August 9, 2022 • 20 mins
In this episode, Asheesh Biyala (Director, Intelligent Automation) and Andreas Welsch discuss the key to building your automation culture. Asheesh shares his success story of successfully building an automation culture at multiple companies and provides valuable tips for listeners looking to accomplish the same.
Key topics:
- Create an automation culture
- Tailor your program to your company
- Develop use cases faster with a a strong automation culture
Listen to the full episode to hear how you can:
- Align your culture to your company’s vision and mission
- Ensure continued support from IT and business leadership
- Achieve early wins with champions
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JoYbWhnNPWc
Questions or suggestions? Send me a Text Message.
***********
Disclaimer: Views are the participants’ own and do not represent those of any participant’s past, present, or future employers. Participation in this event is independent of any potential business relationship (past, present, or future) between the participants or between their employers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Andreas Welsch (00:00):
Today we'll talk about creating an automation
culture and you know who betterto talk to about it than someone
who's done just that.
Asheesh Biyala.
Hey, Asheesh, so great to haveyou on.
Thanks for joining.
Asheesh Biyala (00:14):
Hey, good morning, Andreas.
Thanks for having me.
It's always good to see you.
Looking forward to it.
Andreas Welsch (00:20):
Awesome.
Hey, why don't you tell us alittle bit about yourself.
Asheesh Biyala (00:25):
Yeah.
So you mentioned Ashish Biyala.
I'm based out of Kansas Cityworking for one of the largest
FinTech firms, Acrisure, leadingtheir intelligent automation
program, creating the culturethat we are gonna talk about.
That has been a good part of myprofessional journey since prior
to this I worked fororganizations in the emerging
(00:48):
tech space, trying to help themunderstand what does emerging
tech mean and how to drivestrategies around emerging tech.
How to help shape the culturecreate the team.
That's my passion, is that'swhat I like to do.
And conversations like thishonestly helps me learn and take
(01:11):
these learnings back to theorganization and help them grow.
Again, thanks for having me.
Andreas Welsch (01:16):
That's awesome.
Thank you so much for sharing,and I really love that mindset
of sharing and learningtogether.
So I hope that many of you inthe audience also find something
that you can take away fromtoday's session and apply in
your own world and in your ownbusinesses.
So I really can't wait to getstarted.
I've been really looking forwardto having you on.
(01:38):
So to those of you in theaudience who are just joining
the stream, please drop acomment in the chat where you
are on your journey and how youare maybe building that culture.
So Ashish, should we play alittle game to kick things off?
What do you think?
Asheesh Biyala (01:52):
Absolutely.
Love games.
Andreas Welsch (01:54):
This game is called Fill in the Blank.
When I hit the buzzer, thewheels will start spinning and
when they stop, you see asentence and I'd like you to
complete that sentence with thefirst thing that comes to mind
and why.
So fill in the blank.
And, to make a little moreinteresting, you'll only have 60
(02:16):
seconds for your answer.
We keep it a little short andput just a tiny bit of pressure
there.
And for those of you watching uslive, again, please drop your
answer in the chat and why.
So Asheesh, are you ready for,What's the BUZZ?
Asheesh Biyala (02:32):
I think I'm ready.
Let's do it.
Andreas Welsch (02:34):
Okay, great.
Then let's get started.
Perfect.
The best way to learn about AIis?
60 seconds.
Go.
Asheesh Biyala (02:52):
Yeah.
I think the best way to learnabout AI is to, again give
yourself time and space toparticipate in the discussions
like this and reach out topeople in your network who may
be working in that space.
And then start small, right?
(03:13):
Understand, basically attendwebinars, attend conferences if
you can.
Understand the very basic, tryto understand the basic
fundamentals and try to apply inwhatever way you can the
organization without just goingfull steam ahead.
And that's, I think that's theway you can really.
(03:33):
Shape up your learning andfigure out what's the best way
to apply this in your ownorganization.
So again, the building, thecommunity of AI practitioners
around you is very helpful.
