Covanta’s step-by-step approach to AI enablement

Internal and external customer experience has always been a top priority for most companies, especially as demands increase for faster response and improved personalization.

The arrival of generative AI and advanced chatbots has accelerated the development of intelligent systems that go well beyond scripted queries by intuitively adapting and engaging in more dynamic and context-aware conversations. Nearly half of CIOs and close to a third line-of-business managers have cited AI and machine learning as the most strategically important area of concern this year, according to Foundry’s 2024 State of the CIO Study.

Customer experience will be a key target for gen AI infusions, with 35% of CX executives agreeing that the acceleration of innovative capabilities such as gen AI and Web3 will have a significant impact on future CX strategies, according to an October 2023 IDC FutureScape report on customer experience trends. One reason is these technologies will enable customers to create their own experience journeys, thereby improving customer-desired outcome and value, points out the report.

Covanta is keenly aware of generative AI’s potential for enhancing the digital experience of its employees and customers. The company and its IT organization also recognize the importance of maintaining steady focus on security resilience and core technology functions as these enabling tools are applied and move from pilots and proofs of concept to mainstream applications.

To best leverage AI-driven solutions for its CX initiatives, Covanta’s IT has developed a systematic two-step approach that takes into consideration the structure of existing data, the agile and governance framework, and the company’s overall innovation roadmap. The following is an outline of that approach.

Step 1: Build a solid foundation for AI-based innovation

The three parts that enable this step are building the platform, developing the necessary resources, and formulating an approach that aligns with the company’s strategies to solve business problems.

• Restructure and re-engineer the core data platform. At Covanta, we started our journey of building an AI foundation on the existing AWS environment. We partnered with an experienced AI implementation specialist to help build this platform. Covanta has a mature data governance framework, which allowed us to reduce the overall duration of this step. Connecting this framework with the AI foundation closes the first part of this step.

• Build resourcing capabilities to deliver the solutions using an agile framework. In 2023, Covanta completed its agile transformation journey by enabling all the resources and reorienting all the initiatives to align with its future agile delivery framework. Covanta is taking a hybrid approach to building a high-performance AI team where the third-party partner can address the challenges with flexibility, skill gaps, and scalability. We have identified a niche player highly specialized in data science and AI capabilities. So far, this partnership has been very successful in deploying solutions to the maintenance and operations team.

• Develop an approach to leveraging AI technology as part of our solution delivery framework. Covanta aims to embed AI in overall architecture and solution discussions during the agile delivery life cycle. We are in the process of upskilling our delivery team to genuinely consider AI as another way to solve problems and bring a lot of automation to streamline the processes. Today, we are still in the infancy stage and look forward to revising our delivery framework to accommodate this change.

Step 2: Build a maturity framework to track the progress of innovation

This step for tracking and measuring what IT innovation brings to the organization can be divided into three parts: developing an innovation maturity roadmap, organizational empowerment, and creating a return-on-investment model.

• Build a maturity roadmap on the overall innovation strategy. There is a perception that innovative initiatives distract IT teams from their core building and support activities. We strongly believe that by providing an innovation maturity roadmap leadership can gain clarity on IT’s progress on its innovation journey, as well as how its innovations will impact the organization. At the same time, the roadmap should underscore the fact that there is a steady focus on supporting the existing business strategy. The innovation roadmap should also address benchmarking and forward-thinking related questions.

• Diminish the perception that AI and other automation solutions may eliminate several job functions and roles. This begins by highlighting the cultural changes this innovation brings to the user communities. Empowering users by applying the latest technologies enhances awareness, builds buy-in, and reduces the legacy perception of job elimination. Covenant believes that involving business users in part of the delivery process will increase the adoption rates and enhance the organizational innovation brand.
• Reshape and rebuild an IT portfolio driven by the value proposition. An ROI-based value generation approach is the key to a successful adoption of this innovation journey. At Covanta, we have an IT portfolio governed strictly by value-based prioritization. We can focus on initiatives that consume less effort and bring higher value. We believe that embedding AI and automation solutions will reduce our efforts and enable us to deliver more initiatives than before. Sometimes AI-based solutions don’t have to solve a business problem. For example, we leveraged an AI-based code-writing software to address the shortage of developers. This allowed us to reduce the development effort and cost, while accelerating the deployment time.

Building an AI strategy doesn’t have to be expensive and complicated. With existing internal talent and smaller niche players, the Two-Step Approach detailed above can be used to successfully onboard and fit-for-purpose cost-effective AI-based solutions for any organization seeking to enhance customer experience and other key areas of the business.