Closing the Automation Gap

A World of Automation

We undoubtedly live in a world of automation. For many people automation is associated with production lines or industrial robots that we see painting, welding or assembling in factories.

Increasingly automation is being used in the world of software to automate repetitive and mundane processes that previously required human processing. Automation can be taught workflows with multiple steps within applications or systems.

These processes can vary; from customer service solutions that quickly provide answers to common queries or issues, passing you on to the right customer care person when needed, to helping IT departments monitor and manage their IT solutions to ensure best service availability. This type of process automation is often referred to as Robotic Process Automation (or RPA).

The need for this type of automation was already growing rapidly before the pandemic started, and the challenges of furloughed staff, home working and a reduction in workforces has highlighted how this is critical as a technology of our future.

Closing the Automation Gap

In February I attended an event run by TEN and IBM called ‘Closing the Automation Gap 2021’. Invited were senior business leaders to discuss the challenges that they have faced during the pandemic and how automation for many companies has formed part of the solution.

The first question posed at the event, by way of a poll, was ‘What does automation mean to you in terms of what it can do?’ Interestingly only 5% of the respondents said ‘Robotic Process Automation (RPA)’, with the majority of people saying ‘Speeding up time to value’.

Looking for Business Outcomes

The majority response is an indicator of how many businesses are now moving away from just buying technology, to wanting real business outcomes. The pandemic has highlighted how organisations need to provide better a customer experience whilst reducing costs & increasing the speed of delivery. These are all key benefits of automation, with the additional benefit of releasing staff from mundane and time-consuming tasks so that they can be involved in higher value and more creative activities.

Ben Lowe from IBM commented that technology ‘is not just an IT project now’ as many C-suite people are actively involved in the decision-making process and asking very different questions of vendors. Successful automation projects identity and involve all the stakeholders across the business, and as I commented during the event,

‘if someone sells you a product rather than an outcome, the person you asked for help didn’t take time to listen to you or understand your problems’

It is clear that businesses want positive outcomes and not products.

Where Do You start?

During the event, the business leaders broke out into four working groups to focus on the question ‘how do you identify the most suitable area/capability to be transformed with automation? Do you look first at high-value processes, mission-critical processes with the biggest business impact … or do you go aspirational?’

The question itself highlights the biggest challenge facing many organisations looking at automation - that challenge of Where to start? This challenge has been made greater by the recent pandemic where change at speed has been forced upon us, while facing the challenges of an uncertain future. 

A successful automation project involves three key elements –

• the problem
• the people
• the technology

The problem you are trying to solve should be clear and well defined with a strong link to a business outcome. People are often affected by automation and this, in turn, can mean the need for organisational or cultural change. The most well-defined project can fail if this is not properly considered! Surprisingly if you have a well-defined problem and people are on board with the changes needed, the technology is often the easy bit!

The Pandemic

Attendees at the event identified plenty of challenges created by the pandemic, many of which have become opportunities for automation. For instance insurance companies have seen spikes in the number of claims related to COVID, an opportunity to automate the process of receiving and categorising claims as well as improving their customer experience process, so customers can easily check on the progress of their claims. For all of us home deliveries have become a necessary way of life, meaning an increase in the number of delivery drivers needed. One company is using automation to accelerate its hiring processes to handle this increased demand.

Automation Gets Intelligent

So far we have talked about automation in terms of copying the tasks that humans could do, in many instances with greater accuracy, speed, or duration (after all technology never sleeps!). That in itself is a good place to start. But the future lies in Intelligent Automation – artificial intelligence-powered automation.

Artificial Intelligence already plays a major part in all our lives; from the recommendations we receive of what to watch next on Netflix and what to listen to on Spotify, to the way it has been helping solve the healthcare challenges of the COVID pandemic.

Applying that same intelligence to automation (using machine learning and analysis capabilities) intelligent automation is capable of covering the whole automation journey by automating any front or back-office business processes and by coordinating work across combined human and robotic teams.

The Future of Work

Alvin Toffler wrote prophetically in his 1970’s book ‘Future Shock’ that

“the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write. But those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”

There is no doubt that the technological revolution, which has accelerated during the pandemic, will have a profound impact on the way that we work. As Gartner predicts “some jobs will become obsolete, others will be created, most will change”.

This summarises the situation with automation; some jobs are likely to be replaced by automation as automation becomes more advanced and is powered by artificial intelligence. But just as likely is that new jobs will be created as we handover the mundane and repetitive to automation, releasing people to take on those higher value and more creative tasks.

As IDC Analyst Maureen Fleming states

“I haven't talked to anyone who's not doing automation as a way to become more competitive, and more resilient”

There can be no doubt that automation will play a growing part in all our businesses in the future.

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From time to time, IBM partners with industry thought leaders to share their opinions and insights on current technology trends. The opinions in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of IBM.

?for more information on awaken AI you can find us here www.awakenai.org and find me on twitter @nigewillson