Survey Highlights Expanding Role of Digital Workers in Driving Innovation and Economic Transformation
Blue Prism, a leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), announced the US findings of its global automation report titled “Automate or Stagnate: The Impact of Intelligent Automation on the Future of Work.” Contrary to popularly held beliefs around automation, the report found that 87 percent of US knowledge workers are comfortable with reskilling in order to work alongside a digital workforce. The report, based on research conducted with nearly 5,000 respondents globally, also revealed that more than three quarters (77 percent) of US respondents have already experienced some of their daily tasks being automated over the course of the last 12 months. Additionally, nearly a third of US respondents (32 percent) don’t believe their businesses can remain competitive in the next five years with a purely human workforce.
Automation Fuels Disruption and Innovation
Automation’s recognized benefits of time-saving, cost-saving and improved accuracy is a key reason why an incredible 92 percent of US business decision makers plan to extend use cases of automation across their businesses. RPA and Intelligent Automation were identified by US business decision makers as solutions to the productivity problem (90 percent and 85 percent respectively), while both RPA (97 percent) and Intelligent Automation (95 percent) are crucially important in driving digital transformation. As companies across all verticals and industries look to improve operational effectiveness and agility, automation will be a key differentiator when it comes to high-performing organizations.
“This wave of automation and technological disruption places human creativity and ingenuity directly at the center of the value chain, forever changing the way enterprises operate,” says Chris Bradshaw, Blue Prism’s Chief Marketing Officer. “These changes, highlighted in this report, reflect a major shift coming whereby human workers will need to co-exist with a digital workforce to be successful. Through our connected-RPA platform, Blue Prism unlocks human potential while enabling organizations to maintain control and connect innovations together, so individual work adds up to a far more powerful outcome.”
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Cultural Considerations Behind Automation
To tap into the potential of automation, companies must consider organizational culture first. Implementing RPA is not something that happens overnight and oftentimes company culture must evolve in line with automation efforts. In fact, 71 percent of US knowledge workers agree that business cultures need to evolve, and 67 percent believe that their employers need to do more to build trust.
Thankfully, business leaders are rising to the challenge, with 84 percent aware that with automation there’s a need to build trust among employees with a digital workforce. Over three-quarters of decision makers (83 percent) feel that they’re now facilitating cultural change, by incorporating the digital workforce into their daily working practices and encouraging human employees to engage with the technology.
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Benefits Outweigh any Challenges
According to decision makers (91 percent), the benefits of RPA/Intelligent Automation are well understood. In fact, 83 percent of decision makers agree that their organization has been positively impacted by automation. This sentiment is mirrored in 72 percent of knowledge workers, which is quite a contrast from the dominant public narrative around the downfalls of automation.
Additionally, as automation continues to expand, it will impact the way businesses hire talent. In fact, 80 percent of business decision makers agree their new hires are more prepared to work alongside a digital workforce, and that adopting these technologies is an important factor in attracting and retaining the best talent. This further proves that we are working towards a future in which businesses can grow organically and efficiently by connecting the IT fabric of their entire organization and empowering their workforce to trust and rely on their digital colleagues.
|
Key Data Point Comparisons |
Global |
US |
|
Knowledge workers comfortable reskilling in order to work alongside the digital workforce |
83% |
87% |
|
Knowledge workers ready to take on a new job role |
78% |
88% |
|
Knowledge workers with fears about job loss related to RPA? |
37% |
31% |
|
Business Decision Makers who think RPA is a solution to the global productivity problem? |
88% |
90% |
|
Business Decision Makers who think Intelligent Automation a solution to the global productivity problem |
83% |
85% |
|
Knowledge workers who have experienced daily tasks being automated in the last 12 months. |
78% |
77% |
|
Business Decision Makers who think their businesses can remain competitive in the next five years with a purely human workforce. |
34% |
32% |
|
Business decision makers who feel that they are actively on the case of cultural change |
76% |
83% |
|
Knowledge workers who believe that acquiring new skills is essential to remain employable |
78% |
81% |
|
Business decision makers who agree their new hires are more prepared to work alongside a digital workforce, and that adopting these technologies is an important factor in attracting and retaining the best talent. |
76% |
80% |
|
Business decision makers who believe that their organization has been positively impacted by automation |
76% |
83% |
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The research was conducted by independent research firm Sapio on behalf of Blue Prism. 1,442 business decision makers (those with a final say over budget spend of technology implementations) were surveyed in the UK (209), US (400), Japan (225), Australia (205), France (200) and Germany (203). A further 3,521 knowledge workers (workers whose main capital is knowledge, whose job is to “think for a living” and who have access to technology as part of their day-to-day jobs) were surveyed in the UK (500), US (1013), Japan (503), Australia (504), France (500) and Germany (501). All respondents worked in organizations with 250+ employees. In addition, the respondents worked in companies in which automation had already been adopted. All interviews were conducted online during December 2018.