Category Archives: Automation

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SRAX, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRAX), a financial technology company that unlocks data and insights for publicly traded companies through Sequire, its SaaS platform, has announced the release of two new Sequire features. The Email Feature adds automation to the existing email system, while the SMS Feature provides the tools to send text messages. These additions include automation triggers and other enhancements, which facilitate seamless communication between companies and their shareholders.

Through automation enhancements and machine-learning, the email and SMS features enable users to prepare contact lists in advance, customize messaging to distinct audiences, schedule out important updates for campaigns, and measure audience engagement.

Both features are integrated with issuers shareholder and contact lists, so users can create specific campaigns with different audience groups. Users can send an unlimited number of texts to local and international numbers, allowing for connection and reengagement with contacts. This includes scheduling email and SMS blasts to shareholder audiences based on custom filters, such as a threshold of share ownership. Users can then access performance-based metrics on these campaigns.

"These new tools will allow companies to better manage communication with their shareholder base by defining pre-established triggers that will execute both email and SMS messages," said Christopher Miglino, Founder and CEO of SRAX.

The Email and SMS Sequire Features are key to maintaining and growing communications with shareholders and contacts. Now, issuers can streamline shareholder marketing and communication in the same location data is discovered and stored. See it in action on Sequire.

About SRAX

SRAX (NASDAQ: SRAX) is a financial technology company that unlocks data and insights for publicly traded companies. Through its premier investor intelligence and communications platform, Sequire, companies can track their investors behaviors and trends and use those insights to engage current and potential investors across marketing channels. For more information on SRAX, visit srax.com and mysequire.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains "forward-looking statements'' made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements relate to future, not past, events and may often be identified by words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek" or "will." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Specific risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include risks inherent in our business, and our need for future capital. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Additional information on potential factors that could affect our results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in SRAX's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q as well as and in other reports filed with the SEC. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

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SRAX Releases Automated Email and SMS Features on the Sequire Platform - Business Wire

Digital transformation and post-pandemic challenges are paving the way for the arrival of intelligent automation as well as highlighting endless technological possibilities when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT), experts said.

Vishal Manchanda, regional manager of Proven Consult, noted that the post pandemic pressure on organisational performance and efficiency has meant that automation is now increasingly moving into the core of post pandemic digital transformation. The rapid acceleration of digital transformation initiatives has also highlighted the need to bring Intelligent Automation into the folds of the enterprise-wide transformation, versus its previous peripheral and sideline approach.

He explained that robotic process automation (RPA) has to date unleashed a digital workforce of software robots that have worked and delivered on the periphery of much wider enterprise initiatives such as digital transformation. However, in order to move forward, RPA will now need much deeper and better integration with subjects such as machine learning and computer vision.

For any type of automation, it may be necessary to look at the entire process to plan for straight through automation, he said. Process mining can help to streamline and automate the process faster. While digital work assistants can be used for simple processes, for more complex processes it may be required to use task analytics, design thinking, journey visioning. This helps to map user behavior, motivations, dependencies. Once completed, the organisation can have a much better view of short- and long-term automation opportunities.

As organisations blends humans, bots and machine learning into processes, the benefits and gains will keep growing, he added. However, in order to be successful, it is also important to build a culture that recognizes and prioritizes automation. Prioritizing automation does not mean that employees and humans are not centerpiece for the organisation. There are huge benefits that humans can gain by skillfully blending automation into the digital enterprises and training data and blending machine learning into processes.

For example, Intelligent Automation could automate that uses machine language to handle exceptions needs humans to train the algorithms, validate results, and manage process exceptions, Manchanda said. Automating processes gives an organisation to rethink the legacy of its processes and refocus on customers and employees.

Feras Juma, IoT and Integration Solutions Manager at Software AG, also highlighted how the Internet of Things (IoT) is key in digital transformation for governments. The global IoT market size is projected to reach $1463.19 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 24.9 per cent during the forecast period.

