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Forbes
10-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
AI Agents Vs RPA: What Every Business Leader Needs To Know
AI agents and robotic process automation may sound similar, but they solve different problems in ... More very different ways Two terms that come up frequently in conversations about business automation today are 'agents' and 'robotic process automation' (RPA). They're often mentioned together because both aim to streamline repetitive, rules-based tasks that were traditionally handled by humans. However, while they share some common ground, especially around automation and the use of 'robots,' they represent very different approaches to solving different kinds of problems. Understanding these differences is essential if you want to choose the right tool for the job. At its core, RPA is about programming software with clear, rule-based instructions to perform simple, repeatable tasks. AI agents, by contrast, aren't programmed; they're trained. Once trained, they're left to get on with the job using tools like natural language models and computer vision to navigate complex tasks and make decisions. So, how does that affect the kind of problems each one is best suited to solve? And more importantly, how do you decide which to use in a given situation? What Robot? Robots, bots, virtual assistants, and, increasingly, 'digital workers' are all terms that have traditionally been used for any machine capable of helping us work. Starting all the way back in 1961, when General Motors installed mechanical arms on its production lines. The term 'robot' covers any machine that can automate work for us. Whether or not it uses the algorithmic, machine-learning-based processes that we call 'AI' today. RPA, however, generally refers to software-based robots, rather than mechanical ones. Technically speaking, RPA isn't intelligent in the same way that we might consider an AI system like ChatGPT to mimic some functions of human intelligence. It simply follows the same rules over and over again in order to spare us the effort of doing it. RPA works best with structured data because, unlike AI, it doesn't have the ability to analyze and understand unstructured data, like pictures, videos, or human language. It's frequently used for repetitive 'production line' work, moving data between applications, and extracting data from structured sources (such as customer databases or financial reports) for analysis. AI agents, on the other hand, use language models and other AI technologies like computer vision to understand and interpret the world around them. As well as simply analyzing and answering questions about data, they are capable of taking action by planning how to achieve the results they want and interacting with third-party services to get it done. If you use ChatGPT or another generative AI chatbot in 'thinking' mode, you can get some idea of how it does this by watching its 'thoughts' as it responds to queries. Instead of just thinking about one query and then replying, it can apply this ability to complex, multi-step tasks and projects. To illustrate the difference, consider a database of customer service emails, and how each could approach this same data set differently to carry out different tasks: Using RPA, it would be possible to extract details about who sent the mail, the subject line, and the time and date it was sent. This can be used to build email databases and broadly categorize emails according to keywords. An agent, on the other hand, could analyze the sentiment of the email using language processing, prioritize it according to urgency, and even draft and send a tailored response. Over time, it learns how to improve its actions in order to achieve better resolutions. While AI agents are a far newer and more sophisticated technology, that doesn't mean they're automatically the best choice for every task. So, how do you know which one to use? So, How Do I Choose? Here are some questions you can ask if you need to consider whether agents or RPA are right for your automation project: Does the task involve clear targets that can be achieved by repetitive action day-to-day? If so, then RPA could be a good fit. Is the data clean and structured, or messy and unstructured? If everything fits nicely and neatly into the rows and columns of a spreadsheet, RPA is probably the right choice. Does the task involve making decisions based on interpretations of human language, behavior or intent? These might be suitable for agents. Will the process change as the task is executed, or will our tools need to adapt to new sources of data? Agents will probably be more useful here. Finally, many projects may be best tackled by taking a hybrid approach. In cases where tasks could be completed by combining both routine automation and intelligent decision-making, this could provide the best of both worlds. For example, an HR onboarding system could involve deploying RPA for processes like setting up access privileges, processing forms and filing standard documents. At the same time, AI agents could answer questions, personalize advice, and monitor the system end-to-end to make sure it's running smoothly. As automation strategies mature, learning to identify opportunities to deploy specific technologies or combine them for maximum efficiency will become increasingly critical to business success.
