How AI can help your corporation move forward

Corporations are still cautious about AI

At CorporatiePlein 2024, I explained our Copilot story, highlighting both opportunities and risks. What struck me again during the event is that there is not yet much knowledge about AI within the housing corporation world. People even put on the brakes from time to time. In a way, this is understandable, if only because corporations work with sensitive information and do not want an application like Copilot to be able to use that information unintentionally. Therefore, corporations will have to think carefully about how to keep their information secure, now and in the future.

AI offers increasing opportunities

While it is imperative to proceed cautiously with the implementation of Copilot - and AI in general - it is certainly worth pursuing. Indeed, I am convinced that AI is going to offer housing associations many more opportunities to optimise processes in the near future.

More about Copilot

AI bots go to work for you

I notice that Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has already taken off in a rapidly increasing number of housing associations. The good news is that Microsoft will soon greatly enhance this RPA process with AI through a so-called AI recorder. That is an application where you as a user share your screen with an AI and you tell that AI what you are doing and why you are doing it. This way, you train the AI and you can start automating certain processes at some point. For example, having an AI agent automatically perform manual tasks, such as recognising a mould report from an email, following up by putting data into the right systems, and scheduling a maintenance appointment with the right department, without the need for human intervention.

To many, this still sounds quite advanced, but consider, for example, setting up an AI pioneer group within your housing association. Then, step by step, you can learn to work with AI and integrate it into the housing association.

Predictability home maintenance with AI

Another interesting development in the field of Data & AI for the housing association world is Microsoft Fabric: a central platform that brings together an organisation's multiple data tools and services. Part of this is integration with Power BI, which allows users to query and easily visualise data in natural language, enabling major improvements in housing maintenance predictability. Ultimately, this remains a matter of connecting the right data sources in your data platform (with Fabric). This is often still a long (but necessary) road to travel. It shows how AI and BI are increasingly merging into a powerful combination.

Want to know more aboutAI?

Want to know more about the potential of AI for your organisation and how to strike the right balance between being cautious and seizing opportunities? Feel free to contact us!