According to an IDC regional report, maximum spending is expected for IoT budgets; governments are second only to manufacturing, relaying the importance of IoT as a catalyst to unlock different use cases of high importance, such as energy monitoring, waste management, building automation, and connected assets.

Energy monitoring is a great example, where governments try to keep an eye on its energy footprint and seek to save resources, lower costs, and reduce overall consumption, Juma said. The Dubai Supreme Council of Energy has developed the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, with the aim of reducing Dubais electricity and water consumption by 30 per cent by 2030. This includes uses such as reduction of leaks, managing water consumption more effectively, and streamlining billing systems, amongst others.

IoT will enable the factory of the future, he explained, making a hyper-efficient and agile framework a reality. Smart Cities are another vital area that continue to harness data to spark innovation to offer better quality of life to citizens and deliver a connected experience.

Smart parking is another significant use case of a connected smart city, Juma said. A resident of Dubai, will be able to plan the journey, evaluate parking availability at the destination, book the slot using a unified channel in the future. Also, Abu Dhabis Smart Cities and AI project aims to connect key components across the city. The anticipated uses include - air quality monitoring, asset tracking and logistics monitoring, structural health monitoring, water metering, Palm tree weevil detection, street lighting, smart parking, waste management, water storage tank monitoring, and swimming pool monitoring.

He added that a combination of these smart initiatives is at the core a smart city composition, and it can only be implemented using a horizontal IoT platform; that has capabilities of device connectivity and management, self-service analytics, integration, to easily facilitate simple deployment of use cases - one platform for all - instead of provisioning different vertical solutions, proven to be costly and inefficient.

rohma@khaleejtimes.com

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Digital transformation paving the way for intelligent automation, IoT - Khaleej Times

The US has traditionally been a nation of optimists about technology. But just when the world seems poised for a technologically-driven productivity boom, Americans have acquired a dour outlook about the march of progress. Growing fears that not everyone will share in the benefits is leading to resistance that threatens to hold the nation back. Recapturing the bold attitudes of yesteryear will require more than rhetoric -- itll require sweeping policy changes.

Youd think now would be the time for Americans to come together in shared adulation of technology. After all, innovative mRNA vaccines are in the process of saving the nation from the greatest pandemic in a century and freeing people to resume normal lives. In the future, the same techniques may be used to defeat cancer. Meanwhile, an explosion of innovation in solar power and batteries is promising to drastically reduce the costs of averting climate change; 10 years down the line, itll be furnishing the country with energy so cheap that it could spark a new productivity boom. And remote work technologies are allowing many people to live far more flexible lives. Other emerging technologies like lab-grown meat, artificial intelligence, CRISPR and synthetic biology hold out promises of even greater wonders in the near future.

Many Americans are still techno-optimists in some ways. Technology is the factor cited most as having improved life over the last half century. But in recent years, it seems like this optimism has been gradually eroded, replaced in part by skepticism and fear.

Instead of the nation celebrating the conquest of COVID-19, Americans turned the vaccine into a culture war and many people refused to get inoculated. Amazon and Google are still generally liked, but their approval rating has taken a huge dive despite the fact that they helped most Americans make it through the pandemic. The pessimism is even evident in the art world: Few artists bother to spin positive futuristic visions the way they did in the 1950s.

But the technology Americans fear above all others is AI. Most perceive automation not as a way to increase efficiency or create higher-paying jobs, but rather as accelerating inequality. Prominent politicians like former New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio have called for taxes on robots, and even Microsoft founder Bill Gates joined in.

This techno-pessimism is actively threatening the American economy. The country has rapidly been losing market share in high-tech manufactured exports.

To keep up, the US cant rely on a cheap labor advantage; it will have to automate. Other rich countries business and political elites understand this. Even though their populaces are also afraid of job displacement, a number have installed far more manufacturing robots than the US has.

