TechDogs-"5 Trends That Will Define Automation in 2021"

Automation

5 Trends That Will Define Automation In 2021

By TechDogs Editorial Team

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Overview

Last year we were faced with one of the most disturbing scenes in recent history - and no, we're not talking about Robert Downey Jr.'s remake of Dr. Dolittle. It was the pandemic that brought our global village to its knees. Everyday life came to an abrupt halt as we reassessed our plans and goals for the future with the COVID-19 outbreak in mind. Similarly, businesses evaluated and adopted several technological instruments to help them navigate this period of uncertainty and hopefully, beyond.  

One such instrument was Automation. Remember canceling flight tickets to Backstreet Boys' Australia concert last year? (Sadly, we do.) What you might not know is that Qantas, Australia's largest airline, automated most refunds. After facing an unprecedented surge of refund demands due to the pandemic, they used automated bots to extract ticket information from customer emails and process over 4,000 requests daily instead of the typical 500!  

If you too want it that way, discover these five key Automation Trends for 2021 and how they benefit businesses. Well, read on - your processes won't automate themselves!
TechDogs-Automation Is Awesome-"5 Trends That Will Define Automation in 2021"
The pandemic has forced businesses worldwide to cut costs while ensuring business continuity and survival. They need a one-stop solution that deputizes for employees, improves process reliability and lowers operational expenses. Sounds like a job for The Impossible Man!

No, we're not making it up; he's an actual Marvel character.

Well, he's probably busy fighting Thanos (again, not making it up!) so let's go for the next best solution - Automation. Enterprises across diverse domains are integrating Automation into their business processes and systems this year. Due to the absence of workers in offices, factories and warehouses worldwide, Automation will undoubtedly be a critical factor in ensuring business continuity throughout 2021.

Join us as we reveal five key trends (and our opinions) for Automation in 2021.
 

Trend 1: Hyperautomation Will Be The New Normal


TechDogs-"Hyperautomation Will Be The New Normal"-2D Image Of Machine Describing The Hyperautomation Advanced Technologies
Hyperautomation refers to the automation of processes using advanced technologies that are more impactful than traditional automation. Yet, several organizations are still supported by a "patchwork" of conventional technologies that are not lean, optimized, connected or transparent - and that's not good. Instead, investing in new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Process Mining, Advanced Analytics, etc., will help them phase out legacy systems and achieve hyperautomation. Out with the old, in with the new!

However, for successful hyperautomation, you need to understand which processes will genuinely benefit from Automation. Alex Day, Senior Vice President at Signavio, a leading provider of business transformation solutions, warns, "In 2021, we will see a clear delineation between those who have automated effectively versus those who have not, dictated by how well a company understands the underlying processes it is automating,

TechDogs' Opinion: The recent acceleration towards business transformation will strengthen the adoption of advanced technologies and tools, which will drive the hyperautomation philosophy to the forefront. Whatever the domain, successful hyperautomation would provide businesses the much-required emphasis on efficacy, efficiency and business agility.
 

Trend 2: Business Workflows Will Continue Building On Robotic Process Automation (RPA)


TechDogs-Business Workflows-2D Image Used As Reference Where "Robotic Process Automation" (RPA) Will Be Continued
Automation appears in many diverse shapes and forms across the industrial spectrum. Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, is perhaps the most well-known of these. It is a software application that simplifies the creation, deployment and management of software bots that simulate human behavior. Such software bots can automatically run rule-driven tasks such as parsing documents for specific information or replying to emails.
 
In the "Forecast Analysis: Robotic Process Automation, Worldwide", Gartner predicted that ninety percent of large enterprises globally will grow their Automation capacity in various forms by 2022. In the same report, Gartner points out that RPA software revenue increased 63.1% in 2018, making it the fastest-growing global enterprise software market segment.

The foremost reason for this is that RPA automates monotonous and mundane tasks, making them a drudgery of the past. Heck, there's even a Tinder bot that automatically swipes right or left based on your preference! If only we had a bot for automatically generating an awesome Tinder bio.

TechDogs' Opinion: For businesses, 2021 will be all about leveraging their RPA by integrating it with complementary technologies such as document intelligence and process orchestration to automate mission-critical processes and create high-value workflows. Faster RPA implementation will ensure business resilience and flexibility. Above all, it mitigates the most dangerous risk of all — human err0r!
 

Trend 3: Orchestration Will Replace Traditional Automation


TechDogs-Orchestration-2D Image Of The Tools In Reference To "Replace Traditional Automation"
Orchestration and automation are often used interchangeably; however, there's a fundamental difference. Automation is the process of setting up a task to operate by itself, whereas orchestration is the process of automating the configuration, integration and management of systems and software.

