Unlocking Organizational Potential: Empowering Citizen Developers with Low-Code/No-Code Solutions
Bangkok, March 31, 2023 – Microsoft Thailand and AIS have joined forces to equip AIS employees with cutting-edge technological skills, enabling them to foster workplace innovation with Microsoft Power Platform – an intuitive, low-code platform that allows users to create applications without the need for extensive coding expertise. By leveraging this platform, AIS is providing its talented staff with the opportunity to develop new tools and streamline their workflow through automation, reducing the time spent on repetitive tasks, simplifying complex processes, and generating value for employees across the organization. As part of its collaboration with Microsoft, AIS recently hosted the AIS Cognitive Hack, an exciting competition aimed at encouraging and empowering its employees to master the Microsoft Power Platform, achieve the status of citizen developers, and bring to life a community where anyone is capable of driving innovation.
AIS has named team REN-NE as winners of AIS Cognitive Hack for their outstanding work in developing an innovative AI application using Power Automate that has the potential to significantly reduce the company’s energy costs, driving efficiency and sustainability across the board. In a close second, team Go Future earned the runner-up spot for their impressive work in developing an AI application that streamlines the document verification process and trains AI to recognize the visual characteristics of fixed broadband networks, ultimately reducing time spent on duplicate documents by up to 90%. Overall, the competition saw more than 1,000 AIS employees put their skills to the test and resulted in more than 500 impressive projects and used cases.
Mr. Suppachai Panichayunon, Acting Chief Information Officer for AIS, said, “I am delighted to see such a large turnout among AIS employees for the Cognitive Hack competition. This is a testament to our commitment to become a Cognitive Tech-Co by empowering the workforce to create innovative applications and automate workflow processes using their skills. This approach is fully aligned with AIS’ core objectives of enhancing employee competency and providing best customer experiences. By enabling employees to learn and hone their skills on Microsoft Power Platform, the competition offers a unique opportunity to unlock the full potential of the workforce and drive success across the organization.”
Mr. Suppachai added, “The goal of AIS Cognitive Hack is to empower employees to change working processes and embrace cognitive automation. By providing employees with the necessary tools and training to utilize automation and AI technologies, AIS is committed to developing a workforce of citizen developers – equipped to create innovative solutions, develop valuable skills, and solve complex problems. This approach will not only inspire other colleagues who may lack experience in application development to join the movement, but also align the organization’s efforts to adapt and thrive amidst internal and external challenges. Moreover, it will enable IT staff to focus more on advanced challenges that require their specific expertise.”
Mr. Pawish Jaishuen, Deputy Managing Director of Global Partner Solutions at Microsoft Thailand, said, “Microsoft and AIS have been working closely together as strategic partners in making the full range of cloud and AI capabilities accessible to more Thai organizations and businesses. We are delighted that the Power Platform has won the trust of AIS as a vital tool in improving work efficiency and elevating the skills of its employees across all areas of work to become innovators through low code / no code development. This strategic move not only benefits AIS, but also unlocks new avenues for creating innovative ideas to meet customer needs and strengthens Thailand’s digital potential to adapt to the changes of today and tomorrow.”
The REN-NE team, winners of AIS Cognitive Hack, comprises three talented AIS employees from the company’s data center in the Northeastern region: Mr. Choawanat Samkampang, Mr. Thanakorn Hoprasertwong, Engineering Specialists, and Mr. Patcharapol Sasuk, Senior Engineer. The team’s innovative AI application, developed using Power Automate, has the potential to make a significant impact on the company’s energy costs. The team’s representative said, “We recognize that power represents the biggest share in AIS’ expenses – accounting for up to 40% of total cost. We worked together with the aim of reducing these costs by around 1-2% by installing TOU (Time of Use) meters at over 25,000 AIS base stations. By using AI to calculate electricity usage and risk factors, our team has developed a solution that determines whether base stations should use batteries to charge electricity as backup power after 10PM, when electricity rates are cheaper. The stored electricity can then be used during the daytime when rates are higher. This approach not only benefits the company financially but also helps to conserve energy. We hope that this work will inspire other colleagues, who may lack expertise in application development, to become citizen developers by using the low code / no code platform to create innovative solutions.”
The runner-up team, Go Future, comprises three AIS employees: Mr. Poom Homjan, Engineer Specialist, Ms. Sirima Taengrod, Senior Engineer (Planning) and Mr. Krittaphart Chatsathianphong, Senior Engineer (Installation and Maintenance Quality). The team has developed an AI application to support document verification processes, with the AI trained to understand the visual characteristics of fixed broadband networks. The resulting app can reduce the time spent working on duplicate documents by up to 90%. Go Future’s representative said, “Our learnings from the AIS Cognitive Automation training program inspired us to create this project. We discovered what AI can potentially do for us, so we applied the technology to our work in broadband services. Our team have recognized the significance of network infrastructure planning in ensuring an uninterrupted customer experience, and AI can help support this work by specifically addressing the time-consuming and intricate verification of FBOQ (Final Bill of Quantity) documents received from partners. Using AI Object Detection, we have been able to speed up the verification process, reducing the time spent on checking documents from six hours per day to less than one hour per day. This improvement has allowed AIS to work more smoothly and accurately with partners, building a positive reputation and instilling confidence in those who work with the company.”
Microsoft Power Platform is a low-code development platform for creating applications, websites, and various digital tools with ease. By integrating services, data, and resources from across the organization, the platform empowers the entire organization to develop efficient and robust solutions for different needs – from analyzing data and finding insights from various sources to creating customized applications that address business challenges using low-code tools, Power Platform also enables the creation of chatbots that can respond to questions from either customers or internal employees, while the included Power Automate service helps to automate repetitive tasks and business processes quickly, saving valuable time and boosting productivity.