Many information technology professionals are looking for cutting-edge apps and emerging automation trends as they prepare to move on from the turbulent year 2023 and concentrate on the hope and promise of the upcoming year. IT experts may enhance overall business performance and fine-tune their organisations with the aid of new technology.
It should come as no surprise that many IT professionals are aware of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). RPA trends and new developments in AI have ensured that the technology will continue to be popular for some time. But there are also unique subsets of AI, and robotic process automation (RPA) is becoming more popular in the field of using AI with an eye towards results. One of the most fascinating automation developments and exciting potentials in artificial intelligence is robotic process automation (RPA), which is expected to gain even more attention in 2024.
What Is RPA Exactly?
In artificial intelligence, robotic process automation allows IT departments to create software “robots” to collect data and carry out repetitive operations. Stated differently, robotic process automation (RPA) is a technology application that automates business operations using structured inputs and business logic.
RPA bots don’t rely on extensive system integration or require unique software, so they are usually inexpensive and simple to build. RPA is incredibly cost-effective when you consider the efficiency and cost-effectiveness it yields. For this reason, we predict that RPA trends will persist until 2024.
Uses for RPA
Robotic process automation lowers workforce expenses and human error, which helps firms run more efficiently. Businesses can use RPA technologies to programme bots that can interact with other digital systems, capture and understand transaction-processing applications, change data, and initiate replies based on pre-established criteria. Numerous industries, including financial services, healthcare, human resources, and retail, use RPA technologies.
Simple operations like sending automatic email responses or automating several jobs in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system are examples of these automated chores. Furthermore, companies can enhance the automation of their jobs by integrating RPA with cognitive technologies like speech recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning. This allows the automation of tasks that previously required human perception and judgement.
Now that we know the many benefits of robotic process automation, it is time to concentrate on the major RPA developments we should anticipate in the upcoming year.
The RPA industry will grow to be worth a billion dollars.
RPA will remain in high demand and find a position in IT managers’ toolkits as a simple solution to improve raw data utilisation and streamline various business processes. The RPA market is expected to grow from $250 million in 2016 to $11 billion in 2027, predicts Forrester. By 2027, Grandview Research projects the RPA automation industry will reach a valuation of $25.56 billion!
Leading the way in these RPA development services are businesses like UiPath and Blue Prism, which offer scalable solutions that businesses may use throughout their whole enterprise. Meanwhile, the Deloitte Global RPA Survey indicates that 53% of company leaders polled had started to create and deploy RPA. That figure will rise to 72% if the deployment rate stays the same, demonstrating the strategic importance of RPA for modern businesses.
RPA Will Combine Digital and Manual Workforces
Even though RPA takes care of many of the tedious, repetitive jobs that human workers would often end up doing, human interaction is still necessary throughout the automation process. RPA will involve human-machine collaboration, in contrast to the terrifying scenarios depicted in dystopian fiction where automation replaces humans. The former can handle higher-order cognitive work since the latter handles mundane, repetitive activities.
Granted, certain jobs will undoubtedly be eliminated as a result of the RPA revolution. However, RPA’s new career opportunities will more than make up for this loss.
Demand for RPA Will Increase Due to COVID-19
Even though there are a number of promising COVID-19 vaccines in development and the global epidemic is finally coming to an end, it will take some time before things get back to normal. In the meantime, COVID-19 regulations have forced businesses to reduce employee hours, implement remote office policies (such as working from home), and run with a smaller workforce. Businesses that the epidemic has impacted have been looking to technology to help lessen its consequences, and RPA has proven to be helpful in assisting businesses and organisations in adjusting to the new, transient reality.
Furthermore, not everyone will no longer be able to work from home when the pandemic ends. Well before COVID struck, a lot of businesses were investigating the potential for remote labour. The pandemic has made it possible to demonstrate that workers can spend a lot of time working from home. Thankfully, RPA can assist with robots that operate from home.
In these unpredictable times, RPA’s efficiency, accuracy, and automation can be the difference between a company surviving the epidemic and closing its doors for good. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if RPA helps businesses weather the final months of the pandemic and then soars to fame and goodwill when things settle back to normal.
The Mainstreaming of Intelligent Process Automation (IPA)
Artificial intelligence has not yet reached its full potential, despite it providing modern organisations with some promising capabilities. Thankfully, a fresh tool has emerged to elevate RPA to unprecedented heights. This type of RPA is called intelligent process automation, or IPA, and it will combine the strength and promise of AI with the rule-based automation abilities of robotic process automation. This new technology also combines RPA with basic process redesign, machine learning, and learning, allowing the automation process to learn and improve continuously.
The market for intelligent process automation will rise in tandem with the anticipated growth in RPA usage over the next few years. People will want their RPA processes to function more intelligently, after all! KPMG expects that by 2025, enterprise investments in intelligent process automation and related technologies will total $232 billion, a significant increase from the $12.4 billion invested in 2018. It is anticipated that widespread IPA use across numerous industries would contribute significantly to that rise.
Hello, Hyper Automation!
Hyper Automation is an advanced, quicker, and more intelligent version of RPA that is quickly becoming a popular tool in many large-scale businesses. Hyper-automation is a technology that uses machine learning, artificial intelligence, and current RPA trends to handle large amounts of data seamlessly and optimise business operations in various industries. The necessity for automating more complicated operations will increase over the next few years as more organisations implement automation in much higher quantities.
Using hyper-automation, businesses may now automate whole processes, including administration, monitoring, DevOps, and integration, previously divided into separate processes by standard RPA. This integration automates end-to-end procedures to benefit enterprises of all sizes, increasing productivity and efficiency on a much bigger scale than ever before.
RPA Will Continue to Expand Outside of the IT Bubble
It always works. Everyone wants in on what you have once word gets out that it’s good. Reputable research companies like Deloitte and Gartner, Inc. forecast that as more corporate users across the globe become more knowledgeable about RPA, its adoption rate will rise. RPA is no longer considered a “new technology,” as more businesses are using it for a wider range of purposes. Nothing remains concealed for very long in the Digital Information Age we live in. As a result, news spreads as more departments and business processes benefit from RPA technology. It is probable that RPA will spread into additional non-IT-related fields.
RPA technology, for example, is utilised in executive-level business processes. In an effort to increase the precision and effectiveness of various business operations, CFOs and COOs are beginning to recognise the advantages of automation. According to Gartner, Inc.’s projection, departments outside the information technology sector will initiate slightly less than half of RPA adoptions by 2024.
The forecasts, data, and surveys listed above demonstrate how robotic process automation has the potential to be a very successful career path. Professionals with experience using RPA procedures will become more in demand as more businesses of all sizes implement them to streamline their operations.