Andreas Welsch (03:47):
Fantastic.
Thank you so much.
And well within time.
Also it seems to match with whatfolks in the audience are
saying.
So try, do learn from thenetwork and from resources, talk
to people and understand wherethe use cases are.
That's really awesome.
Like I said to today's theme isaround culture.
(04:10):
And you mentioned that thisisn't your first rodeo.
So when you introduce automationin an organization, people, at
least from my experience, areusually a bit cautious and
especially if you want toautomate parts of their job.
But you need to build thatculture around automation.
Like you said, if you want yourprogram to succeed.
In a certain extent, theorganization needs to embrace
(04:31):
that culture.
So I'm curious what have youseen being the most important
thing to create this automationculture?
Asheesh Biyala (04:39):
Culture is a it's a very important word in
the sense that when people talkabout culture and it's a set of
beliefs, right?
Customs, traditions that bringpeople together to drive change.
Everybody loves to talk aboutculture, but then when it terms
comes to how do you shapeculture, how do you change
culture, that's where things getreally, when, so you start going
(05:01):
to the gray areas where there'sno really one answer or there's
no right or wrong answer.
When I look at corporateorganizations, any
organization's, culture isdriven by its vision, mission,
and guiding principles, right?
And this is, this culture iswhat drives an organization's
appetite to adopttransformation, adapt themselves
(05:24):
to emerging tech like automationand ai.
So first of all, you really needto make sure that your
automation, mission and visionare aligned to your
organization's mission andvision.
That's the first thing I didwhen I took any new opportunity
where I had to create theculture program, right?
What is my mission and visionand how does it align to my
(05:44):
organizations?
Then another important thing todo is to, for, to create the
culture, is to create acommunity, in this case around
automat.
Create a community aroundautomation, a community of
champions who can really helpyou promote automation within
your organization.
But without this alignment toorganization's mission and
(06:06):
vision, it becomes really hardto set up this community to
either change, embrace, orinfluence the culture.
So having that alignment withyour organization vision and
mission helps you really sell itto these potential champions and
help you create the community.
Those are the very importantthings, foundational things that
(06:26):
you should be doing.
I would say as you move forwardin the journey.
The other important thing to dois to then treat automation
itself as a product, not just atool or a project, but it should
be approached in the same way asany other flagship product
that's critical to the successof your organization.
(06:48):
Once launched, put intopractice, review them with your
key stakeholders.
Review these champions I createupon them, update and improve
them, and that again.
Helps you gather adoption andbuild a culture.
Andreas Welsch (07:03):
Fantastic.
So I hear it's a set of beliefs.
Create that vision and mission,make sure it's aligned with the
organization and build championsand see that it stays aligned,
right?
Asheesh Biyala (07:16):
No, I'm saying that you got it right, and the
product side of things is very,is having a product strategy
around it.
How are you gonna grow thatacross the organization?
How are you gonna leverage thosechampions?
To scale that across theorganization is another
important to, expend thatculture to enforce that culture.
Andreas Welsch (07:35):
Fantastic.
Yeah.
And looking at the comments inthe chat, I see things around
change management.
Culture is shaped by early winsin finding those early wins.
Something that Tyler said.
I think Aamir said cultureshould start top down, and
again, to your point as well,defining the vision and really
starting there.
So great to see also thefeedback from you in the
(07:57):
audience and how that matcheswith what you're sharing
independently as well.
Now I'm curious.
It's one thing talking aboutculture and say this is how you
can do it or how you should doit.
And you mentioned you've workedat different companies in the
past where you've created thisculture.
(08:17):
So how have you seen this beatdifferent between companies if
it has been different at all?
What's something that you'veseen be different at different
companies?
Asheesh Biyala (08:29):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
So as I mentioned organizations'culture is driven by its vision,
mission guiding principles.
So I'll give an example of mycurrent company, accure.
This.
Our culture is driven by thevision of providing best of
human and artificialintelligence in the FinTech
space, right?
