The AI Digital Workforce: Faster ROI Than Personal AI

• System-to-system AI beats personal AI on ROI, speed, and risk reduction.

• No new vendors, no infrastructure—just integrate with tools you already use (like Microsoft or Google).

• Avoid the AI hype trap—real value comes from seamless automation, not chatty assistants.

Today, much of the AI chatter centres around the initial wave of generative AI capabilities—what I call personal AI. These include the AI assistants, chat products, and copilots we're all becoming familiar with.

But do these general productivity tools offer the biggest or the fastest return on investment (ROI)? Is this really where our attention should focus if we want the maximum impact from our investment of time and resources?

Well, no, actually.

Now, I'm not suggesting we slow our adoption of AI chat products and copilots. As an early adopter, I can attest to the massive productivity gains achievable by integrating these tools into our daily workflows. We should absolutely continue with this adoption to ensure we're not made personally irrelevant by the end of 2025.

However, human-centric AI tools like these won't offer the largest or fastest return on investment.

Effective implementation and adoption of chat and copilots inevitably take time. It takes considerable effort to develop information security policies, implement controls, conduct training, and provide ongoing support so that staff genuinely gain value from these tools. The reputational risks are significant because it's challenging to predict how staff might use these tools or establish sufficient guardrails around human interactions. The impact of inadvertent misuse could be disastrous, making careful planning essential.

Consider a health organisation, for example. Getting all carers to use a copilot to summarise case notes requires widespread training. Some staff will embrace this technology, while others will feel overwhelmed. Furthermore, manually transferring information back and forth from personal AI products dilutes the potential business benefits. Internal teams must also invest significant time assessing risks and approving case note sharing through the copilot.

From personal experience, it's significantly faster and more effective to integrate AI directly into our existing systems.

This system-to-system integration is being termed the "digital workforce" because it creates AI agents that operate seamlessly within existing systems, effectively becoming extensions of your team.

Returning to our care example, imagine integrating a systemic version of a copilot directly into your care management system. This approach ensures a summary of past case notes is automatically available to the appropriate carer, within a familiar interface, removing manual tasks entirely.

This approach is superior for several strategic reasons:

• Greater ROI: The solution is accessible through familiar user interfaces and fully automated, eliminating manual tasks such as copy-pasting required by personal copilots.

• Faster ROI: Immediate start-up is possible because no vendor selection is required. Your existing email provider (usually Microsoft or Google) already offers AI services tailored for system-to-system integrations, alongside human-centric copilots. These services are consumption-based with no upfront commitment and require no new infrastructure.

• Reduced Vendor Security Concerns: There's no need for additional vendor vetting. Your major providers (e.g., Microsoft or Google) already securely manage your sensitive data such as emails, attachments, and cloud-based files stored in OneDrive or Google Drive.

• Minimal System-Centric Security Risk: Integrating AI into existing systems allows complete control over data provided to AI services, avoiding unrestricted data access.

• No New User Security Concerns: Security remains managed within existing systems, eliminating additional complexity or risk from new integrations.

Implementing AI services system-to-system (your "digital workforce") isn't about buying or building new infrastructure—it's simply integration. Consequently, these projects are lightweight, cost-effective, and fast. I've yet to encounter a use case taking longer than a couple of months—most can be completed within a single month.

However, be cautious of the "application vendor AI trap." I'm specifically recommending integration with your established email and drive vendors rather than relying on vendors of individual applications like your CRM or accounting systems. I'll explore this further in another article.

When you're ready, here's how I can help:

Andrew Walker
Consulting to for-purpose CEOs to deliver more impact with existing teams and systems - by freeing humans up from admin.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-walker-the-impatient-futurist/

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