Forbes
04-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
A First Look At How Kakao CEO Shina Chung Is Using OpenAI Tech To Reinvent The Korean Internet Giant In Forbes Asia's July Issue
Shina Chung, CEO of Kakao Forbes Asia July 2025 cover T he tumultuous times we live in pose a stress test for leaders across the spectrum. Those helming businesses are required to make a crucial call about staying the course amid uncertainty or forging a brave, new path. The protagonist of this issue's cover story, Shina Chung, CEO of Korean internet giant Kakao, opted for the latter. Just over a year into her current assignment, Chung is going all-in on AI, through a landmark alliance with OpenAI, to provide a catalyst for Kakao's growth. The company is gearing up to offer the next generation of virtual assistants later this year to the 49 million users of its superapp KakaoTalk. Senior editor John Kang, who met Chung at her office in South Korea's tech hub of Pangyo, narrates how this could be a game-changer for the company. Isidro Consunji, President and CEO of DMCI Holdings. Courtesy of DMCI Holdings Change has been a constant in the five-decades-plus career of Isidro Consunji, a widely respected industrialist in the Philippines. His profile by Ian Sayson and Jonathan Burgos recounts how this second-generation heir took his family's construction business to the next level by scooping up troubled companies—from a coal miner to a power producer—and turning them around. At age 76, Consunji's taken on yet another challenge with the $660 million acquisition by his DMCI Holdings of Mexican giant Cemex's money-losing cement unit in the Philippines. Another highlight of this edition is the inaugural list of the World's 50 Richest Self-Made Women. The largest number in this group—24—hail from Asia-Pacific, of which 18 are from China (including Hong Kong.) However, despite the increasing numbers of women entrepreneurs, the world's 50 richest self-made men are collectively worth 14 times as much as their female counterparts. The wealthy in Thailand are showcased in our annual list of the nation's 50 richest, compiled this year by contributing editor Phisanu Phromchanya. Amid tariff and political turmoil, their net worth got a gravity-defying, double-digit boost with the top three notching the biggest wealth gains. The Global 2000 2025 Jisu Choi for Forbes An annual exercise of note is the Forbes Global 2000, a roster of the world's largest public companies, now in its 23rd year. There are a total of 765 Asia-Pacific companies among them, with China (including Hong Kong) leading the group. Significantly, all four metrics—sales, profits, assets and market value—used to rank these 2,000 companies are higher this year despite global uncertainties. Their leaders, undoubtedly, have made the right calls. As always, comments welcome at executiveeditor@
Forbes
03-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
CLASS: Culture, Leads, Accountability, System And Support
Daniel is an entrepreneur, founder & CEO of MyOutDesk devoted to providing growing companies with proven, reliable virtual assistants. As a colleague and I racked up the miles on a sunbaked stretch of highway outside of Roswell, New Mexico, we weren't thinking so much about alien conspiracies and secret government bases. Instead, we found ourselves dissecting what really propels a sales organization from 'good' to 'category-defining.' This wasn't just road-trip chatter; we've both spent years in the trenches, building teams, closing deals and learning (sometimes the hard way) what works and what doesn't. Somewhere between pit stops, we realized we'd arrived at a shared framework, one that we've both tested, broken and rebuilt across thousands of real estate transactions and multiple business lines. We call it CLASS: culture, leads, accountability, systems and support. Nail all five, and growth feels inevitable; miss even one, and friction shows up fast. Culture: The Nonnegotiable Culture isn't pizza lunches or happy-hour selfies. It's clarity of vision and the willingness to protect that vision at all costs. If even one top performer tramples your core values, the entire group sees the compromise and standards can slide. Keep culture tight by: 1. Posting the annual team vision where everyone can see it, then revisiting it quarterly. 2. Pairing every KPI review with a personal "why" check-in. Numbers matter, but so do the lives those numbers fund. When vision is explicit, peer-to-peer accountability kicks in. I no longer need to police behavior; the team handles drift long before it lands on my desk. Leads: Fuel With A Dashboard, Not a Fire Hose Handing someone 1,000 internet leads without a success rate is cruelty masquerading as generosity. My organization publishes our conversion math up front: a 3% appointment rate on cold leads and a 30% face-to-face close rate once the meeting happens. Every "no" is worth roughly $20 in future commission, so rejection becomes a deposit, not a deduction. I've found that this simple reframe keeps morale high and pipeline math honest. Accountability: Mirror First, Metrics Second Our one-on-ones open with cameras off for five minutes of real life: family, health, mindset. Only then do we flip the camera on and pull the numbers: calls, connections, contracts, even date nights. If a goal lives on their sheet, it's fair game. Accountability without empathy feels like punishment; empathy without numbers feels like a hug that never pays the mortgage. It's best to choose both. Systems: 95% Automated, 5% High-Impact Human A referral event for 6,000 past clients takes our marketing machine months to orchestrate, yet the agent's total 'life' is a handful of personal calls and face-to-face handshakes the day of the party. The 5% human effort delivers 95% of the client loyalty. If a task can be templated, delegated or triggered by software, it comes off the salesperson's plate. The result: they negotiate, prospect, follow up and sharpen skills. Nothing else. Support: Trust That Frees Talent The hardest leap for top producers is surrendering control to a support team they can't yet 'see.' We solve that with explicit SLAs, weekly department huddles and KPI scoreboards that make all the behind-the-scenes progress fully transparent. When agents realize 95% of the transaction is handled better (and faster) by specialists, they lean in rather than hold on. Scaling Signals: When To Rebuild Your CLASS Growth isn't a straight line; it's a staircase. Every time we jumped from 50 to 100 transactions, then 100 to 500, something in the CLASS broke: Lead flow overwhelmed systems or culture lagged behind a rush of new hires. The pain is the indicator: Either hire for where you're going or revamp the pillar that's buckling under pressure. Here is a quick diagnostic you can use: 1. Culture: Do standards slip for rainmakers? 