Insurance is one of our biggestverticals we lead in, but we are
(08:51):
also in other verticals.
Cybersecurity real estate.
So providing the best of humanand artificial intelligence,
trusted relationships, powerfultechnology.
We offer the best of both todeliver that extraordinary
outcomes for millions of ourclients.
So now in most of the people inmy organization they have
(09:12):
embraced this vision,organization vision, and they're
looking for opportunities totransform their part of the
organization.
In fact, I would say thisability to transform how we
operate our business.
and serve our customers is whatdrives our value proposition to
our investors and to ourcustomers.
So from that sense, I would saycompared to some of the other
(09:35):
organizations, it's beenrelatively smooth ride to be
able to set up that automationcenter of excellence, sell the
benefits of automation to theorganization because, we had a
good support from the topleadership.
Who is key to influence theculture right now?
I would say most of thechallenges have not been so much
culture, but mostlyfoundational, but having the top
(09:56):
leadership support and havingthat knowledge of organization,
vision, mission, the people inthe employees the manager level
or the process owners level.
The alignment withorganizational vision mission
that really help in terms ofdriving the culture.
Now, in some of the previousorganizations that I worked for,
(10:20):
transformation via emergingtech, artificial intelligence
was not a core part of thevision/ mission.
They cause whatever industrythey were in.
So that's where I saw a lot ofapprehension about the impact of
emerging tech on jobs and thingslike that.
There was a lot of fear as youprobably have seen in some of
your experience as well.
(10:42):
But having said that, creatingcommunity early events, as
somebody talked about, again,giving them an opportunity to
participate in creating thosewins.
That went a long way.
In fact, mi I would say that itwas more important in those
organizations to really kind ofembrace that, be participated,
(11:09):
the early events, show them theearly events, then the
organization where it's alignedto vision and mission, because
there they understand that atthe end of the day, That's how
the organization is growinghere, showing them that how
these wins can really help themtransform impact the bottom line
was key to them.
So again, depends on whereyou're coming from and how you
have grown into theorganization, right?
Andreas Welsch (11:31):
Yes.
I think those are some excellentpoints and I could imagine that
in maybe a lot of organizations,the vision and mission are not
yet aligned with the AIstrategy, or AI is not yet a
core part, right?
So to what you're alluding toprevious organizations you've
been at.
(11:52):
How do you create this awarenessand how can you help shape this
mindset such that people aremore open to embracing
automation?
What have you found to besuccessful?
Asheesh Biyala (12:06):
Yeah, for sure.
As they say Rome wasn't built inone day, right?
So you have to invest the timein understanding your
organization's appetite for achange.
And if the appetite is notthere, you have to come up with
ways to create that appetite.
And once you have thatunderstanding, you need to come
up with a strategy to create,again, a community of champions
(12:29):
that can rally around you.
So for example, to answer yourquestion, something that has
worked well for me in theprevious organizations and even
current organization, especiallyat the beginning of the journey
as you're trying to create anykind of AI automation program
ground up, is to use yournetwork of leaders like you.
(12:50):
Other, my peers in othercompanies who are much ahead in
their journey to show and telltheir wins to come and
participate in some internaldiscussions.
So I've been lucky enough forthat.
My peers have really accepted myinvitation to participate in
discussions, sh share their showand tell with some of the folks
in the organization and thatactually really goes a long way
(13:16):
in terms of people understandingthat it is happening in the real
world and it's start ofpossible, right?
It's a win-win situation becausenot only it accept it, it helps
my peers who are coming andparticipating in the discussions
expend their network.
But again it also buildsexcitement around art, if
(13:36):
possible.
Now, the other approach could belike, again, it depends.
The resources available in thecompany, the skillset, and some
of my previous organizations, afederated approach to automation
was a viable option because ofthe kind of skillset set,
leadership support, resourcecapacity.
And that kind of goes into howcan they participate in those
(13:57):
early events, right?
So having created thosechampions, let them get their
hands dirty.
