activity
What It Means
An activity is a distinct piece of work that gets done within your organization, made up of related tasks that achieve a specific business outcome. It's basically any meaningful work process, whether simple like 'approve expense report' or complex like 'onboard new customer.' Activities are the building blocks that make up your larger business processes.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
CAIOs need to map and understand activities because they're where AI automation opportunities live and where data governance policies get applied in practice. When activities involve AI systems, they become critical control points for risk management, compliance monitoring, and performance measurement. Poor activity definition leads to gaps in AI oversight and makes it nearly impossible to track where algorithmic decisions are actually being made.
Real-World Example
In a loan approval process, individual activities might include 'collect applicant documents,' 'run credit score analysis,' 'apply AI risk model,' and 'generate approval recommendation.' Each activity has specific inputs, outputs, and rules, making it clear where the AI system fits in and what data it processes.
Common Confusion
People often confuse activities with tasks or entire processes - an activity sits in the middle, being bigger than individual tasks but smaller than complete end-to-end processes. Activities are also confused with job roles, but one person might perform multiple activities and one activity might involve multiple people.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare, activities represent discrete clinical, administrative, or operational workflows that directly impact pat...
Finance: In finance, activities represent specific work processes that drive financial operations and reporting, such as accounts...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"Work that an organization performs using business processes; can be singular or compound."Source: IEEE_Guide_IPA
"Set of cohesive tasks of a process."Source: CSRC
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