How far can process automation go? Quite far, if robotic process automation (RPA) applications are anything to go by. Software robots already complete many manual processes or repetitive activities on behalf of human users. Intelligent automation – which is RPA enhanced with artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing – brings the possibilities to a whole new level. It opens the door to automating processes that were not suitable for automation in the past. Case in point: customer complaints. In customer service, it’s important to determine whether a message is a potential complaint or not, pass it on the right people on and subsequently monitor how it is processed. So far, this process has been strictly manual, and therefore time-consuming with wide variations in quality.
adesso asked 500 corporate decision-makers about their attitudes, expectations and plans with regard to intelligent automation by posing the following questions: In which areas are you already using this technology? What reasons are there in favour of using intelligent automation? Where do the biggest obstacles lie?
These are the most important findings from the study:
- The technology is gaining ground. Intelligent automation applications already play an important role in many different company departments. Around 30 % of surveyed companies already work with the technology, across all manner of business areas. As expected, the main users of intelligent automation are IT departments (44 %), followed by production/manufacturing (38 %) and service (36 %). In management, on the other hand, intelligent automation was only in place at 24 % of respondents. It was a similar story in marketing (25 %) and human resources (26 %).
- Targeting greater efficiency and lower costs. Top of the list of reasons for utilising intelligent automation are some of the usual suspects when it comes to justifying automation projects: making processes more efficient (58 %) and cutting costs (46 %). Despite the numerous current crises, resilience is only of secondary importance (9 %).
- Relieving the burden on staff not overly important. Intelligent process automation can give employees the opportunity to perform to their full potential. All too often, people are burdened with repetitive and bureaucratic tasks. Surprisingly, however, the study found that only one in every five respondents (18 %) cited employee satisfaction due to the elimination of such activities as a reason for implementing an intelligent automation solution.
- Shortage of expertise derailing projects. The lack of specialist expertise is the largest obstacle to implementing intelligent automation on a wider scale, with 44 % of respondents listing this as a reason. In second and third position respectively were technological aspects (34 %) and implementation costs (33 %). A lack of use cases, on the other hand, was only cited as an obstacle by 20 % of respondents.