Using the federated model was agood way.
Now it may not work in all theorganizations, but that's
another way that really helpedme build that community that
helped me showcase those winsacross the organizations.
And you need to have rightgovernance in place for sure.
(14:20):
And that's why you have tounderstand your organizations
like where that is.
I would say the other approachthat worked is again, and work
with your vendors, work withyour community to even see your
the good work that you're doingin the organization.
(14:40):
Those early events, if you couldeven potentially get nominated
right in a conference for maybean award or get your name out
there in that community that,Hey, this company and this group
is doing some good work, right?
Could be publishing a whitepaper doing webinars, right?
Some people might find ituncomfortable, but there's
(15:02):
nothing wrong.
And about sharing learning, it'sactually very critical to let
everyone know about the greatwork you are doing.
So there are these differentapproaches, right?
And I've tried all of them andit's not.
One size fits all.
You have to understand yourorganization's culture around
it.
Andreas Welsch (15:19):
And then so it sounds it sounds like there's a
different toolbox if you will,that you can pull from and
different different things youcan do.
How you elevate that, thevisibility of what you're doing,
how you find those win-wins andhow you talk about them.
Yeah, that's right.
I know we're already a littlebit over, but I think it's okay
if we take one more question.
(15:40):
I saw one from Jesse in the chatthat I think is a really good
one that I would love to getyour take on.
Jesse says, what are the bestqualities for an automation
champion to have, and maybe if Ican add one additional
perspective, what roles arethese champions in?
So what qualities should theyhave and what roles are they in
(16:02):
that community that you'rebuilding?
Asheesh Biyala (16:04):
Absolutely.
So if I have to answer in veryshort and sweet, I say right
aptitude and right aptitude, Iuse that quite a bit.
Not only just building championsoutside, but even just hiring in
my own team.
And in terms of the qualities,right?
Just to elaborate on that,right?
Aptitude is yes, you need tohave certain level of aptitude
(16:25):
to make sure that you understandyour organization's business
processes, understand thetechnology or better, and how do
you bring them together.
Attitude is that willingness toembrace change, right?
And willingness to break silosand build a community and make
sure that you are thinkingthrough how can you really bring
(16:46):
in more efficiencies in theorganization and be willing to
change, right?
And learn new things.
In terms of hard skill sets, Iwould say personally in my team,
if I look at all the companieswhere I built team, there are
people who came from.
Fraud.
There are people who came fromhr, like fraud management HR,
finance.
(17:07):
There are people who came fromcustomer service centers who
were just picking up the phones,but again, because they had the
right and answer answeringcustomer calls.
But again, they brought in rightattitude and aptitude.
They brought them willingness tolearn.
Today, one of my seniorarchitects he, if you talk to
him he lives in breathesautomation.
(17:27):
Five years ago, he was pickingup the call from the customer to
address their, to help them withtheir fraud issues.
So I think, yeah, it's the artof possible there and you have
to just willing to do it.
Andreas Welsch (17:40):
That's awesome.
I love how you phrased it,that's really about attitude and
aptitude and people's eagernessand willingness and motivation
to grow into this roles andlearn more about it.
Fantastic.
Hey that's really awesome.
Maybe let me summarize real,real quick what I heard you
share.
Number one thing for culture.
(18:01):
First of all, culture is a setof beliefs, but you need to
align your AI and automationculture to your company's vision
and mission and make sure thatit stays aligned.
It obviously goes a lot easierif you have support from the top
and there's said realization.
That these two things areactually connected.
It might not be like that inevery company, but you're able
(18:26):
to get some wins and especiallywin-wins when you can pull from
a different toolbox when you cancreate a network of champions
that have the right attitude andaptitude, like you said, really
about that mindset of doingsomething.
Did I miss anything?
And anything you feel iscritical?
Asheesh Biyala (18:45):
Oh, I think you did a great job summarizing
Andreas Welsch (18:48):
All right.
Folks, we're getting close tothe end of the show today.
Asheesh, thank you so much forjoining.
