Robotic Process Automation (RPA) market is evolving at a tremendous pace and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.3% between 2019 and 2025. This growth can be majorly attributed to how RPA streamlines and enhances legacy processes and results in high returns on investment (ROI).
Some of the key RPA trends to watch out in the 2020 are:
1) RPA to emerge as a complementary technology
The key benefit of RPA is that it plays well with other existing technologies. RPA has the potential to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and learn accordingly, hence it enhances processes rather than replacing them. Since it's not always feasible to redesign workflows from the ground up, automating inefficient processes with RPA can greatly improve productivity.
2) RPA would shift from being a point solution to comprehensive offering
In 2020, the automation market will see a shift from point solutions to more comprehensive offerings that will address integration challenges and enable best-in-class features that enterprises require. Digital transformation is a journey. RPA implementation shouldn't be treated as a short term project to gain cost efficiency. It must be integrated in the processes from the beginning to avail comprehensive benefits.
3) RPA driving Hyper Automation
Organizations across the globe are realizing the benefits of incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) within RPA framework to result in intelligent automation. Understanding the range of automation mechanisms, how they relate to one another and how they can be combined and coordinated is a major focus for hyper automation. This allows software robots to mimic human behavior and handle complex use cases, which was earlier not possible without human intervention.
4) Autonomous Things
The emergence of autonomous things is a major landmark in technological progress. Early examples of this include autonomous drones and self-driving vehicles. In 2020, we expect a shift from stand-alone intelligent things to a swarm of collaborative intelligent things, with multiple devices working together, either independent of people or with minimum human input. In the future, autonomous things will go beyond process automation and integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver advanced behaviors that interact more naturally with the environment and people.
5) RPA transforming the Job Market
RPA taking away jobs is the most debated topic in the industry. It is anticipated that RPA will affect employment and half of the jobs will be replaced by automation. Contrary to popular beliefs, future trends suggest that there will be a collaboration between machines and humans in many areas. As a result, more jobs will be created by enhancing the nature of jobs and there will be a need for RPA and process experts to augment user interfaces and solve business problems.
As per Forrester, the RPA market will reach 2.9 billion dollars by 2021, which means RPA market will continue to grow at an exponential rate. There will be a sharp rise in adoption and implementation of RPA. It will be used for multiple processes in the organization across departments and it is expected to largely manage customer-focused and external processes.
The author is senior vice president and head center of excellence (CoE), Clover Infotech. Views are personal.
