New technology alone won’t guarantee better results—it’s about how well it fits into your workflow. Aligning tools with processes can make the difference between efficiency and frustration. Are you focusing on the tool, or the way everything works together?
How to Maximize Results When Using New Technology in Your Workflow
In One Year of Agentic AI: Six Lessons from the People Doing the Work, McKinsey provides insights into why businesses often face challenges when implementing advanced tools and systems. If you’ve ever struggled to see value from a tech investment, you’re not alone. Making technology work for your process isn’t just about adding new tools—it’s about creating better workflows that translate into meaningful outcomes.
Refocus on the Process, Not the Tool
It’s tempting to pour resources into building effective systems, but success depends on how well they fit into a company’s processes. Instead of focusing on what a tool can do on its own, organizations may benefit more by stepping back and asking: “How should the entire workflow operate?” This approach allows workers, tools, and systems to align more effectively.
A good starting point? Map out key steps of a process and pinpoint where workers experience inefficiencies or repetitive tasks. Consider how new tools could work alongside human expertise to ease those roadblocks. For example, a legal services company recently designed systems capable of refining their suggestions through continuous feedback from human edits. This collaboration enabled teams to modernize their review procedures and achieve better results over time.
Start Simple: Is New Technology the Right Fit?
Not every problem requires the newest tool on the market. Leaders often achieve better outcomes by carefully evaluating tasks before deciding on solutions. For processes that follow predictable patterns—think onboarding new clients or complying with regulatory steps—simpler methods, like rules-based automation, may prove sufficient. These approaches can often be more reliable and cost-effective.
On the other hand, some workflows involve significant variations, making them harder to standardize. In these cases, advanced tools that analyze data or automate decision-making can help lighten the workload. For example, a financial-services company used advanced tools to reliably handle tasks such as aggregating and verifying complex data sets, streamlining otherwise time-intensive tasks.
Build Trust by Prioritizing Usability
When technology feels unintuitive or produces inadequate results, adoption suffers. Teams perform best when they trust the tools they’re using. To create this trust, companies should approach implementation as though they’re onboarding new team members. Provide clear expectations, ensure ongoing improvement, and involve users in evaluating how things are working.
Observability tools can go a long way in building this confidence. For example, tracking performance throughout a process can help identify and address errors early before they grow into larger issues. Teams that embed transparency into their workflows often adapt more easily when outcomes don’t go as planned. This ensures smoother long-term integration for broader systems as well.
Encourage Teamwork Between Technology and People
One of the best ways to get the most out of your investment in tools is thinking of the relationship between technology and workers as a true partnership. For example, implementing easy-to-use interfaces can help teams interact with systems more efficiently. In one instance, an insurance company created intuitive prompts that allowed users to focus on relevant tasks quickly and reduced the need for second-guessing. By designing tools that naturally integrate into a workflow, organizations can create a sense of ownership and motivation among their teams.
The key takeaway? Success comes not just from adopting new systems but by designing workflows where technology and people work together smoothly to deliver better results.
What’s Next for You?
Have these insights inspired ideas for improving your company’s processes? Start by evaluating your workflows and spotting areas where integration could create the biggest impact. What’s one adjustment you could make today to shift the focus from a tool’s capabilities to its role within an effective workflow? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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