TLDR: Orica, a global leader in mining and infrastructure solutions, is significantly enhancing its generative AI capabilities through the adoption and expansion of ServiceNow’s Now Assist. This strategic move aims to boost operational efficiency, improve service delivery, and drive innovation across various business processes, including IT service management and demand planning.
Orica, a prominent provider of mining and infrastructure solutions, is making substantial strides in integrating generative AI into its core operations, primarily through the adoption and scaling of ServiceNow’s Now Assist. This initiative underscores Orica’s commitment to leveraging advanced technologies for enhanced efficiency and innovation.
Initially, Orica emerged as an early adopter of generative AI within ServiceNow, focusing on deflecting IT service desk inquiries to chatbots and self-service solutions. This was part of a broader strategy encompassing 35 potential use cases within IT operations. Bradley Hunt, Orica’s Manager of DevOps and Regional Apps, highlighted at the ServiceNow World Forum Melbourne 2024 that the company joined the early access program for Now Assist, a suite of generative AI tools designed to augment ServiceNow instances. This move was the culmination of a two-year effort to re-platform their decade-old ServiceNow instance, returning it to a “greenfield out-of-the-box position” with the help of ServiceNow partner Thirdera.
Orica’s initial foray into AI involved connecting Now Assist to an external large language model (LLM) via Azure OpenAI service, building successful proof-of-concepts within ITSM. Subsequently, they transitioned to ServiceNow’s native Now LLM. Hunt reported “very positive” value realization and results, noting a dramatic increase in virtual agent deflection rates from 18 percent to 94 percent. Furthermore, the company observed a reduction of one day in Mean Time To Resolve (MTTR) across all incidents within just two months of using Now Assist in production. Orica plans to further integrate Now Assist’s language support capabilities, which cover 12 languages, across its global operations, anticipating full realization of their vision within six months to a year.
Beyond IT service management, Orica is also leveraging AI for critical business functions like demand planning. Rachael Sandel, Orica’s Chief Information Officer, revealed that the company has developed its own custom model using Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. This model, integrated with their SAP data, has led to a 10% improvement in sales forecast accuracy, enabling better decision-making. Orica has migrated its extensive SAP enterprise resource planning system to Google Cloud, building an enterprise data warehouse on BigQuery and utilizing Vertex AI to train custom models on SAP data for faster insights.
Also Read:
- Generative AI: A Catalyst for Enterprise Innovation, Efficiency, and Revenue Growth
- AI and Automation to Drive IT Support Market to $210.86 Billion by 2032
Orica’s digital transformation journey has seen a fivefold increase in its digital team over the last four years, now serving over 200 customers with digital solutions. This strategic focus on data, AI, and cloud technologies, including partnerships with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, is central to Orica’s mission of “beyond blasting,” aiming to optimize energy use, drill patterns, and overall efficiencies across the mining value chain through real-time data-driven insights.
