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Workflow Automation, AI-powered decisioning, and low-code

Pega and you, as a Pega Business Architect, help the world's largest organizations solve business problems.

Pega's low-code applications bring industry-leading workflow Automation and AI-powered decisioning capabilities to the world's largest organizations, allowing them to achieve breakthrough business outcomes and extraordinary business value when it comes to customer personalization, onboarding, service, operations, and exceptions.

In this topic, you explore the terms workflow Automation, AI-powered decisioning and low-code, how they influence Pega's positioning in the application development space, and how they impact your role as Pega Business Architect (BA).

Workflow Automation

A workflow, or business process, consists of a series of events. For example, there are events associated with a fraudulent credit card transaction. First, the customer service representative (CSR) gathers the initial information on the fraudulent transaction, including customer information, account number, and transaction details. For the second event, that information is passed on to a Fraud specialist for a detailed review. If the transaction is large enough, the third event requires manager approval before the fourth event where the transaction is removed from the consumer's account.

Each of these events carries risk - risk that data could be input incorrectly, delayed by a missed handoff between departments, or lost in the pile of pending approvals. All of these missteps result in a lost customer, lost revenue, and even a loss of reputation for the business.

Pega is an industry leader in workflow Automation - replacing manual events performed by people with automations that improve efficiency and accuracy, and mitigate risk. Pega builds applications in which automations do the repetitive, manual work, and people make the important decisions. 

As a Pega BA, you lead the design of applications that drive workflow Automation. In a Pega application, each workflow consists of a series of predefined events, ensuring that the same process is followed every time. To facilitate workflow Automation, every Pega application can:

  • Standardize the initial request for data in a Case.
  • Automatically route Cases directly to the specific individual or Work Group that is best suited to complete the Task.
  • Automate notifications about the status of the Case so that all stakeholders stay informed throughout the Case Life Cycle.
  • Establish Service-Level Agreements to ensure work is completed on-time, and automate escalation actions to ensure that delays are addressed.
  • Manage approvals by both email and mobile devices for faster Case processing.

Pega's workflow Automations result in a process that is more consistent, efficient, and cost-effective. As a Pega BA, you work to design, develop, and deliver applications that fix problematic workflows with Pega's out-of-the-box workflow Automation capabilities. Workflow Automations are central to the value that Pega delivers to client organizations and should be top-of-mind as you digitally transform business processes.

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AI-powered decisioning

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technological development in which computer systems perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.

For example, a customer is working with a bank representative to open a new checking account. Once the representative has gathered relevant information such as age, education, and employment status, the bank's computer system uses AI to provide the representative with a real-time suggestion for the most appropriate checking account, as well suggestions for a savings account and credit card. In this case, the integration of AI with the customer onboarding system benefits both the individual and the bank - the individual is presented with solutions that meet their personal needs, and the bank gains a more entrenched customer.

Having spent the last decade integrating AI into Pega Platform™ technology, Pega is an industry leader at incorporating AI into an organization's workflow. Currently, Pega Platform harnesses the power of AI to assist organizations in achieving better outcomes by:

  • Incorporating natural language processing and voice AI, enabling applications to take unstructured text and turn it into actionable data for use in a case.
  • Personalizing customer interactions by using real-time decisioning to generate the next best actions for engagement and retention.
  • Accelerating customer service with contextual information that understands the intent of the customer interaction.
  • Using predictive and adaptive analytics to increase operational effectiveness by anticipating missed deadlines and routing work to the most skilled team member.
  • Identifying and resolving operational inefficiencies in process and task mining.
Note: For more information on Pega and AI-powered decisioning, see Pega AI powers decisioning that drives better outcomes.

Currently, Pega is integrating technology to use generative AI in the initial construction of applications, reducing the time-to-value for clients.

Like workflow Automation, AI-powered decisioning is integral to Pega's value proposition. As a Pega BA, you work to design, develop, and deliver applications that incorporate Pega's out-of-the-box AI-powered decisioning capabilities to improve the efficiency of the workflow and assist organizations in personalizing interactions with their customers.

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Low-code defined

Forrester describes low-code development as "Products and/or cloud services for application development that employ visual, declarative techniques instead of programming…" 

Pega's low-code development tools use simplified, user-interface capabilities such as drag-and-drop, process flows, and visual tools to write text-heavy code. In the center of the following image, slide the vertical line to compare traditional Java development tools with Pega's low-code development tools:

Pega's end-to-end, low-code development tools allow project team members to participate in the application development process regardless of their technical ability. Members of the project's IT team, as well as the Pega BAs, each have different roles and responsibilities in the low-code creation of a Pega application.

These roles and responsibilities correspond to Pega's four user interfaces, known as Studios.

The four Studios are:

  • App Studio: A low-code studio designed for use across the IT team. App Studio is primarily for the following users:
    • Business architects
    • Application developers
    • Front-end (UX/UI) developers

    To learn more about App Studio, see App Studio overview.

  • Dev Studio: A low-code studio with advanced configuration options. Dev Studio is primarily for experienced users in the following roles:
    • Application developers
    • Pega account administrators
    • Security administrators

    To learn more about Dev Studio, see Dev Studio overview.

  • Prediction Studio:  A studio where predictive and adaptive models are created and managed. To learn more about Prediction Studio, see Prediction Studio overview.
  • Admin Studio: A software administration studio. To learn more about Admin Studio, see Admin Studio overview.

In the following image, click the + icons to view a screenshot and learn more about each studio:

Your work as a Business Architect is primarily in App Studio. You use App Studio to bridge the gap between Business and IT project teams, to create a common visual language that enables all stakeholders to collaborate more effectively during application design and development. For the project's Business team members with less technical experience, App Studio's visual language allows you to focus on explaining the application's business logic, rather than complicated computer code. Increased understanding results in shorter feedback loops between Business and IT, improving overall team productivity and minimizing the time-to-value for the project.

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