Philippine enterprises seeking to fully harness artificial intelligence (AI) must first complete their digital transformation, including adopting low-code solutions, or risk being left behind, a global workflow automation firm has warned
According to Rakesh Nandakumar, the associate vice president executive at Kissflow in the Asia Pacific, businesses can only maximize the promise of AI once their systems and operations are fully digitized.
He said the next few years will be crucial as more industries adopt AI-powered tools to drive efficiency and innovation.
“Factually speaking, we don’t have a choice. If you do not adopt this technology, you are going to be outpaced and outcompeted,” Nandakumar said in a recent interview.
He noted that organizations need to be “100 percent digital” within the next five years to remain competitive in a fast-changing business environment.
Nandakumar said AI’s effectiveness depends on how well companies can provide structured and accessible data for machine learning.
“AI is the biggest trend. If you don’t have an AI-powered digital transformation, it’s going to be difficult,” He added.
Low-code tools and citizen developers
Kissflow, which provides low-code automation platforms for enterprises, believes that empowering employees to build digital tools without deep programming knowledge is key to accelerating digitization.
Nandakumar said many organizations are now embracing “citizen developers” — employees from non-technical departments who design digital workflows and automate tasks using visual, drag-and-drop tools.
He cited one of their clients, a large bank, that now have hundreds of such internal developers managing operational processes through low-code systems.
“Today, that organization has more than 1,000 projects running with nine million records going in every year. You will never imagine the power these citizen developers hold,” the senior executive said.
Moreover, the firm reported a month ago that SN Aboitiz Power, another of their clients in the Philippines, posted a 451 percent return on investments within 2.8 months after adopting Kissflow’s low-code platform.
Kissflow has been operating in the Philippines for about a decade and plans to expand its local team as more enterprises invest in digital transformation.
The company counts banking, energy, and service-oriented industries among its fastest-growing markets in Southeast Asia.
