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By Mark Simmons, Director of Innovation and Technology Services, NHS Shared Business Services |
A year ago, much of the discussion was about what the technology could do. Now, people are asking different questions. Where is it genuinely useful? What problems will it solve? And will it actually make someone’s working day easier?
I think that’s a welcome shift.
We’re seeing it in the wider industry too. The recent Government paper on AI sovereignty, conversations with NHS leaders and the themes being discussed ahead of Oracle AI World all point to something important. Technology alone isn’t enough. Without the right skills, data, governance and a clear understanding of the problem, even the most impressive AI tools will struggle to deliver much value.
It’s something we also saw in the research behind our recent paper, Giving Time Back.
What interested me was that people weren’t necessarily reluctant to embrace AI. Many could see where it might help. But they were also clear about the frustrations they face today: too much administration, processes that take longer than they should and systems that don’t always work well together.
And I think that’s where we need to focus our attention.
We spend a lot of time talking about what AI is capable of. I’m more interested in what it could free people up to do.
In the NHS, for example, time spent dealing with unnecessary administration is time that could be better spent supporting patients, helping colleagues or improving services. Giving someone even a small amount of that time back can make a meaningful difference.
One of the things that became clear through the research was the importance of understanding how people actually work before deciding where AI might fit.
There’s little point introducing new technology into a process that isn’t working properly in the first place. You might make parts of it faster, but you haven’t necessarily fixed the underlying problem.
AI can’t fix a broken process.
That sounds obvious, but I think it’s an important point to keep coming back to, particularly when there’s so much pressure on organisations to demonstrate that they’re doing something with AI.
The starting point should be understanding what’s getting in people’s way. Where are they losing time? What’s unnecessarily complicated? What could we simplify before introducing another tool?
Then we can have a much more useful conversation about where AI might help.
For me, that’s what makes this an exciting time. We’re starting to move beyond the technology itself and look more seriously at what it could mean for the people using it every day.
Because ultimately, I don’t think the most important question is what AI can do. It’s what people can do when they get some of their time back.
Our latest thought leadership paper, Giving Time Back, explores how organisations can move beyond the hype around AI and focus on what really matters: freeing up people’s time to do more valuable work.
