As indicated by a recent survey by ABSL, implementation of robotic automation by companies affects human resources differently to the experts’ expectations. Jobs are not lost, but their character changes. According to companies, the key benefit to implementation of robotic automation in the field of business services is reduction of routine tasks and an increase in the quality of individual robotised processes – while human work reaches 78% accuracy on average, the accuracy of robotic software achieves over 95%. Robots are also 20 times faster than humans.
The ABSL Survey also indicated that more and more companies are implementing advanced process automation. While 17% of companies in the business services segment used this system last year, approximately half of all the companies use it today. The survey results of the Deloitte Company, which is a strategic partner to ABSL, are also interesting. According to this survey 58% of business services centres intend to invest into robotic automation projects. According to both surveys, robotisation, formerly only used for tasks such as routine report creation or mechanical transcription of data from one system to another, is expanding to other activities such as creation of contracts or processes related to employment of a new employee in the field of human resources. As well as the business services segment, robotisation is also spreading massively in other segments, such as banking, insurance, telecommunications, utilities and gradually also in the automotive segment or in the public sector. But people should not be concerned about their jobs – as demonstrated by the 16% increase in the number of employees employed in the business services segment.
The advantages of RPA include a rapid investment return rate. The Deloitte Company’s survey indicates that this return rate is 6 – 12 months on average, but in some cases it may be only 3 months. RPA can frequently be implemented quickly, trial operation lasts on average 6 – 12 weeks and full automation of the production process can be managed within 3 – 4 months.
“As a result of this phenomenon human activities are moved from routine operations to more sophisticated tasks. There will be a new generation of experts, who will use their knowledge of processes and IT to programme the correct algorithms for robots and then simply monitor their performance and resolve non-standard situations. This is why the profile of the most frequently sought employees is also changing,“ Jonathan Appleton, director of the ABSL Association states in relation to this issue. He adds that elimination of some professions as a result of implementation of automation or artificial intelligence is not the order of the day in the business services segment. “Companies simply transfer people to other activities and give them different competence, which allows improvement of services and growth of business.“ This statement is substantiated by a number of studies – for example the recent global survey by the Infosys Company indicates that 80% of companies, which wish to replace current jobs with modern technologies intend to move the affected employees to other work or retrain them. “This data reflects the entire market across all segments. If we focus on the business services segment, the percentage will be even higher,“ Jan Skoták, member of the ABSL Board of Directors Commented.
Full press release in Czech language you can find here.