2. Leads: Are reps drowning or starving? No one should be both. 3. Accountability: Are one-on-ones coaching sessions or coffee chats? 4. Systems: Is admin time creeping above 5% of a rep's week? 5. Support: Do producers still type their own contracts? You're late. Stewardship Over Ownership Early on, I set myself a personal "allowance" and treated surplus revenue as the company's, not mine. That discipline allowed us to hire ahead of need, weather market downturns and keep our promises to the people rowing the boat—even when transaction counts dipped 40% to 50%. Teams sense fiscal stewardship; it breeds loyalty that bonus checks alone can't buy. The Leader's Mandate • Cast a horizon worth chasing. Paint the future so vividly that your best people can't imagine building it anywhere else. • Equip talent to outperform the plan. Embed clear KPIs, repeatable playbooks and ongoing coaching so every producer knows exactly how to win; then watches the scoreboard to prove it. • Scale yourself first. Keep learning, delegating and reinventing fast enough that no one on the team "graduates" beyond your leadership capacity. Your growth ceiling sets theirs. CLASS isn't theory. It's the operating system I trust with my livelihood, reputation and, most importantly, the families my businesses serve. Master the five pillars, and growth stops feeling like a gamble; it feels inevitable. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Concentrix iX Hello™ Named 'Intelligent Personal Assistant of the Year' in 2025 AI Breakthrough Awards Program
Prestigious International Annual Awards Program Honors Standout AI Companies & Solutions LOS ANGELES, June 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AI Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) market, today announced that Concentrix Corporation, a global technology and services leader, has been selected as winner of the 'Intelligent Personal Assistant of the Year' award in the 8th annual AI Breakthrough Awards program. The 2025 AI Breakthrough Award recognizes the breakthrough innovation of Concentrix' iX Hello AI-powered application. The iX Hello application allows organizations to create fully customizable GenAI-powered virtual AI assistants that are smart, multimodal, and intuitive. The assistants seamlessly integrate across the enterprise and can be tailored to any need, including Customer AI Assistants, internal Employee AI Assistants, and more. The self-service tools empower customer-facing teams to deliver exceptional, meaningful interactions at scale. With no-code setup and immediate deployment, iX Hello can be rolled out across the enterprise in days and can be integrated into enterprise systems like Salesforce and Microsoft. It also supports hybrid cloud environments for effortless, secure deployment. 'Receiving the AI Breakthrough award affirms our belief that the future of enterprise productivity lies in intelligent assistance,' said Ryan Peterson, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Concentrix. 'It's a reflection of what we know to be true – AI technologies such as iX Hello have the power to boost employee efficiency and modernize customer engagement with overall better outcomes. We're excited to continue innovating the solutions that redefine what's possible when AI works side by side with humans.' The AI Breakthrough Awards shine a spotlight on the boldest innovators and most impactful technologies leading the charge in AI across a comprehensive set of categories, including Generative AI, Computer Vision, AIOps, Agentic AI, Robotics, Natural Language Processing, industry-specific AI applications and many more. This year's program attracted more than 5,000 nominations from over 20 different countries throughout the world, underscoring the explosive growth and global importance of AI as a defining technology of the 21st century. 'Efficiency is about more than workflows and processes - it's really about customer impact. And breakthrough solutions like iX Hello don't merely respond, they continuously learn and adapt,' said Steve Johansson, managing director, AI Breakthrough. 'iX Hello is revolutionizing customer interactions, and organizational efficiency, offering more intuitive and personalized service, boosting productivity for employees and setting new industry standards. We're pleased to recognize iX Hello with the 2025 award for 'Intelligent Personal Assistant of the Year!'' About AI BreakthroughPart of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AI Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in Artificial Intelligence technologies, services, companies and products. The AI Breakthrough Awards provide public recognition for the achievements of AI companies and products in categories including Generative AI, Machine Learning, AI Platforms, Robotics, Business Intelligence, AI Hardware, Computer Vision and more. For more information visit Tech Breakthrough LLC does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our recognition programs, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with award designations. Tech Breakthrough LLC recognition consists of the opinions of the Tech Breakthrough LLC organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Tech Breakthrough LLC disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this recognition program, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About Concentrix: Powering a World That Works Concentrix Corporation (NASDAQ: CNXC), a Fortune 500® company, is the global technology and services leader that powers the world's best brands, today and into the future. We're solution-focused, tech-powered, intelligence-fueled. Every day, we design, build, and run fully integrated, end-to-end solutions at speed and scale across the entire enterprise, helping over 2,000 clients solve their toughest business challenges. With unique data and insights, deep industry expertise, and advanced technology solutions, we're the intelligent transformation partner that powers a world that works, helping companies become refreshingly simple to work, interact, and transact with. Delivering outcomes unimagined across every major vertical in 70+ markets. Virtually everywhere. Visit to learn more. From Fortune. ©2025 Fortune Media (USA) Corporation All rights reserved. Used under license. Copyright 2025 Concentrix Corporation and its subsidiariesAll rights reserved. Concentrix, the Concentrix logo, and all other Concentrix company, product and services names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of Concentrix Corporation and its subsidiaries. CONTACT: Media Contact: Steve Johansson 213.255.3658 steve@ in to access your portfolio
