Automation was on the rise before. The pandemic has given it more importance. Here are the top trends to watch.
Automation is that part of the technology that has been helping us to reduce cost, increase performance, and become more productive. It is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world right now. If you are planning to make new investments in terms of time, money, energy, or brain cells in the field of automation, you must know the key automation trends to watch in 2020. This forecast is the result of hours of research by experts in the domain of automation. Here are the top five automation trends of 2020.
See also: Businesses Increase Automation Investments Due to COVID Pandemic
1) Increase in collaborative automation
The world is constantly evolving. As it grows, we construct many dynamics that impact how the business operates. Artificial intelligence has become popular in the last decade. There have been some powerful developments in the field of AI. It has started to become a part of our life. But the future will not be all machines and no humans. It is where human and machine intelligence will collaborate. AI taking over humans is not a likely outcome. Also, due to this state of innovation, it will become difficult to model everything with a fixed set of rules. Technology will replace humans, but some minds will be required to run the technology. Companies might be able to achieve the highest level of automation, but there will be some exceptions. Subjective matters where human cognitive intelligence is needed cannot be expected from robots or AI completely. Machines doing all the menial, tedious, and repetitive work while humans focusing on higher cognitive tasks like research, creatives development will be a way forward.
That’s how it has been since the industrial revolution. Instead of removing people completely, we should think of a hybrid of human and machine intelligence, which will help the whole industry grow. These collaborative efforts will change the automation industry for the better.
For example, technology can scan through billions of DNA every day but can’t come up with the idea of how to scan DNA. That’s why human collaboration is important to create a “Smart” environment.
2) The emergence of fast process automation
Processes are the core of any business. Your business grows when your core processes move faster. In order to achieve organized automation in the core system of business, organizations have already been automating their processes in some way or the other. Process automation and Business Process Management has seen remarkable growth in the last five years. BPM platforms help you with your business process automation by enabling you to design and automate processes. You must know that this is different from Robotic Process Automation (RPA). RPA mimics human action and lets you automate a function of your business while Process Automation is the part of the bigger picture. However, there’s an ongoing shift. BPM platforms are being re-imagined according to new dynamics of the market, which considers the next-gen workforce and changing expectations of customers. Since the entry of Millennials in the workforce, the over-engineered and heavy solutions are becoming outdated. The new workforce and smarter customers have high expectations from the process automation market. Most popular BPM platforms are over-engineered, which increases the problem and makes your processes slow. This will lead to a rise in the need for fast process automation in the market. Another demand of the Process automation market is integration. Process automation connected with all your tools in the tool stack makes it even more powerful and dynamic.
If you increase the speed of building and running automation in business, a lot of problems like delays in processes will be solved. You can also see a rise in the involvement of all the stakeholders, including employees, customers, and suppliers in the process automation. This would enhance the customer experience in the business and lead to growth.
3) No code movement will catch fire
People who do not have a background in technology are often addressed as “Non-technical” people. These people have a lot of trouble when they are working on or creating a digital platform. But they have great ideas on products/solutions that solve the customer’s problem. Due to insufficient knowledge of the technical aspects of coding, they somehow drop the idea of creating the products. That’s why there is a rise of No-code solutions that give non-technical people the ability to build something digitally. No-code is also known as ‘Low code’ or ‘Visual development.’
If we see the history of technological innovation, the trend suggests that User Experience has always been a priority for businesses. MS-Dos was too technical and rigid for its users. This gave birth to a more user-friendly system, Windows. It changed the way operating systems and computers were seen.
If Jeff Bezos had the idea of opening an online store but didn’t know how to code, the world would not have amazon today. These potential geniuses will get a better platform to build and use automation.
“What You See Is What You Get” has been a buzz word since it came out. It started with simple technology, where you will be able to edit the content on your screen as it would look in the output. This visual development then became wider, and WYSIWYG got a bigger meaning.
Currently, automation is somewhat in the hands of technical users. This power will shift, and we will see democracy in building automation through no-code movement. These platforms will focus more on the ease of use and experience optimized for business users as a whole than just technical users. When business users need less external help due to easy no-code solutions, we will see a rise in the number of successful businesses and non-technical users.
4) More adoption to automation due to economic crisis
The world is going through a pandemic, and it is going to affect almost every industry. You cannot forget the biggest issue of 2020 while predicting automation trends of 2020. Coronavirus has hindered the growth of every business. All the countries are suffering through an economic crisis. This crisis will lead to a lot of cost-cutting in business. Many businesses have already started to layoff their employees due to the cash crunch. These businesses will look for a solution that would help them automate most of their work. This would lead to a more aggressive demand for automation in businesses. In a way, Coronavirus Is Forcing Companies To Speed Up Automation, For Better And For Worse. The companies that are suffering from cash flow issues are likely to look for automation instead of going through the painful process of rehiring people once the dust is settled. People see automation as a bad thing for the market because it risks the job of many earning their livelihood out of that one skill. But automation helps businesses decrease the cost of production. This will help us grow the GDP in the long run.
Vox did an interview with Mark Muro, a senior fellow and policy director at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. He talked about how, after every economic crisis, there is a boost in people who adopt automation. People usually think that the pandemic while making the human capital cheaper, but the opposite is true. After a major economic crisis, humans become costlier than automation. This motivates businesses to replace less-skilled workers with technology.
Another angle to this situation is that automation technology has high competition. New players trying to penetrate the market are providing lower-cost solutions, which have made the prices relatively lower. The industry is maturing as time passes, and the cost curve is declining, which makes high-end automation technology inexpensive. On top of that, the financial crisis has led to price relief as well as a reduction in many fields, including automation. This would lead to an increasing demand for automation in 2020 due to the pandemic.
5) Acceleration towards cloud-based automation from on-prem tools
On-premise or hosted tools means that the organization keeps all of its technology requirements (tech stack) managed by themselves locally, whereas cloud-based means that the technology and tools used by the company are managed and organized by a cloud service provider.
Both of these types have their advantages and disadvantages. Yet, due to more need for flexibility and collaboration of tools online, cloud-based automation will thrive in the future.
On-prem tools are better for companies that are strict with their security measures and have sensitive data. Sometimes, it becomes a tough task to shift from one Cloud vendor to another. Organizations might find this task tedious as there is a lot of new processes that they discover.
The organization that wants lesser risk, better performance, and portability at lower cost will go for cloud-based automation. It is the requirement of the newer “smart” generation. In the world where IoT is coming up and becoming a thing, cloud-based automation is the future.
Conclusion
The automation industry is unpredictable. Every day there are hundreds of new discoveries. The market is growing rapidly, and there is a huge scope of innovation through a dynamic and collaborative approach. These automation trends are going to be the ones to watch out for in 2020.
