DMS CovidFollowing up on part 1, part 2, and part 3, McKinsey’s Jump-starting resilient and reimagined operations discussed the impact of COVID-19 on the future of work. We are already seeing radical changes in how people work, especially with remote collaboration and other digital tools. But work is also going to change in more fundamental ways – as the authors note, companies will need to reskill their workforce to move from manual, repetitive tasks to human-only capabilities.

But this implies the successful automation of many tasks currently performed by humans. In particular it means replacing manual approvals with automated ones. It means changing from a focus on escalating transactions to more senior staff to make decisions with formal, automated definitions of when things can be approved. It means taking large, lumpy human tasks and identifying the specific pieces of that decision-making that require human judgment while automating the rest. It means figuring out how to combine machine learning, predictive analytics, AI, regulatory rules and human judgment into a single, coherent whole.

Our experience is that this means modeling decisions. It means working directly with those who know how to make a decision to model it. Identifying in that model the pieces driven by regulation and policy so they can be automated with business rules. Finding the places where data-driven insight is key, so that predictive analytics and machine learning can be applied. Asking business leaders to think how they would like to make the decision in the future, so that AI can be applied to answer those questions too. And recognizing that some parts of the decision – some sub-decisions – still require human input. Only with a coherent decision model can you really see how all these pieces fit together, automate it appropriately and move forward into the future of work.

For more on how decision modeling can help you drive the future of work by delivering agility and operational efficiency, check out our white paper on Agility and Efficiency with Decision Modeling and sign up for our newsletter.

  1. It’s time to transform
  2. Accelerate Digitization
  3. Increase transparency
  4. Drive the future of work (this post)

BOSTON, MA – May 4, 2026 – Blue Polaris announced it has been awarded the North America Winner of the 2026 IBM Partner Plus Awards for the Transformational SaaS Application category at IBM Partner Plus Day during Think 2026. This award celebrates IBM business partners who demonstrated measurable improvements through efficiency, cost savings and productivity through IBM SaaS deployments.

 

“This recognition underscores the meaningful impact and innovation our partners are delivering across the IBM Ecosystem,” said Nicholas Rogers, GM of Americas Ecosystem at IBM. “We are proud to recognize Blue Polaris as a North America winner and celebrate the work they have done to help clients scale and accelerate AI outcomes through IBM services and solutions — over the past year and into the future.”

 

The IBM Partner Plus Awards recognize partners who deliver exceptional impact aligned with IBM’s strategic priorities. Thirty-four winners were selected from hundreds of global submissions across all geographies and seven categories. 

 

Partners eligible to win an award are part of IBM Partner Plus, a program designed to help deepen partners’ technical expertise, accelerate time to market and win with clients with AI and hybrid cloud. For more information on IBM Partner Plus, please visit www.ibm.com/partnerplus.