The fundamentals of the Gartner 2021 Automation Predictions

Published on in Robotic Process Automation by Cristian Ignat

Sometimes, when you’re reading about automation it can be difficult to discern what the real meat and potatoes of the topic are. The space is full of newfangled terminology, sometimes-nebulous concepts, and marketing slogans. Whole articles are dedicated to breaking down new terminologies that conceptualise the business and technology space. Top that off with the virtual-video- fatigue many of us are experiencing since the emergence of COVID has forced a great deal of our work and social interactions online, and you could find a 60-minute webinar on “accelerating results beyond RPA and hyperautomation,” a daunting exercise in homing your attention span. So, we’ll get straight to the nitty-gritty. 

The world will continue to automate and continue to get more sophisticated in how we automate. This has far reaching consequences for competitive organizations. Let me break that down a bit further. 

Gartner analysts Stephanie Stoudt-Hansen and Frances Karamouzis reaffirmed a principal belief long-made by major RPA companies. Not only is the trend to automate an in inevitable trend, but it’s also irreversible. The trend in automation was evidenced by the results of their research. Their conclusions showed increased interest in the automation space despite a pandemic, which has brought many other industries unfortunately to their knees. Gartner analysts also pointed out how the pandemic accelerated the need for business that could go digital, to go digital. As companies were forced to move to a digital operating environment, the pandemic exposed fissures in companies’ digitalization efforts and has revealed an increased need to speed up automation.

They found that automation is irreversible because successful automation leads to better quality results, which is something all modern organizations are trying to achieve. Better quality results lead to a greater demand to automate, and even better business results. Through automating businesses and organizations are able to prioritise quality in their operations, and hence its irreversibility. 

Also, as a community we’re getting smarter and more sophisticated with how we automate. Major vendors are buying up smaller ones to incorporate them into the automation services, and RPA vendors are incorporating technologies to do the same – provide better automation services. Listening to this message, I heard a reiteration of something that I believe most RPA companies have been coming to terms with for the past years; the days of RPA as a stand-alone product are limited. As automation efforts have matured, businesses have learned that enhancing the quality of their service is the end goal, and RPA combined with a vast array of other emerging technologies is the means to get there. The future of automation is with companies that provide a service that incorporates RPA with machine learning, process automation, optical character recognition and the likes in order to help others automate. 

What does all this mean for your business or organization? It means that if you want to stay competitive and provide quality work, it can be a matter of survival that you explore automation. If you’re a business that operates in the digital space and has yet to invest in a means of quickly figuring out which processes to automate, you may be falling behind the power curve.   

In essence automating the aspects of your work that can be automated gives your business the time back to really explore a way to be competitive, to provide better quality services, and much more. Check out the webinar for yourself if you want to learn more about hyperautomation and the future of work.

Follow us on LinkedIn to stay abreast of what’s happening in the automation space, and remember at Aggranda, we work with your business to help you recover one of the 21st century’s most precious commodities – your time.