Randy Rayess
Almost every industrial sector these days has implemented and transformed its growth by adopting the way of modern “intelligence”. So, what is this intelligent automation? What was the need to append it to the existing systems? What values does it add to the industry? And how its assimilation to the mundane tasks would bring about an industrial reform?
The merger of artificial intelligence and automation has revolutionized the conventional ways of operating and has transcended the growth and performance metrics of the industry. “Leaders will embrace automation not just to take advantage of the breakneck pace of digital change, but also to create a new digital world where they hold competitive advantage,” writes Emma McGuigan, managing director, Accenture Technology UK. By that way, machines and artificial intelligence will be more indisposable part of the workforces for the companies than ever before. Industrial automation will set and define the new standards of quality and efficiency and will be effectively deployed in every aspect of the industry.
The applications of intelligent automation covers a vast variety of operational functions, such as: from collecting, analyzing, and making decisions about textual information to guiding autonomous vehicles and advanced robots. According to Forbes contributing writer, Adrian Bridgwater “Automation is massively important in the realm of software application development and software systems testing/management today.” Intelligent automation has become the new low cost alternative to manual labor. As most of the manual tasks can effectively be driven by intelligent machines and software, it’s no wonder why it has become so popular in the industrial landscape which is more focused on production, quality and skilled workforce.
In an article in Deloitte University Press, intelligent automation can also address various societal and business challenges like: changing talent demographics by creating an opening for automated alternatives, need for intelligent cognitive tools, differentiate products and services with new features and experiences, exploring new markets, to aggregate analyze, extract and process ballooning amounts of data, automated decision making, extracting key metrics from counterparty financial statements and automatically generating credit models, automating physical tasks and retail distribution, intelligent vehicles etc.
Although industrial automation has become mandatory in this day and age of increased productivity and workload, intelligent automation thrives when it’s paired with people to drive better outcomes. These machines are a great addition in offering increased capabilities, analysis, scale, speed, cost optimization and informed decision making but it is worth noting that they are crucially complementary to human skills. It is very important for the industry leaders to look beyond the potential of intelligent automation to simply cut costs. It is necessary for companies these days to cope up with the competition for their survival. This makes intelligent automation all the more crucial in driving growth and production with improved techniques to curb the risk of falling behind in the market. As Cognizant’s Howard Hoyle states, “smart automation, working in conjunction with smart people, will refocus us on what we do best: working smarter by amplifying human grit, creativity, determination, decision-making, adaptability and the will to succeed.”