Like I said, I've been reallyexcited to have you on and just
looking at all, all the commentsin engagement here in, in the
chat seems like our audience isjust as appreciative as well.
So thanks for joining yourexpertise and for learning with.
Asheesh Biyala (19:10):
Hey, thank you for the opportunity, Andreas.
Anytime.
Love these kind of discussions.
It helps me learn as well.
Andreas Welsch (19:15):
Awesome.
Today we'll talk about creating an automation
culture and you know who betterto talk to about it than someone
who's done just that.
Asheesh Biyala.
Hey, Asheesh, so great to haveyou on.
Thanks for joining.
Asheesh Biyala (00:14):
Hey, good morning, Andreas.
Thanks for having me.
It's always good to see you.
Looking forward to it.
Andreas Welsch (00:20):
Awesome.
Hey, why don't you tell us alittle bit about yourself.
Asheesh Biyala (00:25):
Yeah.
So you mentioned Ashish Biyala.
I'm based out of Kansas Cityworking for one of the largest
FinTech firms, Acrisure, leadingtheir intelligent automation
program, creating the culturethat we are gonna talk about.
That has been a good part of myprofessional journey since prior
to this I worked fororganizations in the emerging
(00:48):
tech space, trying to help themunderstand what does emerging
tech mean and how to drivestrategies around emerging tech.
How to help shape the culturecreate the team.
That's my passion, is that'swhat I like to do.
And conversations like thishonestly helps me learn and take
(01:11):
these learnings back to theorganization and help them grow.
Again, thanks for having me.
Andreas Welsch (01:16):
That's awesome.
Thank you so much for sharing,and I really love that mindset
of sharing and learningtogether.
So I hope that many of you inthe audience also find something
that you can take away fromtoday's session and apply in
your own world and in your ownbusinesses.
So I really can't wait to getstarted.
I've been really looking forwardto having you on.
(01:38):
So to those of you in theaudience who are just joining
the stream, please drop acomment in the chat where you
are on your journey and how youare maybe building that culture.
So Ashish, should we play alittle game to kick things off?
What do you think?
Asheesh Biyala (01:52):
Absolutely.
Love games.
Andreas Welsch (01:54):
This game is called Fill in the Blank.
When I hit the buzzer, thewheels will start spinning and
when they stop, you see asentence and I'd like you to
complete that sentence with thefirst thing that comes to mind
and why.
So fill in the blank.
And, to make a little moreinteresting, you'll only have 60
(02:16):
seconds for your answer.
We keep it a little short andput just a tiny bit of pressure
there.
And for those of you watching uslive, again, please drop your
answer in the chat and why.
So Asheesh, are you ready for,What's the BUZZ?
Asheesh Biyala (02:32):
I think I'm ready.
Let's do it.
Andreas Welsch (02:34):
Okay, great.
Then let's get started.
Perfect.
The best way to learn about AIis?
60 seconds.
Go.
Asheesh Biyala (02:52):
Yeah.
I think the best way to learnabout AI is to, again give
yourself time and space toparticipate in the discussions
like this and reach out topeople in your network who may
be working in that space.
And then start small, right?
(03:13):
Understand, basically attendwebinars, attend conferences if
you can.
Understand the very basic, tryto understand the basic
fundamentals and try to apply inwhatever way you can the
organization without just goingfull steam ahead.
And that's, I think that's theway you can really.
(03:33):
Shape up your learning andfigure out what's the best way
to apply this in your ownorganization.
So again, the building, thecommunity of AI practitioners
around you is very helpful.
Andreas Welsch (03:47):
Fantastic.
Thank you so much.
And well within time.
Also it seems to match with whatfolks in the audience are
saying.
So try, do learn from thenetwork and from resources, talk
to people and understand wherethe use cases are.
That's really awesome.
Like I said to today's theme isaround culture.
(04:10):
And you mentioned that thisisn't your first rodeo.
