Intelligent automation will lead companies out of global crises

As world tensions increase and the stock market faces volatility, business leaders indicate that intelligent automation has become a pivotal strategy to navigate current market challenges and sustain business performance. Of the 1,000 global organizations surveyed, more than 90 percent say 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 leading research firm Futurum Research.

Consequences of the global pandemic, ongoing trade concerns, and political conflicts have disrupted business operations, which has, in turn, exacerbated existing workforce issues, created supply shortages, and made demand forecasting and customer engagements more complex. The Automation Now & Next report found that overwhelmingly, 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. "Our third Automation Now & Next Report revealed that intelligent automation is the prevailing technology that is proving to be the most crucial asset for businesses in every sector across the globe. As a result, organizations have dramatically increased budgets to support new automation initiatives."

This is particularly timely due to global workforce shortages juxtaposed with unprecedented product and customer demand. Shukla continued, "It doesn't matter what you produce, or where you produce it. It's vital to get work done and deliver products to customers. And with the speed and agility offered by cloud automation, we can address this need."

Automation Investments are Trending Upwards

Looking ahead to 2023, the report shows automation budgets are dramatically increasing, with more than 77 percent of organizations indicating they will boost their automation budgets in the year ahead and expect to have 500 or more bots deployed within 12 months. A quarter of respondents say they are escalating automation funding by at least 25 percent to help speed up automation deployments.

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

• 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 state automation is helping address supply chain issues

• 61 % of respondents strongly agree that automation has helped address staffing shortages

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

The Future of Automation is Cloud

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