, whether or not they need to return to the hospital, as well as promptly alerting the medical team to any complications.
In a pilot project, the initiative showed excellent results, reducing post-surgical complications by 67%. And it generated a satisfaction level of 94% among users, as reported in an interesting article here in Época Negócios.
This example gives us an idea of how we can be very close to customers, even while being physically distant. It is a type of real-time follow-up that every good manager would certainly like to have, if they could. It is linked to what we call going to the “gemba”, a Japanese expression meaning the “actual place”, where the work that truly creates value for the customer is being carried out – and where the real problems also happen.
This mindset and attitude of going to the “gemba” starts from the premise that making decisions far from where problems occur generally leads us to mistaken countermeasures and solutions. For example, companies with a more traditional management approach, in which leaders “cloistered” in their respective offices decide on and promote actions based only on “cold” reports, without going there to see what is actually happening. Unfortunately, this is still very common and generally does not work.
As in the case cited, AI can drastically change this perspective. If well developed, it can support management in unprecedented ways. It has the potential to compile information and interpret facts and data in a way never before seen in the organizational world. It makes it possible to vastly improve the quality of management decisions and interventions, enhancing “limited” human capabilities.
Our brain will continue to be fundamental. However, there are already examples that make us imagine a world in which small and large problems can be anticipated, perceived, analyzed, and solved with less and less human effort.
