We are on the cusp of a new era in automation. In the next few years, we are going to see major changes in the way that automated systems are used and developed. Here's a look at some of the most important trends that will shape the future of Process Automation.
1. Employee Experience Becomes Crucial KPI
The “Great Resignation” has raised the importance of employee experience (EX) enhancement, as have the difficulties associated with the work-from-home paradigm. Making sure your necessary resources stay in their positions, develop their skills, and like their jobs are now board-level agenda concerns.
As we strive to encircle our people throughout 2023, automation that enhances EX by aiding employees will be given precedence above pure cost takeout, at least in the immediate run.
2. The Application of AI in Contact Centers Will Skyrocket
The usage of AI will spread throughout the contact center, from conversational intelligence powered by machine learning that accurately classifies client intent to conversational AI in an app that handles customer inquiries without needing a human agent.
Early adopters won't need to worry about this. Instead of only reducing manpower, AI will allow new insights and efficiency and create new jobs in the contact center.
3. Big RPA Players Will Get Into Conversational AI Solutions
Particularly with the launch of GPT3Chat, conversational interfaces will continue to gain popularity, and RPA solution providers will observe an increased demand to include this mechanism directly in their products.
Companies will continue to employ conversational AI platforms like Cognigy and Kore.ai and partnerships with the natural language processing (NLP) engines of the main cloud providers, but at least one big RPA vendor will soon acquire a chatbot provider.
If you want to know more about Conversational AI, listen to our Automation Talk with Sarah Topping as our guest:
4. More Companies Will Enter the NCLC Market
A surge in remote software creation during the coronavirus outbreak stoked demand for low-code/no-coding programming tools. Gartner predicts that low-code adoption will continue to be fueled by the rise in remote production that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, despite ongoing cost optimization measures.
The need for no code and minimal code solutions is rising as a result of the business's increased demands for IT and desire to incorporate automation solutions. As a result of the rising demand, an increasing number of businesses will enter the market and provide no code and low code solutions in an effort to gain market share (recently SAP Build).
If the demand continues to be as high as predicted, this trend will persist in the future.
5. Multi-Vendor-Tool Orchestration Will Become More Important
At first, Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, and UiPath were the only top three Process Automation tool vendors. A torrent of competitors started to enter the market in 2019 after the major competitors Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, and UiPath had already established themselves comfortably on the RPA and, at the time, automation throne for some time.
During that time a new tool provider debuted almost every week, trying to regain lost ground by utilizing phrases like hyperautomation, cognitive automation, intelligent automation, and others. RPA has become a standard in many organizations since 2021, yet most people still perceive it as a small piece of the overall picture.
Teams and individuals with specific responsibilities have already started implementing various technologies and tools for internal workflow optimization and automation. Now, in addition to RPA, Process Mining, IPaaS, no code/low code, and other technologies also play a part.
In this context, one may assert that Process Automation has advanced and that the process must be viewed holistically to be optimized across a variety of tools (aka Best-of-Breed).
Process analytics with Celonis, ABBYY for extracting information from key documents, desktop automation with Power Automate, and data transfer and system automation with Make are just a few of the many options available.
This realization caused businesses to focus on using a variety of technologies and tools to guarantee process optimization and efficiency increases on a global scale.
The trend of Best-of-Breed (vs Best-of-Suite) is confirmed by a Gartner survey, which predicts that 40% of businesses would use multi-vendor strategies to optimize and automate their business processes by 2024.
6. The Rise of Citizen Development Will Reach its First Peak
According to a previous Gartner forecast, there will be at least four times as many citizen developers in major companies by 2023 as there are professional developers. The necessity for IT to collaborate with non-IT experts to achieve quicker business automation processes and data integration is highlighted by this forecast.
As a result, it is even more crucial to successfully include Citizen Development in the business's overall automation strategy and to guarantee that aspiring Citizen Developers receive proper Citizen Development training.
Looking Ahead
As we have seen, Process Automation is revolutionizing the business world as we know it. In just a few short years, it has made incredible strides in terms of efficiency and productivity. And there's no reason to believe that this trend will stop anytime soon.
So, what can we expect from Process Automation in the next few years? Well, more of the same – only better. We can expect the world of digital transformation to become even more ubiquitous and sophisticated, delivering even greater benefits to businesses across all industries.
So if you're not already on the Process Automation bandwagon, now is the time to jump on board. It's only going to get bigger and better from here.
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