Automation with Intelligence
Reimagining the organisation in the ‘Age of With’
Automation with Intelligence
Read more about RPA technology
The journey to scale
The power of automation is the power to reimagine the way organisations do things. Deloitte refers to this as the ‘Age of With’: a world where humans are aided and augmented by automation.
How work is done, and using which combination of human and artificial intelligence implies far-reaching change in the structure of our organisations. How ready are we for this?
In May 2019 Deloitte invited executives to take part in an online survey of their intelligent automation strategies and the impact on their workforces.
Over the next three years survey respondents expect intelligent automation to increase their workforce capacity by 27 per cent: equivalent to 2.4 million extra full time employees. This presents a significant opportunity to drive productivity and improve the human experience as roles are redesigned and work is made more meaningful.
Success Factors
Analysis of the survey data reveals that organisations adopting intelligent automation at scale have six distinguishing characteristics:
- An enterprisewide strategy for intelligent automation, which helps to generate higher returns in workforce capacity, cost reduction and revenues.
- Combining RPA and artificial intelligence (AI), leading to an average increase in revenue of nine per cent, against three per cent in those that do not combine the technologies.
- Technology, infrastructure and cybersecurity in place, enabling a 21 per cent reduction in costs, compared to 13 per cent among organisations that lack these functions.
- Mature process definitions, standards and processes, which produce an average increase in back-office workforce capacity of 19 per cent compared to 12 per cent among organisations which do not.
- Clear understanding of how to capture value, leading to an average cost reduction of 21 per cent, against 15 per cent in firms with less understanding.
- Radical simplification driven by a need for cost reduction, which is present in 73 per cent of scaling organisations, against only 61 per cent in piloting ones.
Those that are adopting intelligent automation at scale are those with a clear vision, strategy and approach to capturing value. They have approached automation as an enterprise-wide challenge and have established the new capabilities required. They are more likely to be combining automation technologies and are also much more likely to be thinking about how automation will assist and augment their workforce and broaden the scope of work that can be performed.
Organisations combining RPA and AI report higher increases in revenue as a result of their automations to date compared to those using RPA alone (8.5 per cent versus 2.9 per cent). They also achieve greater gains in workforce capacity both in the back office and their core business operations. It is clear that survey respondents believe they derive more economic benefit and improve their competitiveness by integrating AI and RPA rather than using RPA or AI in isolation.
To read the full report, please click here.