China hasnt caught up in robots yet, but its trying. Meanwhile, some of its ports are fully automated, allowing them to rapidly outpace Americas antiquated ports. Longshore labor unions, fearful for their jobs, resist the new technology.

Automation is a race the US cant afford to lose. But its not the only race where were running behind. In San Francisco, epicenter of the nations housing crisis, unions have opposed the use of modular housing construction -- a technology that promises to help bring down ruinously high construction costs.

Fear of vaccines, fear of automation, fear of modern housing construction -- these fears are holding back progress, threatening to erode the countrys competitiveness and create shortages of crucial goods. If the US is going to take advantage of the incipient technology boom of the 2020s, it will have to shed this fear and recapture the techno-optimist attitude of the mid-20th century.

But how to do that? Americans need at least two big things to feel confident about technologys ability to improve their lives.

The first is security. With national health insurance and job-finding assistance, Americans would be far less worried about switching jobs. That would let them view automation as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Second, Americans need wealth to be more broadly distributed across the populace. The explosion of information technology since the 1980s coincided with a vast increase in economic inequality. The technology probably wasnt the cause of much of the disparities, but people cant help mistaking correlation for causation. Also, inequality means many people dont feel like theyll be able to share in the benefits technology brings. So to make average Americans embrace the future, we need to give them a greater stake in that future.

Spinning beautiful futuristic visions and crowing publicly about the very real accomplishments of scientists and engineers is all well and good. We should do more of that. But without social systems that spread around the prosperity that technology creates, well continue to fight an uphill battle to get regular people to love technology.

Noah SmithNoah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. -- Ed.

(Bloomberg)

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[Noah Smith] Automation is a race US cant afford to lose - The Korea Herald

"At Automate.io, we believe that work automation should be part of the culture of any modern organization today. Therefore, we set out to build the world's easiest iPaaS platform that even non-technical users can use to connect their work apps and create complex workflow automations. G2 rating us #1 on the usability index is a testament to this," says Ashok Gudibandla, CEO of Automate.io.

One of the factors that contribute to Automate.io being rated as the easiest to use platform is their drag and drop interface. Automate.io is the only iPaaS player that allows businesses to set up even complex workflows by simply dragging and dropping the data from one app to another. "The UI & UX is by far the most intuitive VS Zapier, Integromat & others," said Harry O, in his G2 review.

More than 40,000 businesses, including many Fortune 500 trust Automate.io to connect their business apps and keep their everyday data in sync. This indicates that businesses now prefer switching to cloud-hosted and easy-to-use iPaaS platforms. Modern iPaaS platforms like Automate.io enable businesses to set up complex workflows in minutes, compared to the traditional on-premise IT-heavy solutions that take weeks to set up.

Learn how Automate.io helps businesses become more agile and productive.

About G2G2 is the world's largest tech marketplace where businesses can discover, review, and manage the technology used in their businesses. It leverages more than 1,000,000+ user reviews to drive better purchasing decisions. https://www.g2.com

About Automate.ioAutomate.io is the world's easiest iPaaS and workflow automation platform. It helps businesses automate repetitive work by integrating their cloud applications making them more efficient and best-in-class.

SOURCE Automate.io

https://automate.io/

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Automate.io rated as the #1 iPaaS platform on ease of use - PRNewswire

Last week, Hayden talked all things automation with robotics experts Ayanna Howard, dean of Ohio State Universitys College of Engineering (and former NASA roboticist), and Clara Vu, cofounder and CTO of VEO Robotics.

ICYMI: Below is the event replay, and even further below are some written takeaways.

What can robots do? Where robots excel: repetition, strength, speed, and precision. Where they flail: judgment, flexibility, and unique artisanal tasks. Vu said this is why most commercially successful robots are focused on industrial applications, like agriculture, mining, and manufacturing.

When you talk to people who spend their lives trying to make robots do stuff, they really tend to come away with a deep appreciation for how amazing people areand how far we are from understanding how to make machines do what we do, Vu said.

