AI Playbook for Business Process Optimization

Learn how AI can improve workflows for common business functions across industries and see specific examples of how AI can impact revenue growth, cost savings, and positive employee experiences in your organization.

Achieving Higher Goals with AI Supporting Business Functions

Implementing AI in specific business functions can provide practical benefits that significantly transform your organization.

Reducing the time sellers spend researching before customer support from 4 hours to 15 minutes
Saving 20-30% of time and costs when responding to RFPs
Saving up to 5 hours of work per week per employee by eliminating daily processes

The Bigger Picture: Overall Business Impact and AI

Increase revenue

Optimize costs

Help employees grow

Achieving Higher Goals with AI Supporting Business Functions

Finance

Impact of AI on business when supporting planning and analysis processes:

Before AI

Lack of insights into customer and market trends can lead to reactive processes rather than proactive ones, reducing the ability to capitalize on market opportunities.

After AI

Real-time scenario modeling, reduced time to provide evidence-based proposals, quick identification of discrepancies, and support for predicting future trends and complying with financial regulations.

This is just one step in the process, and AI can also assist with other critical financial processes such as risk management, regulatory compliance, and payment processing.

KPIs That Can Be Measured and Improved with AI Solutions:

Financial outsourcing expenses
Cost per analysis request
Transaction review time

Deal closure time
Compliance rate
Forecast accuracy

Employee retention
Accounts receivable turnover days

Human Resources (HR)

Impact of AI on business when supporting recruitment processes:

Before AI

Recruitment can be a slow and cumbersome process, with the limitations of manual resume screening and candidate tracking increasing the risk of missing out on top talent.

After AI

Analysis of the latest industry trends, summarizing meetings with hiring managers, drafting research-based job descriptions, and accessing HR records to help identify potential candidates.

AI can also help with other critical HR processes such as employee engagement, compensation and benefits, learning and development, and talent management.

Measurable and Improved KPIs through AI Solutions:

Employee training hours
Calls answered by agents
Issue resolution time

Employee retention
Cost per hire per employee
Cost per manager per employee

First call resolution rate
Workforce demographics

Sales

Impact of AI on business when supporting recruitment processes:

Before AI

Manual processes can lead to broad untargeted strategies, resulting in low conversion rates and high cost per lead.

After AI

Identifying patterns in customer data, generating more high-quality leads with lead scoring and other metrics.

AI can also help with other critical sales processes such as customer engagement (outreach and presentations), negotiation and closing, post-sale follow-up, and upselling.

Measurable and Improved KPIs through AI Solutions:

Opportunity pursuit
Deal size
Win rate/close rate

Customer retention
Average discount size
Cross-sell/upsell rate

Cost per lead
Sales cycle length
Response rate

Marketing

Impact of AI on business when supporting campaign execution processes:

Before AI

Manual adjustments and tracking can lead to inefficient resource allocation, increased operational costs, and lack of agility in market response.

After AI

Supporting campaign performance analysis, quickly identifying and integrating the most effective marketing strategies, and strategically and effectively allocating marketing resources.

This is just one example of how AI can be utilized in marketing; AI can also help with other critical marketing processes such as demand generation, customer insights and strategy, and content creation.

Measurable and Improved KPIs through AI Solutions:

Lead generation
Agency spend
Customer retention

Employee retention
Cost per lead
Brand value

Lead conversion rate
Revenue per generated lead

Legal

Impact of AI on business when supporting contract processes:

Before AI

Contract management can feel like navigating a paper jungle, with important details piling up, making the process slow, error-prone, and inefficient.

After AI

Accelerating contract review, quickly comparing contract disputes and related keywords and statements found in legal systems for rapid analysis, and reducing time spent on manual review and negotiation.

This is just one of the many changes AI can enable in critical legal processes, including litigation and advisory services.

Measurable and Improved KPIs through AI Solutions:

External counsel spend
Cost per internal review

Compliance rate
Contract error rate

Number of disputes
Dispute win rate

Customer Service

Impact of AI on business when supporting issue resolution processes:

Before AI

Inconsistent resolutions can lead to a large number of unresolved customer issues, affecting customer loyalty and repeat service requests.

After AI

Providing agents with step-by-step resolution procedures based on customer history, diagnosed issues and procedures, and past resolution data, enabling them to resolve issues more effectively and better respond to customer needs.

This is just one aspect of AI’s much broader impact; AI can also help with other critical customer service processes such as issue diagnosis and support assignment.

Measurable and Improved KPIs through AI Solutions:

First call resolution rate
Calls answered by agents
Issue resolution time

Customer retention
Case volume
First response time

Average call time
Customer experience (CSAT)

IT

Impact of AI on business when supporting software management and acquisition processes:

Before AI

Frequent manual updates and patches can cause delays and inconsistencies, leading to software vulnerabilities and downtime.

After AI

Quick and accurate comparison of available solutions in the market, aggregating multiple conversation threads, comprehensively understanding all essential business requirements for new solutions, and quickly drafting solution RFPs.

This is just part of what AI can do for IT teams; AI can also help with other critical IT operations such as device management, change management, user adoption, and network operations.

Measurable and Improved KPIs through AI Solutions:

IT operational costs
IT issue/ticket resolution time
IT outsourcing costs

Product adoption and usage
Application downtime
Network and infrastructure stability

Shadow IT risk reduction
Net user satisfaction (NSAT)

Microsoft 365 Copilot is designed to enhance workflows within key business functions using industry-leading integration, innovation, and security. With Copilot, organizations can maximize the potential of AI to drive business value through revenue growth, cost optimization, and improved employee experiences.