Think of it like this - Orchestration takes a symphony orchestra made up of numerous musicians and vocalists (your processes), each playing complex and elaborate melodies (automated tasks) and turns it into one harmonic musical composition (your business).

Anytime a systematic process has multiple tasks that can be automated, orchestration can be employed to fully leverage the process. According to Michael Cardy, Chief Technology Strategist for Red Hat in Canada, "2021 is the year of orchestration of cross-domain automated workflows - to fill in one of the remaining gaps of a fully digitally transformed organization."
 
TechDogs' Opinion: Enterprises currently focusing on automating legacy business processes will reap the benefits of orchestration. Such enterprises will need to recognize and thoroughly understand the various actions involved in their business processes. Traditional Automation models will phase out as orchestration will enable predictable, repeatable processes to be performed consistently without aberrations.
 

Trend 4: As Cloud Adoption Grows, So Will Reliance On Orchestration Platforms Like Kubernetes

 
Cloud computing has afforded businesses access to on-demand and scalable cloud models that reduce IT operational costs, drive collaboration and improve reliability. According to Gartner, cloud is projected to make up 14.2% of the total global enterprise IT spending market in 2024, up from 9.1% in 2020. Sid Nag, Research Vice President at Gartner asserts, "The pandemic validated cloud's value proposition."

As cloud adoption continues to grow in 2021 due to its value addition, platforms like Kubernetes will go hand in hand. Kubernetes (k8s or kube, for the hip IT people) is an open-source platform that automates Linux container operations efficiently through autoscaling, without which you must manually scale up (and later scale down) resources every time requirements change. Yes, it is as exasperating as it sounds!

"Autoscaling allows you to dynamically adjust to demand without intervention from the individuals in charge of operating the cluster. It's one of Kubernetes' most powerful features!" says Lilith Cohen, senior cloud consultant at Mission, an AWS consulting partner and Managed Cloud Services provider.

Kubernetes clusters can include host containers across public, private or hybrid clouds, making it a suitable platform for hosting cloud-native applications that require rapid scaling. To be cloud and clear - if your business is transitioning towards a cloud workload, Kubernetes will be a must-have cloud orchestration tool.

TechDogs' Opinion: Automation solutions for the cloud will continue to rise - from installation and management to self-healing applications. With improved data analytics tools that combine recent trends with historical data to predict future usage accurately, autoscaling will become seamless and fully automated.
 

Trend 5: Workflow Automation Through Enhanced Computer Vision Tools Will Increase


TechDogs-Workflow Automation-Image Showing The Biometrics Of An Eye Scanning Tool Used To Explain Enhanced Computer Vision Tools
Companies collecting customer data for gaining business insights isn't slowing down anytime soon. In fact, businesses conducted more surveys and polls during the pandemic to understand how consumer behavior is changing. However, this data doesn't exist in neat and tidy Excel sheets. Business data is unstructured, like a massive, swirling bowl of alphabet soup. Automation through enhanced computer vision will play a huge role in analyzing this data. 

Intelligent Document Extraction Platforms (IDEPs) can classify and extract critical data from documents to manage compliance risk, e-discovery, contract analytics, etc. Thanks to advances in computer vision, such solutions are head and shoulders above their human counterparts. Tell us, when was the last time your computer misread 'S' for '5'? We'll wait.

Such automated tools provide the data intelligence technologies needed to turn vast unstructured data into organized business assets. "Twenty percent of enterprises will expand intelligent document extraction investments, says Craig Le Clair, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, in their Predictions 2021 report. 

TechDogs' Opinion: Advances in Machine Learning, text mining, intelligent retrieval and Natural Language Processing will offer far more extensive computer vision capabilities. Businesses will begin implementing cognitive capture tools to automate the extraction of information from unstructured data. This will expedite data analysis and unlock insights much faster.


Conclusion


These five trends endorse the prevalent notion that Automation is a key protagonist for businesses and will play a crucial role in how they adapt and grow in the wake of the pandemic. Automation is simply inevitable.

The potential advancement in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will provide us with smarter bots, cognitive RPA and highly streamlined Automation models. However, keeping in mind the hyperautomation philosophy, does this mean as technology advances, every process will eventually be automated?

Short answer - no. As Bill Gates once remarked, "Automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency" and so, certain tasks will always be handled by human beings – no matter how clumsy we may be at times.

So, until the Skynet Revolution happens and the robots take over, you can count on Automation being the sharpest instrument in your business toolkit!

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