So when you introduce automationin an organization, people, at
least from my experience, areusually a bit cautious and
especially if you want toautomate parts of their job.
But you need to build thatculture around automation.
Like you said, if you want yourprogram to succeed.
In a certain extent, theorganization needs to embrace
(04:31):
that culture.
So I'm curious what have youseen being the most important
thing to create this automationculture?
Asheesh Biyala (04:39):
Culture is a it's a very important word in
the sense that when people talkabout culture and it's a set of
beliefs, right?
Customs, traditions that bringpeople together to drive change.
Everybody loves to talk aboutculture, but then when it terms
comes to how do you shapeculture, how do you change
culture, that's where things getreally, when, so you start going
(05:01):
to the gray areas where there'sno really one answer or there's
no right or wrong answer.
When I look at corporateorganizations, any
organization's, culture isdriven by its vision, mission,
and guiding principles, right?
And this is, this culture iswhat drives an organization's
appetite to adopttransformation, adapt themselves
(05:24):
to emerging tech like automationand ai.
So first of all, you really needto make sure that your
automation, mission and visionare aligned to your
organization's mission andvision.
That's the first thing I didwhen I took any new opportunity
where I had to create theculture program, right?
What is my mission and visionand how does it align to my
(05:44):
organizations?
Then another important thing todo is to, for, to create the
culture, is to create acommunity, in this case around
automat.
Create a community aroundautomation, a community of
champions who can really helpyou promote automation within
your organization.
But without this alignment toorganization's mission and
(06:06):
vision, it becomes really hardto set up this community to
either change, embrace, orinfluence the culture.
So having that alignment withyour organization vision and
mission helps you really sell itto these potential champions and
help you create the community.
Those are the very importantthings, foundational things that
(06:26):
you should be doing.
I would say as you move forwardin the journey.
The other important thing to dois to then treat automation
itself as a product, not just atool or a project, but it should
be approached in the same way asany other flagship product
that's critical to the successof your organization.
(06:48):
Once launched, put intopractice, review them with your
key stakeholders.
Review these champions I createupon them, update and improve
them, and that again.
Helps you gather adoption andbuild a culture.
Andreas Welsch (07:03):
Fantastic.
So I hear it's a set of beliefs.
Create that vision and mission,make sure it's aligned with the
organization and build championsand see that it stays aligned,
right?
Asheesh Biyala (07:16):
No, I'm saying that you got it right, and the
product side of things is very,is having a product strategy
around it.
How are you gonna grow thatacross the organization?
How are you gonna leverage thosechampions?
To scale that across theorganization is another
important to, expend thatculture to enforce that culture.
Andreas Welsch (07:35):
Fantastic.
Yeah.
And looking at the comments inthe chat, I see things around
change management.
Culture is shaped by early winsin finding those early wins.
Something that Tyler said.
I think Aamir said cultureshould start top down, and
again, to your point as well,defining the vision and really
starting there.
So great to see also thefeedback from you in the
(07:57):
audience and how that matcheswith what you're sharing
independently as well.
Now I'm curious.
It's one thing talking aboutculture and say this is how you
can do it or how you should doit.
And you mentioned you've workedat different companies in the
past where you've created thisculture.
(08:17):
So how have you seen this beatdifferent between companies if
it has been different at all?
What's something that you'veseen be different at different
companies?
Asheesh Biyala (08:29):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
So as I mentioned organizations'culture is driven by its vision,
mission guiding principles.
So I'll give an example of mycurrent company, accure.
This.
Our culture is driven by thevision of providing best of
human and artificialintelligence in the FinTech
space, right?
Insurance is one of our biggestverticals we lead in, but we are
(08:51):
also in other verticals.
Cybersecurity real estate.
So providing the best of humanand artificial intelligence,
trusted relationships, powerfultechnology.
We offer the best of both todeliver that extraordinary
outcomes for millions of ourclients.
So now in most of the people inmy organization they have
(09:12):
embraced this vision,organization vision, and they're
looking for opportunities totransform their part of the
organization.
