Will Robotic Process Automation Replace Millions of Jobs?

An employee for any organization is the primary source of work. After the third industrial revolution, independent contractors have helped industries in various sectors to enhance employee population. With this revolution, lots of laborious and repetitive manual work, which was time-consuming, was automated with the help of machines. 

This trend resulted in the rise of RPA – Robotic Process Automation and Intelligent Automation. This technology allows manual tasks into automated ones. This fundamental shift in our society doesn’t seem to slow at any time.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an intelligent or smart automation program to perform tasks. These tasks include data manipulation, triggering responses, and creating necessary communication with other processes and systems, which traditionally used human intervention. 

The only major difference between traditional IT automation and RPA is that the RPA system can learn and adapt to the changing circumstances that traditional IT automation lacks.

Market vendors are using RPA to enhance lifecycle automation, workload management, SLA-based automation, credential management, Citrix automation, and adding new data APIs. These enhancements attract industries looking for security and higher operational capabilities.

Impacts that Robotic Process Automation Have –

With too many problems, the retail industry requires business process reorganization. Thus, RPA solutions can be the best fit to resolve issues in retail like the rising cost of production, tech-enabled shoppers, an unreliable supply, and implementing new technologies from payment to the payroll system and labor availability. Online sales in the e-commerce business in the United States are expected to double by 2023, reaching approximately 20-25% in the retail sector.

The most recent and impactful introduction in the technology, RPA, is helping companies to look beyond human capabilities to manage processes and products more accurately. Robotic process automation is attributed to rising in various sectors like healthcare, electronics, retail, education, services, and government. 

McKinsey & Company suggests that the overall economic impact of RPA could be as high as US$6.7 trillion by 2025. There have been talks about RPA replacing humans in some job roles, promising more potential for useful business insights. Will people see temporary, short-term job losses? 

Some say that automation would lead to newer work opportunities, with some reskilling and readjustments in the workforce, while others fear their jobs. 

There are predictions that these automation processes will increasingly focus on business transformation. The processes predicted to get disrupted by RPA include Finance & Accounting, Human Resources, and call center/IT service desk. A good example of it is JP Morgan – they are leveraging RPA and AI for automated trade execution; this technology has helped them to execute client orders swiftly at the best price.

RPA technology is helping companies seeking to produce high-quality products & services for customers, offers an optimal working space for employees, and boosts their productivity and revenue. 

RPA is helping to enhance Human Performance

The integration of RPA in admin tasks, such as invoice processing, CV checking, or customer support, has allowed humans to re-think and work more strategically on higher-value tasks. Forrester Consulting conducted a study that showcased the benefits of integrating RPA in various businesses and organizations. The integration of RPA automation allows employees to engage in fruitful interactions with each other, and substantial time is required to perform tasks that require human expertise.

EDF Energy is a great example of a company that benefits itself through RPA. This firm is the largest supplier of low-carbon electricity in the UK. EDF is used to perform the task manually, which could be performed automatically, reviewing each entry when added into their ERP system. With a family of 12,500 employees, EDF Energy automated this process, saving them nearly two weeks’ work time and £100,000 in software license and development costs, which could be reinvested in the business and workforce.

This example is a true motivator for every organization or every center agent to integrate RPA in their processes for a significant boost in speed, and accuracy, delivering increased job satisfaction and rapidly accessing multiple data sources in real-time. 

By empowering human performance, RPA is flexible yet cost-effective. Many businesses have an ineffective and expensive back office which could be transformed into a cost-effective and truly functional meeting the needs of any business. RPA helps smooth business flow, reducing work pressure on humans and not replacing them.

Final Thoughts –

RPA is being leveraged in many operations to reduce the manual work pressure on humans. Undoubtedly, human workers will always deliver the strongest and the most creative and innovative solutions, which robots can not deliver. Yet, robotic solutions can save massive costs, time, and effort. Robotics should serve as a hand to guide and program manual processes to fit the purpose. In this rapidly changing world, new skills and attitudes are required, and employing robotic process automation could prove to be an effective co-worker.