Intelligent automation can lead companies out of global crisis

As world tensions increase and the stock market faces volatility, intelligent automation has become a pivotal strategy to navigate market challenges and sustain business performance. Of the 1,000 global organizations surveyed, more than 90% said automation addresses the impact of supply chain and economic uncertainty, according to the third edition of the Automation Now & Next report from Automation Anywhere and Futurum Research.

Consequences of the global pandemic, ongoing trade concerns, and political conflicts have disrupted business operations, exacerbating existing workforce issues, creating supply shortages, and making demand forecasting and customer engagements more complex. The report found organizations are making intelligent automation a foundational technology to overcome these obstacles.

“We're seeing things we never thought we would experience in our lifetime – and that's forcing companies to rapidly adapt and understand how to remain agile for unexpected events and scale their automaton strategies amid ongoing disruptions," said Mihir Shukla, CEO and co-founder of Automation Anywhere. "It doesn't matter what you produce, or where you produce it. It's vital to get work done and deliver products to customers."

Automation investments are trending upwards

Looking ahead to 2023, the report shows automation budgets increasing, with more than 77% of organizations indicating they’ll boost their automation budgets and expect to have 500 or more robots deployed within 12 months. A quarter of respondents said they’re escalating automation funding by at least 25% to speed up automation deployments.

With automation proving to be core to business operations the report also indicates:

• 77% of respondents said they've made automation a priority for the next 12 months, having achieved an average return on investment of 6.3X

• 94% of respondents said automation helps address supply chain issues

• 61% of respondents agree that automation helps address staffing shortages

• 70% of companies said 30% of their work across business functions can be automated

The future of automation is cloud

The research found that cloud-based automations are integral for future-proofing business transformation strategies. Cloud delivers agility and flexibility to respond to today's quickly evolving environments, which is true for the 90% who said they're moving from on-premises to cloud automation and for the 93% who said they’ve already adopted a cloud-first approach for new automation initiatives.