Theory of mind: Vu, whose company builds products that enable robots and humans to safely work alongside one another, said a big challenge is getting humans to understand what the robot sees.

If youre building an automated system thats going to interact with people...the ability of a human to have a mental model that lets them reason about what the system is going to do is absolutely critical, Vu said. They have to be able to predict accurately what that system is going to do next.DM

Link:

automation Event recap: What are robots capable of? - Morning Brew

Editors note: This is a sponsored article, which means it is independently written by our editorial team but financially supported by another organisation, in this case, UiPath. If you would like to learn more about sponsored posts on Tech.eu, read this and contact us if you are interested inpartnering with us.

Enterprise automation software firm UiPath recently launched the third edition of its annual UiPath Automation Awards, a competition designed to champion the most promising startups and scale-ups in the field of enterprise software automation, where the Romania-born company has made its own mark over the years.

Zooming in on Central and Eastern Europe region and Turkey, UiPath is on the hunt for interesting B2B software automation companies to enter its awards competition before the September 1 deadline. The mission of the UiPath Automation Awards 2021 is to enable the further development of creative business ideas and 'foster the capacity to scale early-stage companies and entrepreneurial ventures from those regions'.

Ultimately, UiPath aims to leverage its annual competition to help identify the next generation of technologies and products that can have a global impact and 'revolutionise the larger ecosystem of automation solutions'.

There are two categories for entry, targeting both enterprise automation software startups and scale-ups. You can read more about the requirements for each, and submit your application, right over here.

Last year, the top startup and scale-up awards were snatched by Romania's Neurolabs, and a Poland-based scale-up called Salesbook, respectively.

"Winning the UiPath Automation Awards has fast-forwarded our entrance and advancement into the automation space. The external recognition we received from winning this prize, combined with the hands-on, expert guidance from various UiPath teams, propelled our business forward and helped us navigate what until recently had been new territory for us," said Paul Pop, co-founder and CEO of Neurolabs, about what the competition has meant for his company.

Dariusz Nawojczyk, CMO of Salesbook, said: "Winning the UiPath Automation Awards reminded us that it is worth taking every risk while thinking about your start-up idea and that hard work will eventually pay off. The competition is a great launchpad for scale-ups in the CEE &Turkey that want to scale beyond the region. I encourage everyone to take part in the UiPath Automation Awards 2021 you will have a great chance to test your ideas, your product, and your resilience, and that will already make you a winner."

Itself founded out of a small apartment in Bucharest back in 2005, UiPath will help the victorious companies level up. The company will provide the winners in the startup category of the UiPath Automation Awards with mentorship, a 50,000 cash prize, and substantial tech and marketing support over a period of 12 months.

The scale-up category winners will receive C- level mentorship, sales and marketing support, including the opportunity to present the winning technology to UiPath global clients, and have their winning solutions featured in the UiPath Immersion Lab.

Vargha Moayed, Chief Strategy Officer at UiPath, said: "We know the triumphs and challenges that young companies encounter as they evolve and innovate. Given the fast pace of innovation in software automation and the technologys huge yet untapped potential to make the world a better place, we are highly motivated and committed to help emerging players in the space to reach their full potential and scale globally."

UiPath has been organising the competition in various places: the first edition in 2019 was held in its hometown of Bucharest, and last year's edition obviously took place online. Now, they're going hybrid!

Tech.eu is partnering with UiPath to help stage the competition at the upcoming edition of Wolves Summit, which will take place both online and physically in Wroclaw (Poland), on the 20th of October 2021.

"As a testament to our team's relentless determination over the last 12 months, we feel both honoured and excited to host the UiPath Automation Awards 2021 edition online and in-person in Wroclaw, one of the largest AI hubs in Poland. We are happy to be able to provide the platform and tangible support to UiPath to select the next automation champions in the CEE and Turkey," said Michael Chaffe, CEO of Wolves Summit.

