It’s a tech-driven world and living without the daily conveniences that are made possible through technology is now unimaginable – because the thing about technology is that we get used to it very quickly, especially if it aids our needs and requirements on a daily basis. Things like hailing a cab, writing a piece of code to crawl hundreds of web pages, or sending a package across the world have become commonplace for us.
Is it time though, to ask the question – how much is too much? How much of the world can we (or should we) truly automate? And is it really worth automating everything?
We look at it here.
One of the top 10 strategic technology trends of 2021 according to Gartner, hyperautomation has been slowly becoming the synonym for streamlined and efficient industrial performance. It is even touted to become the industrial standard within the next decade, with many organizations already making the switch!
But what does hyperautomation truly stand for?
Hyperautomation isn’t exactly a software or a device that just instantly automates things when you press a switch. It isn’t just automation because this is a ground-level operation where a module or a small group of modules is automated. Also, hyperautomation doesn’t mean that we can automate everything around us.
Gartner coined the term “hyperautomation” to define the combination of artificial intelligence (including technologies such as image processing, machine learning, and natural language processing) and robotic process automation for improving decision-making and executing tasks.
Hyperautomation is more or less a level of automation adopted by businesses to automate certain processes, which can be automated to reduce human interactions and to improve the overall efficiency of the system as a whole. In fact, it is the practice of automating anything and everything within an organization that can be automated. Rather than having technology as “fillers”- that is, automating only a tiny portion of an organization’s processes and workflows, it simply aims to automate all that can be automated. A sort of continuous automation in organizations.
Hyperautomation consists of robotic process automation (RPA), intelligent process delivery (IPD), analytics and intelligent document processing (IDP), process mining and other tools. The different technological components of this include mining tools for processes, automation tools like RPA and iPaaS (for integrating different tools for better performance), AI tools and business intelligence tools for analytics and business management. RPA, a form of automation implemented to control software robots, alone is unable to automate processes on a large scale.
Hyperautomation helps to optimize the workflows of an organization by improving analytics, automating repetitive processes, sticking to regulatory compliances and ensuring that the processes assist audit reporting, and in enhancing productivity. Instead of automating without distinction, a learned approach is preferred for hyperautomation where processes that immediately require automation are chosen, so that streamlining the entire process becomes an easier task.
It can create jobs rather than cut them. With the need for extensive automation, more and more jobs will be created in tandem so that the operations can be executed without faults. It can also help organisations to cut operational costs, improve efficiency and also make use of the data collected and gleaned for improved analytics.
Some of the industries that are set to benefit from automation include – healthcare, supply chain, retail, tourism, finance, engineering and government sectors.
These are only a few of the roles that are available for those interested in a career in hyperautomation. As the field’s popularity continues to grow, more and more roles are expected to open up.
In order to become a part of hyperautomation, a good place to start will be to learn more about the different technologies that make up the field. This includes RPA, AI, process mining tools and others. By learning about robotic process automation, one can automate certain processes so that human interactions can be either avoided or limited.
RPA can be used in scenarios where rules are to be followed and not a lot of changes take place in the process that it is a part of. Although the name contains “robotic”, it has nothing to do with physical robots. These are mostly software bots that are used for automating repetitive tasks.
Process mining helps an organization to understand the different processes and to identify mission critical processes which need to be the focus for automation. AI includes technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, text analysis, image processing and others. Through learning AI, one can be equipped with the knowledge to integrate the machines or services with intelligence.
AI, along with RPA, happens to be the core of hyperautomation. Therefore, learning how to program in various platforms including Java, Python, Javascript, having an understanding about the working of databases, knowing concepts such as REST and SOAP APIs are expected to improve one’s chances of gaining entry into the hyperautomation sector.
According to Gartner, hyperautomation is expected to cut operational costs of organizations by at least 30 percent by 2024. Most large organisations are expected to have at least 25 percent of tasks automated within the next five years. It is also estimated that close to 20 percent of all goods that will be produced in 2024 will be the result of hyperautomation.
That is, none of these products will be touched by a human during manufacturing and their customers will be the first humans to ever lay hands on them. It might sound a bit unbelievable now, but we already have tons of goods being manufactured in the same way! In the long run, most processes will get automated, and we should realize that we have already set the wheels in motion.
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