Three-quarters of executives are expecting their sector to be disrupted by automation within 12 months.
The findings come from research firm GlobalData which calls automation “no longer a distant dream”. Undoubtedly, the pandemic has sped up the adoption of automation as leaders seek to shelter their businesses in uncertain times and adapt to lasting societal changes.
Charlotte Dunlap, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, said:
“The pandemic has shown us just how vital intelligent automation and robotics advancements are for the new world of work. They are transforming traditional business processes such as X and Y into smooth, automatic workflows—vastly improving customer experience.
The result will be a new workforce, whereby robotic process automation (RPA) replaces repetitive and mundane jobs while humans cover tasks that require personal interactions and high productivity.”
There have long been concerns about the impact that the adoption of technologies such as the IoT and AI will have on jobs—with some even calling for a discussion around a “Universal Basic Income” (UBI).
Such discussions around a UBI are likely premature at this stage. We’re at least a decade off from the kind of AGIs (Artificial General Intelligences) that will replace humans. In the meantime, automation will augment people’s abilities.
“Of the capabilities gaining popularity, process mining is certainly the most noteworthy. Process mining is the process of extracting and discovering patterns in data and turning these into actionable insights,” added Dunlap.
“In a nutshell, process mining helps operations identify hot spots where employee efforts are being wasted and/or processes are operating inefficiently and need reengineering.”
1,700 senior executives from around the globe were surveyed for the research.
“What is most compelling about emerging robotics innovations is how relevant enterprises consider the technology for addressing their current (not future) digital and transformation issues,” Dunlap continues.
“Nearly 75 percent of executives surveyed by GlobalData said automation technologies will disrupt their industry over the next 12 months.”
(Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash)
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