A new wave of robotic software is revolutionizing the way businesses approach staffing, and changing the services demanded of outsourcing providers. A ground-breaking research report from Mindfields Consulting titled, “Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Driving the next wave of cost rationalization” was released last week. 50% of repetitive jobs can be assigned to robots in the next 3 years.
The report highlights that the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) market is estimated to grow to US$5billion by 2020. RPA is now getting better smarter and cheaper. The study evaluates the impact of RPA on client’s options and disruption to major outsourcing vendor’s business model. This includes contributions from Cognizant, Dell, EXL, Genpact, HP, IBM, Igate, Infosys, Sutherland, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and WNS.
RPA allows tasks, previously conducted by humans, to be done by increasingly intelligent software that learns on the job. 64% of these participants agreed that RPA would reduce the human based pricing (HBP) and non-linearized their business model. 49% of the surveyed respondents have already seen reduction of more than 20% human efforts due to RPA.
The study further found that “efficiency” is as compelling an incentive for RPA as “cost”. IT and business process outsourcing service providers are looking to embed advanced RPA software into their offerings.
Mohit Sharma, Director, Mindfields said, “RPA is going to be a journey for both clients and service providers, so the actionable steps outlined should guide customers and help service providers to assess their position in the market landscape and fine-tune their strategies.”
See: Plan Now for Tomorrow’s Robotic Workforce
According to PwC’s The New Hire: How a new generation of robots is transforming manufacturing, an estimated 1.5 million robots currently bustle on assembly lines around the world. CEOs identify IT, sales and customer service as areas where robotics will play a role in the near future.
CEOs agree that robotics is going to make their companies more efficient, with 94% of those who’ve already adopted robotics saying that it’s increased productivity in their business. It doesn’t come as a matter of surprise given that robots are already proving to be more cost effective and more productive workers than humans.
Robotics as a driver of innovation. The speed of advances in robotics has completely outpaced that of improvements in human productivity. So, it’s likely that the real gains from this technological leap may not only come in improving existing business functions, but in the new business models and new roles that robotics could create.
Oxford University has estimated that, by 2034, robotics and other computerisation could replace 47% of jobs in the US.
As robotics becomes more integrated throughout the business, employers are going to have to invest in re-skilling many parts of the workforce to adapt to working alongside and managing robotic processes and even colleagues.
The impact of robotics on the future workforce, however its influence in areas like asset intensity, energy use or location of taxation may well be equally important.
As companies start to automate processes and/or introduce more artificial intelligence into white collar ‘thinking’ tasks (like knowledge management, analytics, business services and law) this new automated knowledge workforce will pose real problems for companies in terms of insuring against risk (for instance software crashes, cyber-attacks or systemic fragility) and protecting intellectual property.
Source: pwc.com
Also read: Employers are quickly catching up on Future of Work Trends
