5 Post-COVID-19 Automation Predictions for the Enterprise

Prediction 1: Enterprises will limp or sprint along the road to recovery

Hertz, Latam Airlines, JC Penney, Virgin Airlines, and Wigan Athletic are just some of the big names that have gone bust, filed for bankruptcy or pleaded for massive rescue packages to keep afloat. For others, keeping the lights on was possible as they adopted Zoom meetings, Slack groups and remote working to hold things together.

Despite all that effort, not every enterprise will survive COVID-19. For those that do, there are two main strategies for recovery. Some will keep ticking along like they did during the virus days until their market or vertical picks up, more in hope (of future bailouts or a takeover) than expectation.

Or they can aim for strong growth with a radical overhaul of their processes and costs. Having seen how nimble an enterprise can be using tools like Slack, Google Docs and Github, chatbots and automation tools, all working with current systems thanks to APIs and integration, businesses can review processes, the grinding IT that links departments, and reinvent them to drive efficiencies, targeting quick wins during recovery.

Across an organization, sales teams must move faster, and business processes can be automated using RPA or other automation tools. HR can use bots to rapidly hire the right people, while partners and supply chains can move from just-in-time to even more aggressive methods using AI and analytics to get things in the right place.

Prediction 2: A very rapid spread of automation, prototyping and bots

To build all of these new processes and services, companies need a better understanding of them and the prototyping tools to rebuild them. These tools will be used across every department and team to deliver results now, not in 2021.

Low-code and no-code solutions will allow teams to build their own tools like chatbots to increase customer engagement, or RPA to speed up processes, and to understand what is worth automating or must be kept manual among their internal and shared processes.

While previously one bot or process may have remained within the enterprise firewall, for the sake of efficiency, expect companies and partners to share more active processes. And expect even the grandest of businesses to dump expensive legacy tools for ones that get the job done faster or integrate better and come with a fresh layer of AI to guide improvements.

Prediction 3: Automating customer processes for greater engagement

 Enterprise customers might come back, they might stay away or choose competitors. Surviving enterprises need to revisit all their customer engagement and sales processes, taking inspiration from the small businesses that did well during COVID-19.

Take the millions of small businesses that went the extra mile on customer service. Enterprises can replicate that in their own way, delivering products faster, updates more regularly, putting their equivalent of a box of chocolates in each parcel.

While enterprise scale will struggle with the human aspect, cognitive automation can deliver bots that understand language better than traditional bots, they can use speech to engage more realistically, all helping pull in customers and win over prospects, passing the high-value cases to the sales team to win the deal.

On the ground, robot deliveries can get around social distancing issues, if they persist or reappear. And enterprises can partner with others to offer a wider basket of goods to capture or retain customers.

Prediction 4: Remote work is here to stay

Some enterprises took to remote working like ducks to water. Knowledge-based companies such as research, data-based or media giants were well on the road to remote, and now everyone else has had to catch up.

While many enterprises put up temporary remote tools to keep things moving. Now they must build secure, protective services that defend the business and enable the workforce to engage from anywhere.

For that remote workforce, bots and automated processes can help with the provisioning of IT, password security, reporting problems and ordering new kit. And as enterprises try to operate in new ways, they’ll find some tasks that are easy to automate, speeding them up or adding value, allowing workers to concentrate on their primary functions.

Predication 5: RPA gets a lot smarter

RPA has been a firm favorite of process-based enterprises, but COVID-19 has shown that so much more can be done through innovation based on necessity. Many enterprises will revisit RPA with its newer, smarter cousins like intelligent RPA.

Throwing RPA together with a bunch of other technologies including analytics, workflow management, artificial intelligence and intelligent automation enables a new class of tool. One that helps to reduce and remove repetitive or routine-based tasks, while adding the ability to better understand the other tasks each one relates to, and provide decision-making capabilities for managers or leaders in minutes not hours.

This level of super-tool that links to other automation efforts will see enterprises become fit for purpose faster than their rivals. They’ll be the ones winning new business, using that strength to pick off weaker opponents, those still stumbling along, and grabbing the best talent at both managerial and operational levels to strengthen their future prospects.

Business will be hard for every enterprise in the coming years, but there are those that have the clarity of vision and purpose to take a path to working smarter, not just harder. And those that use automation as a regular function across the whole business, rather than a pet project, are more likely to come out stronger than their competitors.

Further reading:

• 5 Simple Areas Where RPA Can Cut Costs
• How RPA can Bridge the Gaps in Your Organization
• How to Build a Digital Workforce with Robotic Process Automation