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

The world is constantly evolving. As it grows, we construct manydynamics that impact how the business operates. Artificial intelligence hasbecome popular in the last decade. There have been some powerful developmentsin the field of AI. It has started to become a part of our life. But the futurewill not be all machines and no humans. It is where human and machineintelligence will collaborate. AI taking over humans is not a likely outcome.Also, due to this state of innovation, it will become difficult to modeleverything with a fixed set of rules. Technology will replace humans, but someminds will be required to run the technology. Companies might be able toachieve the highest level of automation, but there will be some exceptions.Subjective matters where human cognitive intelligence is needed cannot beexpected from robots or AI completely. Machines doing all the menial, tedious,and repetitive work while humans focusing on higher cognitive tasks likeresearch, creatives development will be a way forward.

Thats how it has been since the industrial revolution. Instead ofremoving people completely, we should think of a hybrid of human and machineintelligence, which will help the whole industry grow. These collaborativeefforts will change the automation industry for the better.

For example, technology can scan through billions of DNA every day but cant come up with the idea of how to scan DNA. Thats why human collaboration is important to create a Smart environment.

Processes are the core of any business. Your business grows when yourcore processes move faster. In order to achieve organized automation in thecore system of business, organizations have already been automating theirprocesses in some way or the other. Process automation and Business ProcessManagement has seen remarkable growth in the last five years. BPM platformshelp you with your business process automation by enabling you to design and automate processes. You must know thatthis is different from Robotic Process Automation (RPA). RPA mimics humanaction and lets you automate a function of your business while ProcessAutomation is the part of the bigger picture. However, theres an ongoingshift. BPM platforms are being re-imagined according to new dynamics of themarket, which considers the next-gen workforce and changing expectations ofcustomers. Since the entry of Millennials in the workforce, the over-engineeredand heavy solutions are becoming outdated. The new workforce and smartercustomers have high expectations from the process automation market. Mostpopular BPM platforms are over-engineered, which increases the problem andmakes your processes slow. This will lead to a rise in the need for fastprocess automation in the market. Another demand of the Process automationmarket is integration. Process automation connected with all your tools in thetool stack makes it even more powerful and dynamic.

If you increase the speed of building and running automation inbusiness, a lot of problems like delays in processes will be solved. You canalso see a rise in the involvement of all the stakeholders, includingemployees, customers, and suppliers in the process automation. This wouldenhance the customer experience in the business and lead to growth.

People who do not have a background in technology are often addressedas Non-technical people. These people have a lot of trouble when they areworking on or creating a digital platform. But they have great ideas onproducts/solutions that solve the customers problem. Due to insufficientknowledge of the technical aspects of coding, they somehow drop the idea ofcreating the products. Thats why there is a rise of No-code solutions thatgive non-technical people the ability to build something digitally. No-code isalso known as Low code or Visual development.

If we see the history of technological innovation, the trend suggeststhat User Experience has always been a priority for businesses. MS-Dos was tootechnical and rigid for its users. This gave birth to a more user-friendlysystem, Windows. It changed the way operating systems and computers were seen.

If JeffBezos had the idea of opening an online store but didnt know how to code, theworld would not have amazon today. These potential geniuses will get a betterplatform to build and use automation.

WhatYou See Is What You Get has been a buzz word since it came out. Itstarted with simple technology, where you will be able to edit the content onyour screen as it would look in the output. This visual development then becamewider, 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 forbusiness users as a whole than just technical users. When business users need less external helpdue to easy no-code solutions, we will see a rise in the number of successfulbusinesses and non-technical users.

The world isgoing through a pandemic, and it is going to affect almost every industry. Youcannot forget the biggest issue of 2020 while predicting automation trends of2020. Coronavirus has hindered the growth of every business. All the countriesare suffering through an economic crisis. This crisis will lead to a lot ofcost-cutting in business. Many businesses have already started to layoff theiremployees due to the cash crunch. These businesses will look for a solutionthat would help them automate most of their work. This would lead to a moreaggressive demand for automation in businesses. In a way, Coronavirus Is Forcing Companies To Speed Up Automation,For Better And For Worse. Thecompanies that are suffering from cash flow issues are likely to look forautomation instead of going through the painful process of rehiring people oncethe dust is settled. People see automation as a bad thing for the marketbecause it risks the job of many earning their livelihood out of that oneskill. But automation helps businesses decrease the cost of production. Thiswill 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 InstitutionsMetropolitan Policy Program. He talked about how, after every economic crisis,there is a boost in people who adopt automation. People usually think that thepandemic while making the human capital cheaper, but the opposite is true.After a major economic crisis, humans become costlier than automation. Thismotivates businesses to replace less-skilled workers with technology.

Anotherangle to this situation is that automation technology has high competition. Newplayers trying to penetrate the market are providing lower-cost solutions,which have made the prices relatively lower. The industry is maturing as timepasses, and the cost curve is declining, which makes high-end automationtechnology inexpensive. On top of that, the financial crisis has led to pricerelief as well as a reduction in many fields, including automation. This wouldlead to an increasing demand for automation in 2020 due to the pandemic.

On-premiseor hosted tools means that the organization keeps all of its technologyrequirements (tech stack) managed by themselves locally, whereas cloud-basedmeans that the technology and tools used by the company are managed andorganized by a cloud service provider.

Both of thesetypes have their advantages and disadvantages. Yet, due to more need forflexibility and collaboration of tools online, cloud-based automation willthrive in the future.

On-premtools are better for companies that are strict with their security measures andhave sensitive data. Sometimes, it becomes a tough task to shift from one Cloudvendor to another. Organizations might find this task tedious as there is a lotof new processes that they discover.

Theorganization that wants lesser risk, better performance, and portability atlower cost will go for cloud-based automation. It is the requirement of thenewer smart generation. In the world where IoT is coming up andbecoming a thing, cloud-based automation is the future.

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.

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Top 5 Key Automation Trends to Watch in 2020 - RTInsights