Robotics; New Buzz in IT

RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and Cognitive technologies are topics of growing conversations, and most organizations have either started discussions in this direction or are exploring available tools. This is one of the disruptive trends that will potentially impact business and workforce alike. While some of the initial implementations have shown mixed results, there still remains a lot to be explored and evolved in terms of economies of scale and cost benefits this technology can help achieve. The one thing that tech pundits agree on unanimously is that this trend is certainly here to stay and will continue to gain momentum.

With advent of RPA, almost all the jobs related to simpler business processing like data entry, IT help desk, network and server support, routine deployments and various manual processes are going to get automated in short run, which will happen in next few years, say, by 2020. Eventually, the rapid advancements in cognitive technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence will also help automate complex business activities, and obsolete human requirement for such type of jobs. Recent Forrester research concluded that Robots, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and other cognitive technologies will replace 7 percent of U.S. jobs by 2025.

So what does all this information mean to you? As a business leader for a product, service organization or a workforce manager what are the implications of this disruption, how does it impact us and how should we all prepare?

To begin with, we must embrace the change. RPA is not another passé trend, and it is certainly here to stay. Recognize that disruptive technologies have potential to galvanize the system and any technology that increases the aggregate efficiency of system will thrive. Recommended way to handle this is reskilling of the work force and moving them to higher value chain activities. Looking at history, industrial era to information age, from advent of computers to digital revolution, disruptive technologies have helped create new business models, new brands and newer way of doing business. So as business leaders we should focus on using these technologies for value creation for our customers.

Cognitive technologies and AI are expected to create new jobs for data scientists, automation specialists, AI developers and many more digital age opportunities. In various industries likes Insurance, expert underwriting and decision support systems have already automated 90% of the transactions. Same is true with product and manufacturing companies.

Hence the key is to prepare our workforce for self-learning, curate the knowledge base for expertise, re-assess the business objectives, enhance focus on customer value creation, get compliance and legal teams involved in cognitive planning effort, rethink talent acquisition, use RPA, automation and AI to automate business tasks for better efficiencies. After all, technology is only the means and not the end. Possibilities are limitless.