"At Wolves Summit we strive to support the growth of the CEE innovation ecosystem, and we know we can best achieve this by partnering with forward-thinking organisations and individuals sharing our mission," he added.

To clarify, startups and scale-ups from the following countries can apply for the awards: Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, and Turkey.

Applications for the UiPath Automation Awards 2021 can be submitted here; you have time until the 1st of September to toss your hat into the ring.

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Hunting for more innovators in the software automation space: Kicking off the third annual UiPath Automation Awards - Tech.eu

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The relationship between humans and robots will soon deepen, thanks to affective computing, the overarching term for the study, technologies and development of systems that identify, process, and simulate human feelings and emotions. Today we have rudimentary capabilities in software and hardware to perform sensory responses within given environments. As robots are taught how to respond to human emotions, and as engineers abstract lessons from human evolution about how people see, move, balance, hear, and feel, we will be able to better understand how cognition works. The sensing abilities of robots will evolve, and automation ecosystems will expand.

These advancements mean that automation ecosystems currently operating in controlled environments, such as a factory floor or a space satellite, will be adaptable to more chaotic and unpredictable environments think autonomous vehicles driving on busy city streets, or humanoid robots helping the disabled navigate crowded sidewalks. This expansion of the automation continuum, which involves many different players, rapidly evolving technologies and reams of data, comes with many challenges.

The McKinsey Simplification ModelTo facilitate automation adoption, value, and further growth, McKinsey, the global management consulting firm, has developed a model that synthesizes industry recommendations into a single concept simplification in three essential areas.

Simpler to ApplyRobot developers and integrators need to make it easier for potential end users to envision compelling scenarios. Simplification in this realm could mean something as basic as providing software that closes the gap between conceivability and installation, helping end users prove their design concepts before committing to a final investment.

A prime example comes from ABB Robotics, where visitors to the companys website are given access to a build-your-own cobot application. Working with intuitive menus, users can browse for functions they need, with options including part handling, screwdriving, visual inspection, and tell us more. Users go on to select how the cobot picks up parts and puts them down; where its vision sensors are placed; what communications protocols are used; and whether the cobot will be mounted on a wall, table, or ceiling. Illustrations clarify the choices throughout. Once completed, the program evaluates the selections, then delivers a customized video simulation of how the cobot, fully installed, would perform.

In short, the robots have access to more data for analysis and decision-making. Then edge computing opens the door for even more intimate collaborations between machines and between man and machine.

Simpler to ConnectMcKinsey advises that robot manufacturers need to deliver secure, flexible connectivity. A key goal is to achieve interoperability. The robots should be able to readily connect not only with other robots but also with the full range of intelligent systems, edge, cloud, analytics, and similar tools and devices.

Cobots rely on multiple sensors and tools such as AI to make sense of and operate safely in the world around them. Simultaneously, the environment it is installed in, or traveling through, will feature multiple sensor-intensive intelligent devices. The challenge is that IoT and robotics technology are often considered separate fields. Thus the synergies across the two disciplines go unexplored. But reimagined together, IoT and industrial robotics become the Internet of Robotic Things, or IoRT.

To date, robotics and IoT have been driven by varying yet highly related objectives. IoT focuses on supporting services for pervasive sensing, monitoring, and tracking, while the robotics community focuses on production, action, interaction, and autonomous behavior. By fusing the two fields, the resulting wider-scale digital presence means intelligent sensor and data analytics are feeding better situational awareness information to robots, which means they can better execute their tasks. In short, the robots have access to more data for analysis and decision-making. Then edge computing opens the door for even more intimate collaborations between machines and between man and machine.

Simpler to RunParadoxically, as robots become ever more sophisticated, capable, and flexible, the effort required by end users to train them often declines. Leading manufacturers understand that shortening the learning cycle is an important means of elevating the appeal of industrial robots.

Companies like Fanuc harness AI and related technologies to accelerate teaching and learning processes. Similarly, Locus Robotics advertises warehouse robots that are so easy to train they can be deployed in just four weeks. Interfaces and tools that drive robotic learning are becoming simpler, clearer, and more efficient for end users. Such improvements are a key focus across the industry.

