Dive Brief:
- Less than 40% of companies have deployed automation use cases at scale, according to a Capgemini survey of 705 business leaders from organizations with revenue greater than $500 million in FY17 that are experimenting with automation.
- Quality improvement is the main goal for 43% of companies using automation; less than one-quarter of companies are looking for a change in revenue, according to the survey.
- Most automation implementation is occurring in the back office with 56% of experimentation siloed in IT while sales and marketing see the most front office automation. However, a lack of leadership commitment is a setback for nearly one-third of respondents.
Dive Insight:
Automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning are all buzzwords, but just like any other emerging technology, its capabilities are stalled with a lack of vision. Introducing a disruptive technology into a company's infrastructure shouldn't be done for just the sake of doing it.
Though impact on revenue isn't a primary goal of automation, it is expected to save the global workforce as much as $2 trillion and can render better quality and accuracy of reporting, productivity and compliance.
Companies want to lean into automation more than ever, but few are well versed in scaled adoption and their company culture needs adjusting. The more a company wants to do with automation, the more structure and vision is needed. Some industries are better at this than others.
But avoiding new technologies entirely is not the solution either. Technologies that were once disruptive are now second nature, and 72% of organizations embrace it. While there will some resistance to disruptive technologies, the companies that don't take the initial first steps to prepare will be pushed aside.