Beamible is a platform designed to perform and visualise workforce diagnostics and to facilitate organisational design. You can read more at their website. I interviewed the founders of Beamible, Stephanie Reuss and Victoria Stuart to gain some insight into what large companies are doing with respect to AI organisational redesign. 

Question 1: In terms of the design of work for the AI era, we always suggest that leaders start with a baselining exercise? Why is this?

It is important to note that AI agents execute tasks, not roles. This is quite a shift in the way we think about work and workforce augmentation, and reorganisation. Organisations need to start to better understand the tasks currently performed by humans. This information can then be used in the design of the new system or process. If agents are to be used in the process, it is important to understand what tasks you really do want humans to take the lead on, and you need to understand what capacity might be freed up in this exercise. This human capacity might be able to be redeployed to more meaningful and strategic work. 

Question 2: How does the Beamible platform accelerate and augment the human work required to conduct a baselining exercise?

Without a diagnostic, getting a baseline understanding of the tasks that are currently performed by humans can be tricky because there will be multiple roles with multiple dimensions in a particular function. This is particularly true if the workforce has organically evolved to fill gaps or compensate for sub-optimal technology.   

Beamible has been designed to make visible all of the data that supports what tasks are currently being performed and also provides the ability to visualise qualitative information such as the work that people find energising or automation/AI augmentation opportunities. Input data is collected through either top down analysis or bottom-up surveys with validation from team leaders. 

Question 3: In terms of some of the baseline work you have done recently, what have been the outcomes that have surprised executives?

Executives are often surprised by the actual time it takes to execute on certain tasks within a process. Often not enough time is being spent on what the leader deems to be critical, and there can be differing views across a process on what is “critical” or “valuable” work. By looking at the tasks performed across an entire process, we can ask a number of questions including: 

• Should that task be manual, automated or AI augmented? 

• How much does this work cost? 

• Where is this work being done – is it in the right place? 

• What are the appropriate review /challenge tasks? 

Some of the critical considerations we need to reflect on as we take the baseline exercise into the re-design exercise include: 

• capability (now and in the future) 

• critical tasks and risks (now and in the future) 

• the trust and relationships that exist now and need to be preserved 

• ROI and cost management 

• incentives and accountabilities 

Question 4: How does scenario analysis help?

The scenario analysis function within the Beamible platform allows for multiple views of a re-designed process to be considered. Organisations can test where AI and other automation will have the biggest impact but also consider what can be eliminated or simplified in the process. The tasks that can be taken on by agents can be modelled before they are built. This also allows for quality and risk management to be easily factored into the process.