Technology is now greatly emerging in the form of automation and we are all witnessing how different forms of automation are becoming mainstream and are an integral part of the future of work.
Some years ago, we were sceptical about how automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and the cognitive technologies would impact our workforce. And we know now, that by 2030, there will be no organisation that will not leverage the benefits of such technologies in their day-to-day function. We are also aware that humans and AI on their own are not enough to drive business growth – only when they complement each other, can an organisation reach its full potential.
Automation has been permeating every aspect of our daily lives and its applications are across all industries. Automation comes with its own set of benefits. Business process automation (BPA) and Robotic process automation (RPA) is already playing an influential role in the work lives of many, allowing them to focus on value-added, creative and strategic tasks.
I also firmly believe that automation and AI are here to augment the human workforce and help companies stay on the path to transformation.
It is very exciting to see how the new age technologies are going to liberate the human worker. Don’t we all want our teams to focus on activities that add value rather than the mundane routine tasks? The advent of the digital worker is going to be a game changer in the business world. Why not take a human-centric approach to work rather than focus on a process-based approach?
Redefining the Workplace
What is a digital worker you may ask. Well in simple terms, these are autonomous “digital” workers/personas capable of making independent decisions due to their cognitive and analytical capabilities which emulate and hence augment and assist their human counterparts.
While RPA bots are typically task or process-centric, these digital workers are human-centric. They assist in specific business functions across a wide range of industry verticals and are proving to be a great addition to high-performance teams.
Digital Workers Typically Do the Following:
- automate entire processes
- perform multiple tasks in a set of sequences
- increased customer engagement and loyalty
- prioritise the order of tasks based on demand and time pressures
- collaborate, work in teams and combine forces to complete workloads
- adjust around different screens, layouts, designs, fonts, application versions, system settings, permissions and language.
By doing the above, the digital worker helps humans to:
- refocus their efforts from repetitive and mundane tasks
- do value-added work that focuses on creativity and innovation
- make work more human
Digital workers are designed to seamlessly embed into this current changing landscape of work. They can also be called cyber employees who eventually learn to prioritise certain business processes, allowing them to operate in certain roles with little to no supervision. They evolve quickly and learn by mimicking humans in their abilities to read user interfaces and after the initial learning phase, work faster, without error and round the clock. The future of work hence will see a fundamental shift from rules-based decision-making to a sophisticated intelligent automation, with thinking and analytical capabilities. In time, the trained and developed digital workers will seamlessly interact with human workers, work systems, business processes and applications to create a powerful, intelligent, digital ecosystem.
Closing Thoughts:
Widespread adoption of automation is the only way forward. And adopting digital workers can be the stepping stones on this path. While it may be difficult to bring about an organisation-wide adoption, many businesses can slowly expand their automation footprint by implementing digital workers across important business processes and gaining from speed while keeping their costs relatively low.
The time is right to add a digital worker – an extension to your current team, in order to increase productivity and drive better business outcomes. The future of work is imminently going to be humans and digital workers working in tandem, enhancing each other’s capabilities and helping businesses grow. All organisations will need to embrace this change to empower their teams and drive innovation. And in doing so, don’t forget to choose the right technology partner to stay on the path to automation success.
Exigo Tech is helping companies across all industries to implement automation into their day-to-day processes. Let us help your business achieve transformation and stay agile. Give us a call today!