2018 – the year of the robot (finally?)

In 2015, I was told that 2016 was going to be the ‘year of the robot’. 

It wasn’t. 

It was the year that people who were eager to hear about newfangled technologies got excited about the idea of robots. It was the year that some of them hid their tinkering from their IT departments so they could say they were playing with robots. But, that was it.

I described 2016 as ‘the year of the discretionary budget with which we did as much as we could afford, but it wasn’t much’. Less catchy than ‘year of the robot”, but hey. 

And then 2017 was going to be the year of the robot. It hasn’t been. It’s the year that the tinkerers were discovered by their IT departments, and were forced to fight tooth and nail to retain some modicum of control over their baby. OR, it was the year that IT and Business started working together, in order to create coherent strategies and roadmaps to digitize operations. But seriously, it was mostly the first one.

AND, it was also the year that the AI and Cognitive noise and marketing crap reached such deafening levels, it was hard to have reasonable discussions about reasonable technologies that reasonably existed and could create meaningful value for enterprises. But, thankfully, that din of dystopic confusion in which all jobs have already disappeared is coming to an end.

What 2017 has been is the year that some large enterprises have done some very meaningful and productive digitization of their operations. Some have executed tranches of real transformation. And, a huge number of global organizations have done something with robots. Having been at more conferences than I care to recall, the general trend is that everyone has RPA in house now. But, not a lot of it.

So, 2017 has been a year of growth, testing, education, and general buy-in that robots are here to stay. But, it’s still early days yet. It’s time for the Digital Operations industry to blossom!

So, is 2018 the year of the robot? 

I think it just might be.   

So, now what?

For those keen to make 2018 the true ‘year of the robot’, I suggest the following activities:

1.     Don’t underestimate the climb. Do you want meaningful change, or pig lipstick? If it’s that first one…when did meaningful change ever come fast and easy? This Digital Ops thing is worth doing. But, it’s a lot of work. So, treat it with the respect it deserves, and boot up. This is a tough ascent, but the views from the top make it all worth it.

2.     Partner internally. Stress the IT+Business narrative early and often. This is an initiative in which it is imperative that IT works with Business, and Business works with IT. There is no alternative (unless failure is your bag).

3.     Partner externally. Find a trusted partner for this journey. While self-sufficiency sounds nice, it’s not going to make 2018 a success. 2019 possibly. But, you don’t have time to learn then do. You must learn AND do. 2018 is the ‘Digitize or Die’ year.

4.     Invest like it matters. The days of micro or discretionary investment is over. If you’re not investing $2-10M in RPA initiatives, you’re not doing it right. Yes, millions. Get over it, get used to it, get into it. Digital transformation takes time and money. The ROI is irrefutable. And so too is the risk of not taking RPA seriously. 

That’s it. Four simple things. 

See you in 2018…the year of the robot (possibly).