CCS consultants come from all walks of life. One commonality we all share, though, is a hunger to learn and a focus on improvement. Our curiosity and drive to make change for the better means we are constantly adapting to changes, whether these be to our own business environment, our client projects, or more prominently, in technology.
AI and Automations have caused a lot of “hoo-ha!” in recent years — and certainly this winter with the release of DeepSeek — challenging humanity’s beliefs about what is possible and in how long a timeframe. Lean Sigma, one of our core methodologies, has been doing this for decades (check out what it did for F1 here).
In this blog, Eilidh Poole shares her AI and Automations journey; from basic awareness to AI assisted coding and building an AI Chatbot that serves to enhance customer experience while maximising Business Development resources, and automated calendar summaries that speed up utilisation reporting and invoicing!
From Biomedical Science to Business Process Automation | My Unexpected Journey with AI
Let’s be honest, I didn’t expect to be this excited about AI and automations either!
Having left school to study Biomedical Science only to find out the way of learning and the course itself wasn’t for me, I made a significant career change and stepped into the world of Business.
Embarking on a 4-year programme as a Graduate Apprentice with Change Consulting Scotland, partnered with Heriot-Watt University, I took a leap into Change Management, Operational Excellence and Continual Improvement and have unexpectedly found myself diving headfirst into the fascinating realm of automation and AI.
When I started my journey with CCS, yes I knew what Chat GPT was; it had helped me with my school work, however if you had told me then that I would be this excited about AI and Automations, and have the knowledge I have now, I wouldn’t have believed you.
Why Automations?
My role at CCS involves working alongside experts in Business Process Improvement. My initial learning was to understand Swimlanes and Value Stream Mapping to identify inefficiencies within a process; a methodology central to Lean Six Sigma.
Whilst looking into a Lead Nurture process, I was able to map out the ‘As-Is’ process and identify areas for improvement where automations seemed like an ample solution — this is where my learning began.
My first foray into this world was with Zapier — a user-friendly platform that taught me the basics of automation;
- Triggers (this is the event that starts your automation),
- Actions (this is what happens after the automation is triggered),
- API Keys (used to securely share information and trigger actions between apps), and
- Webhooks (when something happens in one app (like a trigger), it sends a message (a webhook) to another app to let it know).
Zapier was the perfect starting point — I was able to make mistakes and trouble shoot the errors, build less (or more) complex solutions and build confidence. Before I knew it, I was building automations that connected webforms to spreadsheets using webhooks, which triggered external text messages and internal email notifications.
Coding? No Problem, Thanks to ChatGPT!
Next up was Google Apps Script, and with it, a whole new world of coding (eek!).
Think of Apps Script as a way to add powers to your Google apps. It’s like a behind-the-scenes tool that allows you to automate tasks and connect different apps together using Javascript code. In short, it was a massive jump from Zapier!
Coding was not an area of knowledge for me. Rather, one full of intimidation and the distinct feeling I was about to make a terrible, irreversible mistake. So, up until this point I had always steered clear.
Thankfully, I had ChatGPT as my trusty coding tutor. I’d ask for code, ChatGPT would write it, and then I’d ask it to tweak it until I had met my requirements (I repeated this circle more times than I could ever count!).
However, while there was much experimentation, we didn’t just “wing it” — we got the experts in to assist. When I reached a standstill, Greg was my first point of call. His expertise has helped me finalise all of the automations I have worked on, giving me confidence in what I had built. Without Greg and AI these solutions would have taken years, and A LOT more money, to build!
CCS Chatbot
To construct our chatbot, I embarked on another educational journey. Initially I learned how to establish and refine a knowledge base; we needed to be sure the chatbots responses were accurate and informative. The next step was to integrate this chatbot seamlessly onto our website, making it accessible from any webpage. While the chatbot may not be utilized frequently, its presence signifies our commitment to using AI in our own business processes and showcasing this innovative approach with pride.
Internal Calendar Summary | My Most Complex Automation To Date
Starting off as just an idea, where in an ideal world we had the ability to produce a calendar breakdown of the time we have spent on a project by project basis.
ChatGPT helped me write the initial code. Determining the requirements for this was the hardest part; What variables could Apps Script extract? Which of these did I really need? How do I keep this information secure? And so, that continuous circle of writing and tweaking code went on for a number of weeks and there were countless blockers along the way (which my new knowledge and ChatGPT helped solve).
We now have an internal calendar summary solution which is deployed for all employees. Our invoicing has become easier and much more efficient; we are confident that our invoices are factual and a true reflection of time spent on projects. Plus, we’ve eliminated wasted time spent on the monthly scramble for project breakdown confirmations.
Embracing the Power of AI
There’s no denying AI is going to be a massive part of the future world of work. The underlying aim in all of my learning has been to build confidence and understand how to best utilise the new and upcoming resources that are at the tip of our fingers. Whilst further enhancing my learning, a constant question to ask is ‘How can my learnings become an expansion of our services?’ (this is a long term aim!)
For some (or most), AI is scary and that makes sense. Speaking from my own experience, Artificial Intelligence is a very powerful tool that can drastically excel the speed in which we learn new skills and improve our business processes. A key part in implementing automations is understanding the current, As-Is, process. At CCS we thrive in Business Process Improvement and our decades of experience can help you identify these inefficiencies and make room for improvements!
Our Business Process Diagnostic Playbook is a perfect place to start your improvement journey. Alternatively book a 30-minute chat with Cecilia to get to know us better — it would be great to hear from you!
Download our free Business Process Diagnostic Playbook 📩
P.S. AI even helped me write this blog!