Process Automation Post-COVID in 2021 

The COVID-19 pandemic has been wreaking havoc around the world. Disrupting day-to-day operations and routine tasks and rendering human contact taboo and a crime in some cases, but like everything else, this too shall pass. Once it does, we'll see significant change. Along with remote work, automation adoption will be one of the major focuses of businesses in the post-COVID world.

Predictions for Automation in the Post-COVID World

No-code automated machine learning to increase use cases

Automated machine learning, also known as AutoML, will dramatically fast-track the machine-learning model's development compared with the traditional coding approach. In the post-COVID-19 world, businesses lagging will leapfrog their competitors by using AutoML to implement as many AI use cases as they want. According to an estimate, AutoML allows data scientists to implement eight times the number of use cases aimed at personalized customer experience or operational efficiency since they can configure parameters and run thousands of experiments in a single go. In simple terms, AutoML will significantly amplify the impact of digital transformation post COVID.

Intelligent document extraction to become a focus of investments.

Even in the pre-COVID world, intelligent document extraction platforms (IDEP) focused on investments as they allow businesses to classify multiple types of documents and enhance document management easily. Machine learning combined with computer vision makes these platforms easy to build and maintain; thus, their value will significantly increase in the post-COVID world.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to become more common in intelligent automation suites.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) was strongly emerging before the pandemic due to high market demand, commoditization, specialization, major enterprise software acquisitions, and new marketplace entrants. Post COVID-19, just like machine learning, RPA will become embedded in several intelligent automation suites that enable digital transformation.

Commercial drones to automate specific business operations

The commercial drone market is booming due to the rapid growth of the consumer drone industry. While limited human contact remains is a factor in increasing drone usage, two more factors will increase the demand for drones in the post-COVID world.

• The fast evolution of 5G and computer vision will enable real-time drone intelligence over low-latency and ultra-reliable communications.
• Better regulations crafted by governments around the world will facilitate drone commercialization and adoption.
  
  

Intelligent Automation to support at least 25% of the workforce

As companies are highly likely to stick to the work from the home model or adopt a hybrid model, almost three times more workforce will work from home most or all of the time. Post-pandemic, organizations will implement new automation technologies to support at least 25% of the remote working employees. Direct support may remain rare, like giving a bot to every worker to support their daily journey, but indirect support will increase. This type of support will include intelligent automation handling line-of-business tasks often invisible to remote workers, documents for employee support, employee questions, and benefits, along with customer experience and service.

Rush to Automation will cause notable failure.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased the investments in automation technologies and digital transformation. More than half of the organizations that weren't equipped to support remote work broke down due to the pandemic and were pressured to adopt automation solutions. Haphazard and rushed Automation expose the automation technology and the businesses adopting it to high risk, which can cause monumental failures that can harm an organization's reputation, limit the overall trust in Automation, and damage customer trust due to media scrutiny. Post-COVID, around 30% of businesses will increase their focus on quality by proper due diligence and planning and testing Automation before deployment for both employees and production.

The focus of Automation in the Post-COVID World

Manufacturing line

Regardless of the business's size, the manufacturing line is the core process that must be structured, transparent, and optimized for growth. When we say manufacturing line, we mean everything that makes manufacturing possible, including vendor communication, invoicing, inventory management, order processing, and in this area, Automation has become essential.

Automation technologies can help businesses to cut costs and increase efficiency as they improve forecasting potential. With automation adoption, businesses can also keep promises to customers by ensuring timely delivery. Furthermore, machine learning solutions allow companies to anticipate customer needs, identify customer trends, and avoid over or understocking supplies. Due to all these reasons, the manufacturing line will be the major focus of post-COVID Automation.

Accounting

When it comes to accounting, manual and labor-intensive processes are highly prone to errors. Automation technologies, however, can whisk these troubles away. Advanced accounting automation software enables accounting teams to simplify the entire process by speeding up and securing transactions and invoicing, eliminating paper-based accounting, and automate recurring transactions. Due to these benefits, accounting systems will be a focus on post-COVID Automation.

Reporting

In the post-COVID world, organizations continuing remote work will implement automation technologies to enhance reporting. Cloud-based automation technologies can answer any necessary questions like time spent on a task and increase visibility with dashboards. In addition, these automation solutions can generate comprehensive reports by processing data with a single click, eliminate useless information, and increase transparency, all of which are necessary to achieve growth.

Customer experience and support

Human contact has become forbidden due to social distancing roles, potentially damaging customer experience and support. However, thanks to automation technologies, the lack of human contact don't seem to be a problem for customer experience and support. Automated solutions for customer support were gaining popularity even before the pandemic. Still, post-COVID, their demand will significantly increase as more brands look for an automated yet humanized customer communication method.
These are some of the predictions and main focus points of Automation in the post-COVID business world.