ConclusionThe cognitive capabilities of robots are already becoming indispensable as the COVID-19 pandemic revealed an urgent need to create more resilient supply chains and protect human workers. The business implications of the new intelligent systems world mean that the dynamics for decision-making in robotic systems are evolving rapidly. What we might once have seen as incremental steps now become opportunities for transformation.

To date, the robotics and IoT communities have been driven by varying, yet highly related objectives. IoT focuses on services for pervasive sensing, monitoring, and tracking, while the robotics community focuses on production action, interaction, and autonomous behavior. Fusing both fields leads to better robotics task execution. The robots have more data for analysis and AI enabled decision-making. In this way, edge computing opens the door for even closer collaboration between man and machine.

About the Author

Michel Chabroux, Senior Director, Product Management, Wind River

Michel Chabroux is responsible for the Product Management team driving technology and business strategies for Wind Rivers runtime environments, including the VxWorks and Wind River Linux families of products. He has more than 20 years of industry experience including roles in technical sales, support, training and product management. Prior to joining Wind River, he was a consultant in Business Management and Information Systems working with a variety of clients. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science Applied to Business Administration from Universite de Lorraine.

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Incorporating Robots Into the Automation Continuum - Robotics Business Review

Automation in the legal industry is becoming increasingly common. Still, theres plenty of confusion and even a little mystery surrounding the topic. In this webinar, Womble Bond Dickinsons US Knowledge Management team members will share their thoughts on everyday automation and how they incorporate Neotas app-development platform into existing processes successfully.

The key takeaways from this webinar:

Neota Logic will join Womble Bond Dickinson to expand on the benefits of using their app development platform in a law firm setting.

This webinar will be hosted alongside ILTA.

Speakers:

Jonathan Jochem Director, Markets & Growth, Americas Neota Logic

Before joining Neota Logic, Jonathan has spent 24 years teaching, consulting, and selling for legal technology companies. First, with ProLaw Software that Thomson Reuters later acquired, he automated corporate legal departments and government agencies. During his time with Thomson Reuters, Jonathan worked with hundreds of clients to improve their legal software systems, including the California Department of Justice and Farmers Insurance. More recently, he worked with startup legal technology companies to introduce platform as a service (PaaS) solutions into corporate legal and government organizations.

Stephen Chan Director of Knowledge Solutions Womble Bond Dickinson

Stephen collaborates with lawyers, IT professionals, and vendors to design systems that help our attorneys work smarter and more efficiently. His professional background includes working as a paralegal, an attorney, and a librarian at Campbell University School of Law. Stephen holds masters degrees in Library Science and Educational Media and a Juris Doctorate degree from the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law.

Melanie Segreaves Solutions Analyst Womble Bond Dickinson

As a solutions analyst on Womble Bond Dickinsons KM Team, Melanie works in the trenches with attorneys and staff to automate a wide range of tasks essential to firm business. She has played an integral role in expanding the use of Neota Logic and was responsible for several firm-wide applications deployed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Melanie is a former member of the firms Client Development department and brings over 15 years of sales and marketing experience to the KM Team.

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[Webinar] Everyday automation and the route forward No Robots Required - June 16th, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm ET - JD Supra

Instacart has big plans to automate parts of its grocery delivery business, reports Bloomberg, but the companys schemes look as much like bluster as ambition.

Bloomberg details a plan for the gig-work grocery-delivery network to build automated fulfillment centers around the US, where hundreds of robots would fetch boxes of cereal and cans of soup while humans gather produce and deli products. Some centers would be built next to grocery stores while others would be standalone operations. Instacart would partner with a supermarket chain to handle inventory, contract out the automation side of things to a robotics firm, and take care of processing orders and deliveries itself. If it works, the system would automate out huge portions of the companys freelance workforce.