In fact, I would say thisability to transform how we
operate our business.
and serve our customers is whatdrives our value proposition to
our investors and to ourcustomers.
So from that sense, I would saycompared to some of the other
(09:35):
organizations, it's beenrelatively smooth ride to be
able to set up that automationcenter of excellence, sell the
benefits of automation to theorganization because, we had a
good support from the topleadership.
Who is key to influence theculture right now?
I would say most of thechallenges have not been so much
culture, but mostlyfoundational, but having the top
(09:56):
leadership support and havingthat knowledge of organization,
vision, mission, the people inthe employees the manager level
or the process owners level.
The alignment withorganizational vision mission
that really help in terms ofdriving the culture.
Now, in some of the previousorganizations that I worked for,
(10:20):
transformation via emergingtech, artificial intelligence
was not a core part of thevision/ mission.
They cause whatever industrythey were in.
So that's where I saw a lot ofapprehension about the impact of
emerging tech on jobs and thingslike that.
There was a lot of fear as youprobably have seen in some of
your experience as well.
(10:42):
But having said that, creatingcommunity early events, as
somebody talked about, again,giving them an opportunity to
participate in creating thosewins.
That went a long way.
In fact, mi I would say that itwas more important in those
organizations to really kind ofembrace that, be participated,
(11:09):
the early events, show them theearly events, then the
organization where it's alignedto vision and mission, because
there they understand that atthe end of the day, That's how
the organization is growinghere, showing them that how
these wins can really help themtransform impact the bottom line
was key to them.
So again, depends on whereyou're coming from and how you
have grown into theorganization, right?
Andreas Welsch (11:31):
Yes.
I think those are some excellentpoints and I could imagine that
in maybe a lot of organizations,the vision and mission are not
yet aligned with the AIstrategy, or AI is not yet a
core part, right?
So to what you're alluding toprevious organizations you've
been at.
(11:52):
How do you create this awarenessand how can you help shape this
mindset such that people aremore open to embracing
automation?
What have you found to besuccessful?
Asheesh Biyala (12:06):
Yeah, for sure.
As they say Rome wasn't built inone day, right?
So you have to invest the timein understanding your
organization's appetite for achange.
And if the appetite is notthere, you have to come up with
ways to create that appetite.
And once you have thatunderstanding, you need to come
up with a strategy to create,again, a community of champions
(12:29):
that can rally around you.
So for example, to answer yourquestion, something that has
worked well for me in theprevious organizations and even
current organization, especiallyat the beginning of the journey
as you're trying to create anykind of AI automation program
ground up, is to use yournetwork of leaders like you.
(12:50):
Other, my peers in othercompanies who are much ahead in
their journey to show and telltheir wins to come and
participate in some internaldiscussions.
So I've been lucky enough forthat.
My peers have really accepted myinvitation to participate in
discussions, sh share their showand tell with some of the folks
in the organization and thatactually really goes a long way
(13:16):
in terms of people understandingthat it is happening in the real
world and it's start ofpossible, right?
It's a win-win situation becausenot only it accept it, it helps
my peers who are coming andparticipating in the discussions
expend their network.
But again it also buildsexcitement around art, if
(13:36):
possible.
Now, the other approach could belike, again, it depends.
The resources available in thecompany, the skillset, and some
of my previous organizations, afederated approach to automation
was a viable option because ofthe kind of skillset set,
leadership support, resourcecapacity.
And that kind of goes into howcan they participate in those
(13:57):
early events, right?
So having created thosechampions, let them get their
hands dirty.
Using the federated model was agood way.
Now it may not work in all theorganizations, but that's
another way that really helpedme build that community that
helped me showcase those winsacross the organizations.
And you need to have rightgovernance in place for sure.
(14:20):
And that's why you have tounderstand your organizations
like where that is.
I would say the other approachthat worked is again, and work
with your vendors, work withyour community to even see your
the good work that you're doingin the organization.
