Look back at another very exiting Snapshot Breakfast - Automation in the Age of Personalization. The participation of so many key leaders from Swedish business and institutions as well as the high quality of our speakers from Tele2, Schenker Logistics and Chalmers University, packed in such a fast-paced and high-quality event make this time very well spent. Thank you once again to all contributors and participants!
My key take away from this and recent other events I attended is that Robotic Process Automation (RPA)has in less than one year grown from something organisations wanted to better understand to something most have now started to implement.
I have never seen such fast and massive adoption of a concept like this and I am sure this is due to the attractive
business cases and fast RoI (~6 months) as well as the qualitative benefits such as improved quality, compliance, speed and agility. If you are interested, please read the Cognizant excerpt of the HfS report which also talks about what Cognizant does in this space.
Now that RPA is picking up so fast we are laser-focused on helping our clients to succeed in these programs. Over the last years we have learned quite a few lessons on what works and what pitfalls to avoid and we experience on the ground how this helps organisations to implement RPA better and faster. On top of this we are looking ahead (as always). A good example here is what Euan Davis presented around “People — Not Just Machines — Will Power Digital Innovation” because RPA is not just about technology; it is all about driving business outcomes and this requires mastering the art of having humans and machines work seamlessly together.
Also we are looking and working beyond RPA. Our focus here is on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). This is relevant because RPA is very suitable for rule-based processes and processing structured data. Now, these AI- and ML-based solutions can also handle judgement based processes and processing unstructured data which helps to automate end-to-end processes and many other tasks.
I believe that the adoption of AI and ML is where RPA was let’s say one year ago, so I expect a lot of activity and excitement in this space going forward. If you want to learn more, you might want to have a look at this blogpost: The difference between Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence
I am very much looking forward to meet you at the next Snapshot Breakfast in 2017. For now I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Inspiring New Year.
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Bart van der Mark, AVP, Intelligent Automation Europe, Cognizant
Bart has been active in the consulting, IT and BPO industry since 1996, working across Asia and Europe, with a specific focus on the Nordic region. He is a frequent publisher and key-note speaker at conferences and round tables focused on Shared Services, Innovation, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, As-a-Service and Analytics.