It doesnt seem like Instacart is making much progress, though. Bloomberg notes that although the company has been working on these plans for more than a year, it has yet to sign up a single supermarket chain and has fallen behind schedule in developing its fulfillment centers. Meanwhile, another report from the Financial Times in February suggested the company planned to open as many as 50 centers in about a year. The clock is definitely ticking on that.

There are certainly real reasons Instacart would want to automate. The companys current business model relies on paying hundreds of thousands of gig workers to do customers shopping for them. This approach has found plenty of customers as its convenient and allows supermarkets to offer online shopping and delivery without creating their own service.

But this setup has problems, too. As Bloomberg notes, shopping with Instacart is expensive. The companys delivery fees, tips, and markups add 25 percent to order costs, according to data from consulting firm MWPVL International Inc. Another source of tension is that supermarkets dont want Instacart stealing their business in the long run. Theyve been happy to partner with the company when they had no other way to offer online shopping and delivery, but thats changing, says Bloomberg, with new options for delivery offered by startups and existing food delivery businesses expanding their reach.

Both of these factors put pressure on Instacart, and thats particularly bad at a time when the firm wants to go public, either through a direct listing or an IPO (originally rumored for early this year and now reportedly pushed back to the end of 2021). Making big plans to automate its business seems like a way of allaying some of these pressures giving investors hope that the company can lower costs and find a new way to work with supermarkets.

Certainly, automating grocery shopping is not out of the question in the long term. Grocery firm Ocado, for example, has huge operations that use both robots and humans to pack orders and is partnering with chains in the US that want to leverage that tech. But using robots in this way is still in its infancy: it requires huge investment and patience to work out the kinks and cant just be tacked onto a business.

Meanwhile, its not clear how sustainable Instacarts current business really is. As a private firm, we dont know how much money its making or losing, but The Information reported that it only made its first profit in early 2020 thanks to booming pandemic sales. Meanwhile, the company has been repeatedly accused of exploiting its workforce in an unsustainable manner, particularly during the pandemic.

Overall, the situation feels similar to that of Uber, where the company repeatedly promised that its loss-making, gig economy business would become sustainable when it developed self-driving cars to replace all those pesky humans. And we all know how that ended: the taxi firm sold its self-driving team in December last year.

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Instacarts reported plan to automate its workforce seems a lot like bluster - The Verge

As we begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel of the COVID-19 pandemic with the development of vaccines and reopening of restaurants, bars and taprooms, for brewers, it might feel just as challenging as it does exciting. Prior to the pandemic, as craft brewing gained momentum and craft beers gained popularity, brewers were already facing a number of hurdles conserving resources and ensuring a consistent product in the face of growing competition among them.

As we start to bounce back from the heavy impact the pandemic had on the craft brewing industry, consistency remains a challenge, along with others: cost savings, sustainability initiatives and the aluminum shortage. If youre in the brewing industry, juggling all of these issues likely seems nothing short of overwhelming. But, by approaching them strategically and creating efficiencies in your breweries, you can come out ahead and focus on what matters most: your product.

Automation is one way to save time, money and resources, and its not reserved solely for large breweries. There are simple, cost-effective changes that small and large brewers alike can make to save on resources and work toward sustainability goals.

Theres a reason why larger breweries have automated the majority of their processes, from brewing to sanitation to packaging. Automation helps dial in chemical concentrations, conductivity probes and titration, minimizing waste and providing the exact amount of chemistry, water and resources a brewer needs to produce their product. This precision creates significant savings in water usage, chemical usage and labor, as well as improve safety and help make a remarkably consistent product, meaning brewers not only have a much more efficient process, but a higher level of quality control.

Some breweries have automated brewing processes, but some still rely on manual labor for cleaning and sanitation or may not have automated any processes yet. However, concerns around the environment, COVID-19 and product quality make automation perhaps even more beneficial to brewers than in the early days of craft brewing.

Here are some areas where automation can help control and reduce.

