In a recent insight report titled ‘The Impact of a Digital Workforce on Business Agility and Survival’ conducted by Blue Prism , the organisation released its annual global survey insights based on research with over 6,700 participants globally in the area of knowledge workers and senior IT decision makers.
The global study revealed that in the UAE 86% of leaders believe robotic process automation (RPA) will solve the global productivity problem, with 97% believing it will drive digital transformation, and 80% seeing it as an essential for business to remain competitive.
Globally C-suite executives are embracing automation with 92% looking to deploy and extend their capabilities, while 81% believe that RPA and automation is critical to scale technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) in their businesses.
"These survey results help validate the sea change we see happening from automation,” says Jason Kingdon, Executive Chairman and CEO of Blue Prism. “COVID-19 has put a spotlight on just what a Digital Workforce can do for business continuity, but it is just the beginning. This is about using intelligent automation to empower the non-technical knowledge worker to do more, faster and more efficiently, without having to rely on IT. This goes beyond using desktop macros or screen scraping productivity tools for a quick ROI, intelligent automation is at the center of enabling digital transformations for large scale enterprises.”
‘The new normal’ post COVID-19
With it being no secret that the impact of COVID-19 has been significant for most businesses, Blue Prism surveyed its global customer base to discover that 94% have a renewed urgency to adopt RPA as a lifeline for maintaining business continuity and ensure a high level of overall responsiveness.
Global productivity
“Across every industry, most knowledge-based work isn’t delivering anywhere near its potential, evidenced by diminishing global productivity that’s stagnated at one-tenth of what it was 40 years ago for some economies. With the pandemic, organisations face additional challenges from reduced workforces, customer demands and macroeconomic pressures,” commented Blue Prism in a company statement.
When conducting its survey, the organisation revealed a positive link between automation, global productivity, business agility and resilience. In the UAE 53% believe too much time is wasted on administration tasks, with 87% seeing automation as a solution to the global productivity problem, as well as 94% believing it can help to meet customer demands.
Future-Proofing
Currently in the UAE 80% of decision makers believe that RPA and automation is essential to ensure their businesses remain competitive. This belief is reflective of the major time savings, improved accuracy and cost savings reported by UAE leaders, of which 98% already have plans in place to extend the use of the technology.
In addition, in today;s competitive market, UAE leaders also believe that such technology investments can help to keep their transformation on track with 97% believing RPA is an important factor for driving digital transformation/
Skills shift
While the report highlights the belief that automation and RPA can drive productivity and accelerate digital transformation, the survey also stressed the need for re-skilling and training. Three quarters of those surveyed highlighted that they are constantly searching for data analysis and data science skills. As a result 91% of leaders stated that their businesses are providing learning opportunities when they introduce technologies relating to new skills and qualifications.
Anxiety when it comes to adopting automation
“Fear of automation is diminishing as there’s a growing level of trust with more organisations adopting digital colleagues.” In the UAE, leaders are becoming more comfortable with RPA, with more than half of UAE leaders excited by the opportunities RPA will create.
Source: https://www.businesschief.eu/technology-6/blue-prism-uae-leaders-embrace-intelligent-automation