2020 is close to the finish line and that’s the time to look beyond. These are a few predictions from industry leaders about different RPA aspects expected in 2021:
“RPA will become the new ERP. I predict that the community of global system integrators (GSIs) and audit-based consulting companies will encourage and train thousands of workers to embrace automation. And that GSIs will do so in the same way they did with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software in the 1990s. My view is that these firms recognize that the automation industry is poised for explosive growth and see a very real opportunity to sell business strategy and enablement services to help their clients reap new benefits, much like they once did with ERP.”
Guy Kirkwood, the Chief Evangelist, UiPath
“Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), in particular, will emerge as a major tool for businesses to successfully navigate a completely remote workforce. Every organization will need to be able to process structured and unstructured data autonomously to work efficiently. IDP allows bots to process emails, signatures, and PDFs—enabling document-intensive processes such as insurance claims, loan applications, and invoices to be automated.”
Stephen DeWitt, the Chief Security Officer, Automation Anywhere
“AI-infused automation will increasingly be linked to core strategic initiatives such as improved customer focus, revenue growth, capital allocation, supply chain management, risk management, cost and operational efficiency, and more. AI-powered digital workers will be leveraged as primary tools for executing on corporate strategy and managing enterprise-scale risks.”
Eric Tyree, the Head of AI and Research, Blue Prism
“Next year, we’re going to see a fall-off of RPA vendors as they try to diversify their solutions and expand into other markets. Businesses are waking up to the fact that RPA has not lived up to the hype and delivered the promised value. Standalone RPA vendors are going to be scrambling to rebrand themselves.”
Eric Musser, the General Manager of Intelligent Automation, Pega
“2020 was about buying RPA bots and AI services. 2021 will be about organizations looking to scale those technologies, realizing the full value of those investments by unifying the modern workforce–with humans in control.”
Michael Beckley, the Chief Technology Officer, and co-founder, Appian
“The largest RPA providers will be forced to explore new verticals, and the small-to-medium enterprise (SME) sector will be one of them. I expect to see RPA vendors will go all-out to appeal to SMEs. But if they’re going to gain any traction with this market, they have to revamp their entire user interface. The UX will have to be far less complex and onboarding needs to be more straightforward.”
Shay Antebi, the Chief Technology Officer, Kryon
