A 2022 report by McKinsey says that 70% of companies across industries are automating one or more business functions. Many of these initiatives are already presenting results. For example, 66% of the companies using automation are reporting one or more benefits like reduced costs, improved efficiency, faster work, and better customer satisfaction.
As the benefits of automation become more and more evident, there is immense pressure on CIOs to automate, especially as they battle tightening labor markets, curtailed budgets, and challenging market conditions.
The Changing Face of Enterprise Automation
Enterprise automation, built around technologies like Robotic Process Automation, has long focused on rules-based repetitive processes that demand substantial manual effort. While RPA has facilitated the automation of these workflows from end to end, today’s volatile business landscape needs an advanced approach to make processes faster, more accurate, and more consistent.
For automation to truly work its magic, CIOs need to move beyond automating simple tasks that are constrained within functional boundaries. They must begin to automate more complex tasks and workflows across functions and systems, paving the way for seamless data exchanges, transparent monitoring and tracking, and unified control and management.
Instead of simply automating mundane and error-prone processes, CIOs must build strategies that enable them to extract meaningful insights from vast quantities of unstructured data. They must be able to automate tasks instantly based on business logic while retaining the ability to keep tweaking things as they go along. In addition to automating large and complex processes, they must also be able to embed “micro automation” into the fabric and usage patterns of enterprise tools, systems, and workflows – thus expanding the automation footprint within enterprises and making it far more ubiquitous and impactful.
Enterprise Automation Trends to Follow in 2024
As organizations big and small seek to enable automation anywhere (and everywhere), here are 3 enterprise automation trends that will occupy the minds of CIOs in 2024:
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GenAI-enabled automation: In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, automation is the key to unlocking new levels of efficiency and productivity. However, with the rapid advances in AI, organizations are now realizing that the real game-changer is not just automation but "Intelligent Automation". Intelligent automation goes beyond streamlining processes, allowing businesses to make smarter decisions and drive informed outcomes.
Technical Automation Potential
Source: McKinsey
Generative AI has the potential to automate work activities that absorb 60 to 70 percent of employees' time today while adding the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually across different use cases. In 2024 and beyond, GenAI-enabled automation will help organizations unleash the next level of productivity. CIOs will capitalize on Generative AI to transform the anatomy of work, augmenting the capabilities of individual workers and unleashing new levels of productivity and efficiency.
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The rise of virtual assistants: In the coming year, the business world will also witness virtual assistants becoming more accessible and easier to adopt. With knowledge workers facing increasing work pressures, virtual assistants will help CIOs lay the foundation of efficient organizational cultures. Offering the ability to understand and generate human-like responses, virtual assistants will enable the global workforce to get critical assistance and transform workplace efficiency.
Worldwide Contact Center and Virtual Assistant Spending Forecast
Source: Gartner
The impact of virtual assistants will be most visible in the realm of customer service, allowing for intelligent customer contact center automation. According to Gartner, worldwide contact center and conversational AI and virtual assistant end-user spending experienced 16% growth in 2023. With Microsoft and Google introducing tools like Copilot, the adoption of virtual assistants will redefine daily processes and significantly boost productivity. From handling data in various formats to managing emails and generating reports. Virtual assistants will help automate repetitive tasks and free up employee time for more valuable activities.
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Democratized automation: As automation becomes indispensable to business efficiency, CIOs will need to work hard to make automation available to more people within their companies. Democratizing automation using low-code/no-code tools will empower employees with the resources and capabilities they need to develop and implement their automation solutions. For instance, low-code automation solutions can reduce enterprise application development time by up to 60%.
Attractive Opportunities in the Low-Code Development Market
Source: Markets and Markets
These tools and platforms can dramatically speed up automation while incorporating complex business logic across various use cases. They will foster creativity (and efficiency) at all organizational levels and accelerate and expand the realm of automation. They will enable CIOs to reduce the backlog of IT requests, promote cooperation between business and IT teams, and empower subject matter experts to focus on complex automation initiatives.
Future-proof Your Business with Recode Solutions
As 2024 approaches, CIOs are busy planning for the year ahead. To future-proof their business in the coming year and beyond, automation plays a huge role. It allows for seamless integration of applications, the elimination of inefficiencies, and the standardization of processes across heterogeneous enterprise environments.
While enterprise automation has been around for several years now, amping up the quality and efficiency of business processes, in recent years, the incorporation of AI into the realm of automation has taken enterprise efficiency to an entirely new level.
If you want to strengthen your market standing and improve how you do business, you must stay abreast of the latest in the world of automation. Embracing the latest trends across GenAI, low-code tools, and virtual assistants can help you redefine customer service, streamline operations, and enhance overall workforce productivity.
At Recode Solutions, we offer a wide array of automation services. From business process automation to cognitive automation, collaborative automation to IT operations automation – explore our AI-led automation services today to transform your enterprise with true efficiencies.
