New Research Reveals Today's Global Workforce Is Eager to Adopt AI and Automation

NEW YORK, April 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IMAGINE -- The majority of global workers are eager to embrace automation in the workplace, according to a new academic report commissioned by Automation Anywhere, the global leader in robotic process automation (RPA). However, despite this enthusiasm and the success of early trials within organizations, employees currently are still evaluating how they will deploy these technologies.

Unveiled today at Automation Anywhere's Imagine New York experience, Making Work Human: 5 Challenges points to the main obstacles that organizations must overcome in order to scale automation, more specifically RPA, as well as AI, to meet the needs of the workforce of the future.

The global workforce is open to change

    --  Despite a pervasive narrative of job loss fears, workers themselves do
        not fear being replaced by automation and AI technologies, according to
        the research. They also express high levels of curiosity as to how AI
        can help them do their jobs better.
    --  Almost three quarters (72 percent) of the 4,000 employees surveyed for
        the report see the technology as something they work with, rather than
        something that will replace them. This is opposed to just eight percent
        of respondents who strongly feel the opposite.
    --  A majority (57 percent) of workers believe their productivity would
        increase in the long run if their organization provided more
        opportunities to trial different types of automation or AI, compared to
        just 16 percent who feel the opposite.
    --  Two thirds (66 percent) of workers want to know more about how AI can
        help them do their job. However, the report warns organizations not to
        overstate the capabilities of automation and AI - highlighting the
        growing trend for 'AI washing' akin to 'green washing' in the early days
        of corporate sustainability. A majority (57 percent) of respondents
        surveyed report hearing, 'a lot of people talking about AI without
        knowing what it really is.'

Overcoming initial growing pains

Despite the curiosity and openness to explore automation and AI, just 38 percent of workers surveyed globally currently use automation technology to perform their job responsibilities, but there is an expectation that this number will continue to increase. The research also uncovered substantial discrepancies when it comes to how workers across the globe are adopting these technologies today, with only 13 percent of workers in Japan and 26 percent in the UK using automation technology in their current roles, compared to 49 percent in the U.S. and 66 percent in India. Importantly, workers across the globe agree that opportunities to work with AI and automation technologies such as RPA will increase their productivity.

The new research highlights five challenges organizations face in scaling the use of automation (specifically RPA) and AI, and suggests practical actions that organizations can take now to address them. The challenges comprise:

    1. Technology: The challenge of scalability requires that organizations
       build a culture that can evolve as technology advances. Short term vision
       would keep organizations stuck in small scale use-cases without looking
       at broad benefits of automation and AI.
    2. Skills: The future is all jobs 'supported by automation'. By optimizing
       for immediate productivity gains without creating a culture of support
       and advancing skills, organizations would see momentary increases in
       efficiency without long-term performance sustainability.
    3. Diversity: The challenge of trust in automation and AI by ensuring
       opportunities exist to use the technology among all genders.
    4. Authenticity: The challenge is to avoid 'AI washing' - overstating the
       capabilities of the technology. The less workers trust the organization,
       the harder it will be to market the technologies and realize the real
       value in the long run.
    5. Resilience: Without embracing change, the technology will be slow to
       evolve as will worker's skills, and an organization's diversity and
       authenticity.

Dr. Chris Brauer, Director of Innovation in the Institute of Management Studies (IMS) at Goldsmiths, University of London, and leader of the research commented: "Last year, we conducted research to explore whether automation could make work more 'human.' We found that augmented companies not only enjoyed 28 percent greater performance levels, but also scored 33 percent higher on factors deemed to make a workplace more 'human'."

"In this new research, we wanted to ask - how will organizations scale their technological automation after successful trials? We uncovered five challenges they will face, but there is a relationship among them - and like all great technology revolutions in history, addressing these holistically allows for the balance required for the integration of augmentation into our lives."

Calling for greater diversity in automation

Diversity presents a unique challenge for the rise of automation. Among those surveyed from the general workforce, six percent fewer women than men had received the opportunity to participate in workplace trials of automation technology. With the World Economic Forum recently reporting that just 22 percent of global AI professionals are female, the report warns that organizations need to act faster to change the constitution of the workforce or risk losing valuable insight and capabilities, crucial to scaling automation and AI.

Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-Founder of Automation Anywhere, concludes: "We commissioned this research to gain a deeper understanding of the practical considerations in scaling automation and AI - for our customers, for our partners and for ourselves. It was crucial we included the voice of workers in the research - employees in the U.S. and around the world, who will be the most impacted by this technology, but also have the most to gain by its presence. From skills to diversity to authenticity, it's important that as a sector, we continue to question and debate these challenging issues, to promote the responsible and ethical development of automation."

Interact with Automation Anywhere:

    --  Visit our website: www.automationanywhere.com
    --  Check out our monthly webinar series BotVisions:
        https://www.automationanywhere.com/company/webinars
    --  Follow us on Twitter: @AutomationAnywh and on Instagram:
        @automation_anywhere
    --  Connect with us on LinkedIn:
        https://www.linkedin.com/company/automation-anywhere

About the research

Supported by Automation Anywhere, the research was conducted by an academic research team led by Dr. Chris Brauer, Director of Innovation in the Institute of Management Studies (IMS) at Goldsmiths, University of London and Dr. Jennifer Barth. A mixed-method approach was deployed, including:

    --  An in-depth literature review of academic, industry and media sources
        utilized to form initial thinking, expand the hypothesis and inform the
        research team about key issues and opportunities identified in the
        report.
    --  Subject matter expert interviews with buyers of AI and experts in
        technological change to expand the challenges and gain real-world
        insight around the five challenges.
    --  Employee survey focused on the perspective of automation technologies.
        Survey participants were drawn from 4,000 workers in four countries
        (1,000 each from the U.S., UK, India, and Japan). Data from the employee
        survey was analyzed using a complex variable and single variable
        analysis.

About Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywhere is the leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), the platform on which more organizations build world-class Intelligent Digital Workforces. Automation Anywhere's enterprise-grade platform uses software bots that work side by side with people to do much of the repetitive work in many industries. It combines sophisticated RPA, cognitive and embedded analytic technologies. More than 2,800 customer entities and 1,600 enterprise brands use this AI-enabled solution to manage and scale business processes faster, with near-zero error rates, while dramatically reducing operational costs. Automation Anywhere provides automation technology to leading financial services, insurance, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, telecom and logistics companies globally. For additional information, visit www.automationanywhere.com.

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SOURCE Automation Anywhere