A 2019 global survey ‘Automation with Intelligence’ conducted by Deloitte stated that 58% of organizations had already commenced implementing, piloting or scaling their intelligent automation technologies. This number rose to 73% a year later in Deloitte’s 2020 research titled ‘Automation with Intelligence: Pursuing Organization-wide Reimagination’. This transformation has been mainly due to COVID-19 pandemic which accelerated the adoption of intelligent automation across the globe.
In fact, intelligent automation is no more hype as highlighted in Gartner’s report ‘Top Strategic Technology Trends 2021’. According to this report, the business world is now shifting towards hyperautomation that leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and other intelligent automation technologies to drive seamless customer experience, smart business decisions and efficient processes.
Simply put, intelligent automation is the need of the hour for every business to thrive and survive, and get an edge over the competitors.
Despite the business trends favouring intelligent automation, many organizations are apprehensive about embracing it due to some myths. Let’s debunk these myths for you.
1. It’s expensive
With top automation players offering license-based solution, the initial upfront cost of intelligent automation technologies goes up. However, companies like supervity.ai offer process automation solutions that addresses this misconception in a big way – automation doesn’t have to be expensive.
With minimum involvement of your team, automation can go live in under 15 days. Instead of upfront capital expenditure, businesses have the flexibility to avail pay-per-use pricing. The solution deployment is covered as part of on-boarding and there is no need for engaging separate system integrators.
It has been found that organizations which have automated 50-70% of their processes have witnessed 20-35% annual run-rate cost efficiencies. Moreover, you also have to look at qualitative benefits such as better customer experience, higher employee morale and improved processes to measure the right ROI on intelligent automation.
2. Its Adoption is Complex
Given that intelligent automation is all about new-age technologies, it might seem that it would be complex to understand and deploy, and you will require intricate IT architecture to navigate your way through it. Well, this is not the case. The very purpose of intelligent automation is to simplify complex tasks!
If you do groundwork on choosing the right processes for automation, then it would significantly reduce the complexity. It is not necessary to automate every process – you can focus only on the critical ones and/or then move on to the non-critical ones in phases. Employee engagement, sensitization and training is another way to ensure that no complexities arise on lack of co-operation from the staff.
3. It’s Not for My Business
You may be hesitant to adopt intelligent automation if you are a small-scale business or believe that it is not suitable for your industry. The truth of the matter is that either way, it would pay off to deploy modern technologies in your organization. Intelligent automation will empower your small business to compete with large and established brands on a level-playing field across the world. As far as industry-wide adoption is concerned, you can become an industry leader and set new technology benchmarks instead of being a mute spectator or follower.
You can commence your intelligent automation journey with the automation of repetitive tasks such as emails, calls, invoicing, accounting, logistics, data entry, reporting and customer service. You can look for affordable solution providers or consider availing business loans from financial institutions or venture capitalists to augment your technology capabilities.
4. It Doesn’t Make Mistakes
While it is true that intelligent automation reduces human mistakes and intervention, it can also err on rare instances. And, there can be various reasons for it. For example:
- Data input or code is incorrect
- Technical glitches like bugs
- Poor design of robots/digital workers
Fortunately, these types of errors can easily be prevented by entrusting your intelligent automation implementation to an experienced e-workforce company. A good intelligent automation partner will do an in-depth study of your business needs and outcomes to provide you with skilled and error-free digital workers.
5. It will Lead to Job Loss
This myth is perhaps the most important to dispel because it has human factor attached to it. Contrary to the popular belief that intelligent automation will replace humans or kill jobs, it will usher more new jobs. World Economic Forum estimates that intelligent automation will create 97 million fresh jobs despite the displacement of old jobs. Moreover, experts predict that the future of work is hybrid intelligence – humans and e-workers will work side by side, each of them leveraging their strengths to accomplish organizational goals. It will redefine and reinvent the workplaces.
It is important to ease out your employees’ worries and make them aware that automation will save them time and effort of doing menial tasks. They will be able to focus on core and strategic KPIs of their jobs. They will be able to reskill, upskill and cross-skill for career advancement. They can acquire soft skills such as analytical thinking, design thinking, creativity, agility, resilience and problem-solving because machines can’t beat humans on these skills. After all, humans are the most intelligent animals on this planet.
Ever since humans started making machines and computers decades ago, the fear of job loss has existed in parallel. However, people have always adapted to technology and automation in their stride and continued to discover and create new jobs. Today and tomorrow will be no different from yesterday on this front.
At supervity.ai, we are striving towards creating a super workforce by augmenting humans with intelligent automation. We can help your business deploy a robust AI-powered but human-like e-workers to enhance your capabilities, productivity and resilience.