Automation has been around as long as humans have tried to relieve themselves of mundane and repetitive tasks.
For modern-day, large services corporations, few serious options have existed. Sure, some intelligent and tech-savvy employee could code macros within Microsoft products to automate some tasks. But when the employee with the knowledge of a specific automation technique leaves, who’s left to pick up the pieces?
Digitize.AI CEO Justin Adams (left) and CTO Thomas Gathings (right) plan to change that reality and help corporations capitalize on scalable and secure digital processes.
Adams learned about this space while working at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Internally, he worked with senior leaders to make a sizable, long-term investment to develop an automation and AI center of excellence.
To continue his career in automation and AI, he joined a consulting firm in Charlotte, where he led the digital transformation team. There, Adams quickly noticed that the firm was not addressing a sizable piece of the market.
“One of the things [the firm] didn’t really touch on was looking at companies’ processes and the ways to automate — using AI to help that,” Adams says.
He discussed this void in the marketplace with the partner of the firm, who validated Adams’ observation. So Adams decided to fill the gap and founded Digitize.AI.
He brought on Thomas Gathings — previously a unit CTO from FIS with extensive risk experience — as his co-founder and CTO to develop the technology behind their automation services. They also have a group of data scientists that works with them.
Digitize.AI offers several automation solutions that can be customized to suit customer needs. They can provide a vast spectrum of techniques, which range in sophistication. Many people who have not initially invested in AI want to jump right to the more attractive, advanced solutions, as the benefits can be lucrative. But Adams metaphorically suggests customers crawl before they sprint.
“There are some automation techniques you’re going to get ROI back that same year,” Adams states. “So [customers] use the cost savings as a way to generate investment to get that whole [automation] cycle going.”
One thing that’s unique to Digitize.AI is that the company serves more than just financial services. Adams believes Digitize.AI can leverage learnings across industries. A specific insight from retail, for instance, can help solve a similar problem within the financial services space.
Traditionally, robotics and automation to employees can be intimidating and even threatening. After all, throughout history, automation has replaced whole divisions of a corporation. Look at the automobile industry.
Digitize.AI’s vision is different. They want to let automation to do what it does best — completing repetitive tasks with consistent performance — so that a company’s workforce can refocus and reallocate time to creating additional value through creativity.
It’s still in the early stages for Adams’ company, but interestingly enough, out of all the clients that they have today, not one of them is using this technology to replace their workforce with machines.
“They’re all viewing this as a way to scale and grow,” he says.
Adams recently raised money from local investors to accelerate the company’s early growth. In fact, the previous consulting firm became a partner and one of Digitize.AI’s early investors. Adams plans to put the funds toward ramping up his staff with sophisticated, doctorate-level data scientists.
Adams is committed to Charlotte and wants to grow Digitize.AI into a true startup success story locally. “The environment is right for it,” he says.
By all means, Adams has had a successful career, and has high-profile work experience. So to entrepreneurs who start a business-to-business company aimed at serving Fortune 100 entities, he suggests getting some real-life business experience. It’s beneficial to understand the culture and routines behind how senior leaders in massive corporations make decisions, he says.
Adams also strongly encourages founders to create a company culture and corporate values as early as possible. It lays the ground work for solid, long-term relationships — with employees and customers. Also, as companies scale and hit inflection points, the culture should be constant and could be the differentiator that enables the company to succeed.
You can learn more about Digitize.AI and their automation solutions here.
