Prasanna Singaraju is the Co-Founder and Chief Digital Officer at Qentelli.
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Automation is a prevalent concept across every industry, yet not every business is comfortable implementing it. According to a 2018 McKinsey survey, nearly 38% of respondents said their organizations had not started implementing automation for any business process, while 57% said they were at least in the pilot stage. These numbers imply that many business leaders are intrigued by automation but are not quite sure about it.
Every so often when I talk with my business counterparts, I sense their hesitations and figure out their doubts about automation. Those doubts are usually nothing but common automation myths, and I feel it is high time to debunk them.
Myth 1: Automation Is Costly
I am not going to sugarcoat it: Automation is costly. However, that is only half true, as the business ROI from automation exceeds the initial investment. Think of it as "killing two birds with one stone" — in this case, being spot-on with handling multiple redundant tasks via automation. In short, you can get many benefits from a single investment and can save ample resources for the cost of one. Automating the redundant tasks saves time so your teams can focus on innovation.
A ServiceNow study found that companies relying heavily on automation for their businesses are nearly six times more likely to "experience revenue growth of more than 15% versus companies with low automation."
Myth 2: Automation Is Tough
It could be tough when one doesn't have a clear picture of which business objective they want to achieve. Similarly, companies that think this is true might not have visualized automation from a business standpoint.
From what I have seen so far, many people assume automation is a rule-based decision to automate business functions. They assume these will work in a simple and standard workflow but will get complex with scale across business functions. The fear of endless nights of fixing and debugging issues as well as breaking the standard workflow is real.
These days, there are numerous open-source and proprietary software options available in the market. Such software could be easily integrated with any system regardless of the underlying technologies and computing environments keeping the workflow intact.
If you hire and organize skilled people as well as have proper planning, security guidelines and technology, automation could prevent a considerable amount of last-minute rushes to fix issues.
Myth 3: Automation And Artificial Intelligence Are The Same
Although the terms "AI" and "automation" are used interchangeably, they are entirely different concepts.
Automation is a set of logic designed to complete a monotonous task at high speed with efficiency. Here, a program takes input and performs a logic operation. For example, when a hiring process reaches maturity, organizations can automate the process to reduce HR's workload.
AI, on the other hand, is an advanced technology. It can predict, perform high-end functions and help you with business decision activities involving massive data. Here, the output and input are trained and tested to precisely detect a prediction pattern. For example, your phone will use AI for autocorrection.
However, when automation is combined with AI, it can shape your business landscape for good.
Myth 4: Automation Will Make Most Job Roles Redundant
Although automation can do most repetitive tasks, that doesn't mean businesses would get rid of some roles or people would be jobless. On the contrary, a World Economic Forum study predicts that automation would boost the job market by introducing nearly 58 million jobs.
Software developers and engineers designed automation to do regular tiresome tasks with little — or less — human intervention, enhancing a business's productivity. That leaves businesses with time to invest in what matters the most and train employees to handle complex tasks.
After all, automation is a programmed logic that runs on a system and does not have any reasoning capabilities of its own. Hence, humans would always be required to keep the automation logic updated with the latest business needs and bug-fixing.
Myth 5: Losing Control Over Regulatory Tasks
Forbes Technology Council member Gregory Webb noted in an article that an IT network team might feel that automation would stop it from controlling and monitoring its network domains. It is a genuine fear for any IT admin, but that should not be the case. To avoid such a situation, business leaders must invite the IT, development, operations and security teams while planning for automation. This early involvement should keep the doors open for discussions, and businesses should have a broader perspective of how automation would help and its feasibility in the long run. Even with automation in place, the IT or any relevant team should monitor the process to keep the system error-free and secure.
Using data to automate mechanical jobs presents an opportunity for IT teams to invest time in better understanding new-age technologies, cyber threats and integrations, allowing them to work around in a way they've never done it before.
Myth 6: Automation Is A One-Time Task
Like any other business function, automation is never a one-time task. With technology, you can never be sure of the next thing. A better way of keeping up with this change would be staying relevant with the technology market. Always keep on analyzing your market:
• Customers: Analyze popular automation technology to serve their requirements.
• Sales: It is a repertoire of valuable information that could be leveraged to have a clear picture of what is popular in the market and revisiting business solutions.
For automation to work, businesses need to revisit the process at regular intervals and tweak it as required to increase the cost-value ratio.
Conclusion
Automation is a vast field and can be used in almost every business function. It adds exceptional value to businesses by reducing dependencies on repetitive tasks, allowing people to invest time in more value-driven processes. A combination of the right strategy, technology, team or, in some cases, third-party vendors should help any business conquer the fear of automation and allow them to stand out in the crowd.
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