As we usher into a new decade, it is time to look beyond what we have been doing in IT/ITES, ERP, Automation, etc., and attempt to understand the unstoppable trends in cognitive automation and what is potentially in store for us.
The emergence of Robotic Process Automation
IT and ITES have contributed to economic growth starting the late nineties till now and a significant portion has been contributed by outsourcing and further offshoring. As industry lifecycles are changing and competition has intensified manifold, demands are growing in terms of more efficiency at the workplace and higher quality in terms of data accuracy, better workflow management and of course leveraging huge chunks of data for effective decision making.
High-performance teams and lean organization structures have become the mantra for driving growth. The advancement in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for more than a decade has addressed low-end tasks such as data entry, simple application integrations using APIs, and automating many repetitive tasks, which in itself is a huge step forward. But the next generation organizations need more effective ways beyond simple RPA tools to ride a higher growth trajectory. In this context, the teams need to focus more on innovation facilitated by the organization.
Introducing eWorkforce – An integrated and AI powered Digital Workforce
The concept of eWorkforce is more holistic and takes a view of augmenting human workers. Here, ‘e’ represents not only ‘electronic’ as in e-commerce or e-mail but also means ELASTIC. It signifies the elasticity one can build into the traditional workforce by deploying digital virtual workers. However, from the perspective of building an eWorker (or digital worker) replicating and co-existing with a human worker calls for higher cognition and continuous learning models.
Cognitive Automation or Intelligent Automation is a step forward in enhancing the capabilities and fostering an eWorker of higher cognitive ability.
General Artificial Intelligence has been in vogue for almost 40 years now and is largely limited to research and development of algorithms for high-level applications. It is now being applied to specific industry use cases leading to solving some complex problems in areas like supply chain management, stakeholder experience management, and even financial management and accounting.
supervity.ai provides an integration of following capabilities to create a more coherent Intelligent Automation for enterprises.
- Machine Learning (ML)
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Computer Vision and Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- Business Process Management (BPM)
- Low code human-in-the-loop AI apps
- Robotic Process Automation
BPM or Human in the loop (in modern context) is particularly gaining importance as the eWorkers have to co-exist with human workers in augmenting the efficiency and releasing humans from the drudgery of routine tasks leading to the effective usage of their time for value-added tasks.
The following table portrays a situation of a human worker and an eWorker co-existing in a work environment and comparing the skills needed to conduct a certain task. An eWorker calls for following cognitive and sensory skills to be developed in the form of various faculties.
Democratizing Automation
SMB segment is still lagging in terms of leveraging the IT and ITES and the benefits have not reached the bottom of the pyramid. With the advent of SaaS, the essential needs of SMBs are being addressed with Collaboration Suites, ERP, and CRM applications. The next opportunity is to democratize automation leveraging Value SaaS models at an affordable cost and near-zero maintenance. As the total addressable market (TAM) of Enterprise IT and ITES Outsourcing is expected to reach one trillion USD, technically speaking, the eWorkers are deployable progressively addressing different functions of this industry.
The opportunity posed by a segment of the above market in the form of HR, CRM and F&A coupled with IT professional services to the tune of $100 Bn. This is an immediate opportunity to deploy eWorkforce. The ability of an eWorker, powered by the full stack of the cognitive and sensory faculties to augment and coexist with human workers makes it the ideal means to democratize automation cost-effectively.