1. Water usage

According to Statista, there are now nearly 8,800 breweries in the United States, and the average brewer uses seven barrels of water to every barrel of beer produced (Brewers Association). Thats an enormous amount of water, regardless of the number of barrels of beer you produce for example, if you produce 5,000 gallons of beer per year, thats 35,000 gallons of water, while the most efficient (often automated) processes use a much lower ratio of water used to beer produced (e.g., 4:1). 7:1 is not only a lot of wasted water but also a lot of wasted money as well literally going down the drain.

Coupled with the heavy usage of water is an increasing concern about phosphorus pollution. With many cleaning chemicals containing phosphates and an increase in sanitation following the COVID-19 pandemic local municipalities are tightening regulations on wastewater to help curb phosphorus pollution and prevent algae blooms or threats to wildlife and the environment. That means breweries may need to reevaluate the sanitation chemistries theyre using or reduce water usage to avoid fines and a negative impact on the environment.

Automation helps brewers mitigate these issues by controlling the amount of water used in brewing and cleaning processes. Because automated systems use the proper amount of water required nothing more, nothing less automation creates consistency and helps brewers avoid using excess water. Automation will ultimately help you minimize water consumption at your brewery, which in turn will help you ensure a consistent product and avoid unnecessary costs and negative impacts on the environment.

Do you love brewing equipment? Ok, thats a little weird, but its cool. We get it. Dig all these stories on brewing equipment. Get sick with it!

2. Chemical use

Automated systems work to control chemical usage in the same way as they do water and remove human error from the sanitation process. Automated equipment helps achieve the right chemical concentrations, which can end up saving large amounts of chemical (as well as water). Theres a perception that using more cleaning chemicals or higher concentrations will result in better sanitation. However, chemistries that are too concentrated or over-applied will require an increase in rinse water. This increase potentially exposes the surface to more bacteria and can negatively affect the quality and flavor of the end product, while wasting both chemicals and water. Automation will dispense the correct amount of chemicals every time, whereas the concentrations will likely vary even mixed by the most careful human worker and have the possibility of spillage.

3. Energy consumption

Like water and chemical usage, automation also allows brewers to dial in energy consumption and temperature control. In some systems, brewers can even adjust and monitor temperatures remotely, helping to ensure accuracy and consistency, while also saving energy. Consistency in the temperature during the brewing process is particularly important, not only for the product, but also in saving natural gas 45 percent of a brewerys natural gas consumption comes in brewing itself, and thermal sources average 70 percent of the energy consumed in the brewery, accounting for 30 percent of the total energy cost, according to the Brewers Association.

While we tend to see energy as an expense we cant control, like the Brewers Association writes, breweries that do not pay attention to the opportunities at all levels of their operations may miss out on potential cost saving and revenue generating measures. Temperature control during brewing is certainly one of those measures and is easy to implement and efficient in practice.

Its no secret that automated equipment can be an upfront investment, and its not always one thats immediately feasible depending on the size of the brewery. Automating routine processes like cleaning-in-place (CIP) or other sanitation practices is a cost-effective way to start seeing a return on investment more immediately. Sanitation equipment like high efficiency pumps, foamers and dispensing units provide the exact amount and concentration of chemical needed with a smaller investment. Brewers looking for long-term solutions or more significant water and chemical savings can look into centralized and decentralized automation systems. These more complex systems not only offer chemical and water precision but can also be accessed remotely and provide reports for higher accuracy.

If you havent yet considered automation or are just starting to, now is the time to review your brewerys processes and where you can start saving. After industry-wide disruption, were at an important crossroads. We can return to previously existing norms, create new ones, or fall somewhere in between. Automation gives us the opportunity to innovate within our practices, overcome monumental challenges, and reinvent the industry regardless of how many barrels we produce.

George Allen is the business development director of brewing and distilling at Birko.

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Brew smarter using increased automation, for water usage to cleaning and dispensing processes - Craft Brewing Business