Forbes
27-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Win Or Learn: The Entrepreneur's Mindset
Daniel is an entrepreneur, founder & CEO of MyOutDesk devoted to providing growing companies with proven, reliable virtual assistants. The common framing around failure in entrepreneurship—of things being win or lose—doesn't work for me. You're either winning or you're learning, and learning is iterative and 'the entrepreneur's mindset.' I've been establishing, growing and selling businesses for almost 20 years, and that's the mindset I decide to approach every entrepreneurial endeavor with. I know 18% of small businesses fail within their first year (and 50% within the first five), but I also know there are a lot of people like me out there who also decide every day to pursue a passion or idea that's as likely to fail as it is to succeed. That decision is the first of a million-plus decisions entrepreneurs have to make. And there are just as many different routes that could get them where they want to go. As someone who's faced the inevitable decision paralysis countless times and worked with thousands of entrepreneurs who've experienced the same, I've learned a few tricks for turning decision paralysis into progress—because action, even if in the wrong direction, is better than stagnancy. Is taking the initial leap the hardest part … or everything that comes after it? Well, that's for each founder to decide. What isn't up for debate is that the decisions made during the ideation and planning phases of the entrepreneur have the power to significantly impact future business success. Product-market fit is paramount. Find a clear path to customer demand, and offer customers a value proposition that no other company can. While your business idea must be unique, the elevator pitch for it can be formulaic: I provide this (product/service) for people (describe the person/customer/business) that want (outcome). In its simplest form, business is humans helping other humans; if you're good, then the business will grow. To be good, you must commit to a pursuit of mastery. A dedication to your business's growth and development is a dedication to your own personal growth and development as well. Ongoing education and improvement in marketing, operations and delivery are critical, but sales mastery is nonnegotiable as founders are constantly selling their vision to customers, investors and employees. Consider whether a blended workforce is the right choice for you. It can be a good idea to hire internal staff for the most technical and high-value tasks, and hire outsourced staff for the process-based tasks. (Disclosure: My company helps with outsourcing, as do others.) But for many entrepreneurs, the first 'hire' should be a technology system like a CRM or ERP platform that supports those team members and you in every business decision from customer acquisition to product or service distribution. This kind of blended model that employs physical, virtual and digital team members takes advantage of the strength of AI in its current era and gives humans the ability to leverage that technology to help better the business. Some of the most common entrepreneurial decisions are the most difficult to make because there's no right or wrong answer or one answer that fits every entrepreneur. The good news is, in my experience, it's less about what you decide and more about how. Separate CEO from self. It's your business, but the business is not you. It should be treated as its own entity, and decision-making should be based on what's best for the company, not the individual(s) running it, because those are not always one and the same. Founder compensation is a good example. While taking a salary is typically preferred from a personal perspective, it may not be best for a new business that still has entry-level revenue and weak financial stability. As the business grows and scales, so can the market value (and salary) of the CEO. Focus on the long term. I've learned that effective leaders prioritize the long-term health and mission of the business above personal gain or convenience. They lead 'from the front,' never asking employees to do something they wouldn't be willing to do themselves. This approach can foster trust, build credibility and effectively motivate teams to stay the course in the short term for better results in the long run—results that everyone on the team will professionally and personally benefit from. Do the due diligence to turn curiosity into context. Ask questions. Understand the 'what' and the 'why' of every situation, be it managing employee performance or evaluating pitches promising grandiose visions. As a founder, you'll inevitably possess a broader context than individual contributors and must tailor your communications and operations decisions to reflect that big-picture view. Be okay with saying no—strategically. It's a necessary skill for leaders to protect their business, their time, the team doing the work and the customers they serve. Establishing guardrails early on and sticking to a disciplined evaluation process when determining things like whether or not to hire friends and family or take on investors can prevent biased decision-making based on familiarity or immediate appeal instead of true business and customer needs. Often, situations are less about the decision and more about how you approach making it—less about a founder's checklist and more about a founder's willingness to take risks. While market opportunity and product-market fit are paramount, successful entrepreneurship often stems from an innate drive and passion for pursuing a vision. It takes courage, commitment and an inner self-assuredness to turn a gut feeling into a foundation for a profitable venture, not another failure statistic. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
