Many in the tech community think that in the not-too-distant future, companies will become largely automated, but without Autonomous Business Modules it’s not likely to happen. Sam Altman from OpenAI even stated that he and his friends are placing bets for the year when there will be a billion-dollar business run by a single person. But, the direction most companies are going with their implementation of AI and automation, they won’t get there. The next leap requires something new that I am calling Autonomous Business Modules.
What Are Autonomous Business Modules?
Autonomous Business Modules are a completely independent, self-run part of a business. This is not simply automating, applying AI, or anything like that. Those are more about increasing efficiency and are still rooted in older, less efficient ways.
Most people are focused on “Tech-leveraged Business Processes.” These are essentially looking at the way traditional businesses currently work, and then finding more favorable ways to run the same steps. But, that is just trying to make current processes more efficient or streamlined.
Autonomous Business Modules require Goal-Driven Architecture.
What Is Goal-Driven Architecture?
Goal-Driven Architecture is when a specific outcome is determined first and then an autonomous process is set up to achieve that outcome. It does not care how things were. It simply is an automated way to get an outcome.
An Autonomous Business Module may replace a part of a job, an entire role, an entire department, or sprawl across any number of these. The traditional business structure doesn’t necessarily apply to how an Autonomous Business Module works.
Autonomous Business Modules will oftentimes require completely scrapping or completely reimagining current systems and processes.
Aiming for Zero-Touch Operations with Your Tally of Touches
A Zero-Touch Operation is the ultimate metric for achieving an Autonomous Business Module. When you look at a current traditionally run business, every time human input is required, you can think of that as a tally for human operations. This total count is what I refer to as a Tally of Touches. Any business of any size will have a Tally of Touches. The goal is to get your Tally of Touches as low as possible across the entire organization, with some particular operations hitting Zero-Touch.
Why Do Zero-Touch Operations Matter?
When you have a Zero-Touch Operation, you potentially have an Infinitely Scalable System. Much like a digital product can be reproduced for virtually zero variable cost, a Zero-Touch Operation can be scaled to any size that the business requires for virtually zero additional human inputs.
Long-Term Considerations for Autonomous Business Modules
Because businesses operate in ever-changing environments, for an Autonomous Business Module to remain that way in the long term, it must also develop Self-Evolving Digital Entities. A Self-Evolving Digital Entity looks at the current Goal of the Autonomous Business Module and has some level of flexibility to allow for testing new hypotheses. It can hypothesize some alternate path or some alternate way to do one step in the Goal-Driven Architecture and try something new. This new thing is treated as an AB test. If it is successful, it will note and benchmark the old way and implement the new way. It will continue to do this and evolve within some set of constraints.
