Workflow automation has become a growing trend nowadays. It helps companies in various spheres minimize monotonous manual processes, this way, optimizing workflow management and boosting the organization’s general performance.
Since workflow automation technologies are constantly evolving, offering new cost-cutting and time-efficient solutions, companies should stay aware of and implement them to keep a competitive edge in the market. Here are the top workflow automation trends worth focusing on.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is gaining widespread adoption among businesses. According to Gartner, the spendings on RPA in 2022 reached $2.4 billion. Among big corporations implementing this technology are Walmart, Deutsche Bank, Ernst & Young, etc.
This software solution is an easy and fast way to replicate human actions in performing repetitive tasks. Moreover, RPA offers businesses great accuracy, flexibility, and consistency in their workflow processes.
Since modern RPA is capable of copying and digitizing data and files, extracting and consolidating content, creating databases, etc. some of its use cases involve:
- customer service to present full information about the client on a single screen.
- onboarding employees to ensure that everyone in the company is recruited in compliance with established regulations.
- help desks to reduce the human employee workload by managing repetitive issues.
Robotic Process Automation continues to develop. Thus, in the upcoming years, it will be able not only to perform some part of workflow processes but complete them without human intervention.
Hyper-Automation
Hyper-automation is a new view on the workflow & automation processes introduced by Gartner in 2019. This concept encompasses various innovations in the sphere such as RPA, Intelligent Business Management, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), etc., to automate automation itself. Not only does hyper-automation identify the work to automate and chooses the optimal tools, but also makes automation more flexible and extends its capabilities due to AI and ML.
Hyper-automation goes beyond simple automation abilities. It lets companies create a digital twin of their organization (DTO), which helps visualize how processes, functions, and performance indicators interact to drive value. This way, businesses get an opportunity to control, assess, and accelerate automation, enhancing their general performance.
Customer Experience (CX) Automation
Automation makes it easier for businesses to deliver a consistent customer experience. It helps employees concentrate more on solving customer problems that require human intelligence rather than on performing monotonous administrative tasks. Here are some CX automation use cases:
- Automated email marketing lets companies deliver personalized, highly targeted content based on clients’ real-time interaction with the brand. It allows companies to increase customer engagement and build their loyalty.
- Chatbots for real-time customer support can handle routine inquiries in the shortest time. Moreover, they can provide customer support agents with full information about the client to deliver a personalized experience and enhance customer satisfaction.
- Bug alerts automation helps developers detect and immediately fix bugs and other system failures before they influence CX.
The enhancement of CX automation is closely related to the growth of Artificial Intelligence. Modern AI solutions are built not only around self-learning but also around self-correcting. It means that AI-powered software can detect errors, analyze and prevent them in the future, completely replacing human employees in performing tedious tasks.
Sales Automation Goes Mainstream
Sales automation is another trend used to perform day-to-day sales tasks without human intervention. Sales process automation software can handle email reminders, pricing, regular documentation, standard contracts, etc., letting companies:
- Achieve accuracy. Sales automation helps to centralize the entire system of price computation.
- Simplify reporting. Employees can report to their managers with automated emails using CRM.
- Increase sales. Sales managers get the chance to focus more on retaining customers and gaining new ones instead of performing daily administrative tasks.
- Enhance customer satisfaction. Sales automation lets companies improve communication with clients, using automated reminders, follow-up emails, etc.
Although nowadays, according to the statistics, only 26% of the sales teams have implemented workflow automation, this number is expected to increase. However, to benefit from this solution, companies have to adjust their workflow processes and technology platforms, making sure that employees and automation tools work seamlessly in cooperation.
Automation Becomes an IT Imperative
In the IT sphere, development teams struggle to meet ever-growing business expectations, being forced to complete more tasks in a shorter time. Here comes automation. It relieves IT specialists of repetitive manual work such as app deployment, testing, etc. and allows them to focus on more important tasks. Businesses, in contrast, can enjoy increased efficiency and reliability of their products due to reduced errors caused by the human factor. Moreover, workflow automation is proven to be a time-saving solution. According to the Salesforce report, around 75% of IT leaders implementing automation admit that it helps them save about 4 hours per 40-hour week.
Although IT automation is not a new idea, it hasn’t gained widespread adoption yet. However, it’s expected to progress, showing greater intelligence and autonomy due to the increased reliance on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Voice-Activated Workflows
Modern voice assistants like Alexa by Amazon or Siri by Apple can automate simple tasks using voice commands. While nowadays they are mostly used to set a reminder, perform the web search, etc., in the future, their range of abilities will become significantly wider, affecting the business sphere as well.
Amazon has already introduced its Alexa for Business, which, according to the company’s CTO Werner Vogels, will soon become a vital element in every office. Alexa and other voice assistants in business will allow employees to improve meeting room experience, let them delegate tasks via voice commands, manage business schedules, etc.
Summing Up
Automation has become an integral component of workflow management. A growing number of businesses opt for workflow management software such as ProcessMaker, Kissflow, Flowrigami, etc. to automate repetitive tasks, relieving their employees from the pressure of monotonous responsibilities and providing them with more freedom to perform more challenging assignments.
Every business has to keep up with the latest workflow automation trends. This way, they will be able to optimize their performance, meet growing customer demands, and keep a competitive edge in the market.
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