(14:40):
Those early events, if you couldeven potentially get nominated
right in a conference for maybean award or get your name out
there in that community that,Hey, this company and this group
is doing some good work, right?
Could be publishing a whitepaper doing webinars, right?
Some people might find ituncomfortable, but there's
(15:02):
nothing wrong.
And about sharing learning, it'sactually very critical to let
everyone know about the greatwork you are doing.
So there are these differentapproaches, right?
And I've tried all of them andit's not.
One size fits all.
You have to understand yourorganization's culture around
it.
Andreas Welsch (15:19):
And then so it sounds it sounds like there's a
different toolbox if you will,that you can pull from and
different different things youcan do.
How you elevate that, thevisibility of what you're doing,
how you find those win-wins andhow you talk about them.
Yeah, that's right.
I know we're already a littlebit over, but I think it's okay
if we take one more question.
(15:40):
I saw one from Jesse in the chatthat I think is a really good
one that I would love to getyour take on.
Jesse says, what are the bestqualities for an automation
champion to have, and maybe if Ican add one additional
perspective, what roles arethese champions in?
So what qualities should theyhave and what roles are they in
(16:02):
that community that you'rebuilding?
Asheesh Biyala (16:04):
Absolutely.
So if I have to answer in veryshort and sweet, I say right
aptitude and right aptitude, Iuse that quite a bit.
Not only just building championsoutside, but even just hiring in
my own team.
And in terms of the qualities,right?
Just to elaborate on that,right?
Aptitude is yes, you need tohave certain level of aptitude
(16:25):
to make sure that you understandyour organization's business
processes, understand thetechnology or better, and how do
you bring them together.
Attitude is that willingness toembrace change, right?
And willingness to break silosand build a community and make
sure that you are thinkingthrough how can you really bring
(16:46):
in more efficiencies in theorganization and be willing to
change, right?
And learn new things.
In terms of hard skill sets, Iwould say personally in my team,
if I look at all the companieswhere I built team, there are
people who came from.
Fraud.
There are people who came fromhr, like fraud management HR,
finance.
(17:07):
There are people who came fromcustomer service centers who
were just picking up the phones,but again, because they had the
right and answer answeringcustomer calls.
But again, they brought in rightattitude and aptitude.
They brought them willingness tolearn.
Today, one of my seniorarchitects he, if you talk to
him he lives in breathesautomation.
(17:27):
Five years ago, he was pickingup the call from the customer to
address their, to help them withtheir fraud issues.
So I think, yeah, it's the artof possible there and you have
to just willing to do it.
Andreas Welsch (17:40):
That's awesome.
I love how you phrased it,that's really about attitude and
aptitude and people's eagernessand willingness and motivation
to grow into this roles andlearn more about it.
Fantastic.
Hey that's really awesome.
Maybe let me summarize real,real quick what I heard you
share.
Number one thing for culture.
(18:01):
First of all, culture is a setof beliefs, but you need to
align your AI and automationculture to your company's vision
and mission and make sure thatit stays aligned.
It obviously goes a lot easierif you have support from the top
and there's said realization.
That these two things areactually connected.
It might not be like that inevery company, but you're able
(18:26):
to get some wins and especiallywin-wins when you can pull from
a different toolbox when you cancreate a network of champions
that have the right attitude andaptitude, like you said, really
about that mindset of doingsomething.
Did I miss anything?
And anything you feel iscritical?
Asheesh Biyala (18:45):
Oh, I think you did a great job summarizing
Andreas Welsch (18:48):
All right.
Folks, we're getting close tothe end of the show today.
Asheesh, thank you so much forjoining.
Like I said, I've been reallyexcited to have you on and just
looking at all, all the commentsin engagement here in, in the
chat seems like our audience isjust as appreciative as well.
So thanks for joining yourexpertise and for learning with.
Asheesh Biyala (19:10):
Hey, thank you for the opportunity, Andreas.
Anytime.
Love these kind of discussions.
It helps me learn as well.
Andreas Welsch (19:15):
Awesome.
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