Technology is a place that rarely remains stagnant. The entire nature of it is evolution, driven by innovation. That evolution is why it is always a matter of high risk. New and emerging technology carries the potential of either being a new standard that completely revolutionizes an industry; or it disappears into the sunset, replaced by something else. A good example of this? In the 2000s, the HD DVD was once believed to be the next generation of home entertainment and media data storage, but it was be Blu-Ray discs that eventually reigned supreme in the industry. So how do you invest in technology while avoiding the discovery that you invested in the wrong direction? It comes to understanding and knowing the players involved, and in trusting instincts an inch more than perceived trends.
There are many different types of platforms serving the needs of a content producer, including Production Asset Management (PAM), Media Asset Management (MAM) and Media Logistics Platforms. All of these are also regarded as “Intelligent Agents” deployed in and across different stages of content production operations. Combinations of internal and external teams plan, produce, deliver and analyze content and its consumption. This is a classic “Supply Chain” directly involved in the flows of products, services, finances, and/or information from a source to a customer. Intelligent Agents are used to increase productivity, agility, flexibility and resilience of Supply Chains. Much of this peer-reviewed research, from across multiple industries and research fields, contains findings that are highly transferable to content production.
CURTAIN GOING UP: Understanding the Market’s Players
Studies have found that two areas of Intelligent Agent capability in particular provide the catalyst for simultaneously achieving increased productivity and increased worker well-being: Automation and User Experience. It is estimated that less than 5% of all occupations are considered to be candidates for full automation, but 60% of occupations have been observed to have at least 30% of their activity that could be automated with current technology, and this will increase as technology capabilities progress. Rather than this being seen as a threat, automation offers users the chance to offload the mundane and repetitive to machine resources and reduce stress in their daily working life. This leaves them to focus on the creative activities, delivering more in shorter timescales, and freeing time for other interests outside work.
Intelligent Automation aims to develop Intelligent Agents to handle business workflows and processes automatically. Automation can drive flexibility and increase resilience through improved material-flow, information-flow, supervision and control, and relationship automation. Studies indicate that managers in industry typically lack an overall picture of what automation is possible in their operation and lack awareness of what influences successful automation implementation.
Then there is the User Experience that relates to how users can achieve more from each working day and have a more positive experience doing so. User Experience (UX) extends far beyond this to a worker’s emotions before, during, and after using the Intelligent Agent. Although considered by some in industry to be a soft requirement, User Experience as a technology enabler links to the bottom line of organizations. Delivering a sustainable competitive advantage in an organization through compelling user experience helps eliminate many levels of manual activities, reduces costs, increases revenues, enhances asset utilization, reduces error production, and facilitates lower process times.
Research into Intelligent Agent-enabled architecture includes the distribution of tasks, knowledge and control to solve a given problem, with factors such as effective coordination mechanisms, negotiation, conflict resolution, and communication protocols. In the study of Supply Chains, integration is achieved when the information and communication systems of all stakeholders are able to seamlessly exchange information through all activities from planning to delivery.
HOW INTELLIGENT AGENTS AND SUPPLY CHAINS INTEGRATE
Good integration and exchange of information can also significantly help mitigate Supply Chain risks. Key Supply Chain teams and partners are a source of environment information which is a critical input in risk prone situations. Cross-functional integration between different departments in an organization acts as information processing capability for absorbing, processing and timely implementation of information for responding to changes in the environment. Studies show that companies that invest more in Intelligent Agent information sharing capability across their Supply Chains achieve improved overall organizational performance and agility. This involves managing the relationship between information sharing and firm performance, and integrating both information systems and operations management.
Intelligent Agents provide knowledge engineering, information architecture, and high-quality data sources. With increased knowledge bases and automation decision-making processes, Intelligent Agents help Supply Chains by facilitating information exchange among various teams. Over time, three key types of metadata have developed that need to be managed by an Intelligent Agent. Business metadata are the set of descriptions that make the data more understandable by business users and aid the defining of business rules. Operational metadata are information automatically generated during data processing, such as descriptions of the source and target data. Technical metadata expresses how data is represented, including data format, structure or schema.
TAKING A BOW: Getting the Most Out of Your Tech Investments
Understanding all factors at play will help you find more about how your business can benefit from new technology, and give you a better idea of what new technology should take hold. The picture presented here is one of content production being transformed, with teams being motivated and empowered by new technology, and delivering significant productivity and resilience gains for content producers, while supporting new working paradigms and strengthening worker well-being.
Make sure, before investing into any new technology, you get a full grasp of what is involved in any success of an innovation:
- Intelligent Agents
- Supply Chain
- User Experience (UX)
- Automation
- Integration
New trends and innovations in Intelligent Agent user experience will continue to take into account advances in Artificial Intelligence and behavioral psychology, evolving how teams interface with technology and redefining their roles to focus on what humans can best deliver: creativity. We at Dalet continue to lead this field for content production, remaining in the forefront of innovation, whether it is transitioning productions and production studios to cloud-based operation to helping our clients achieve optimal return on their technology investment and ensuring all those that use it make more out of each working day. Dalet believes in evolution of a platform and of an industry, and we are ready to answer your questions about what we can do to help you evolve your media productions and content delivery.
