Senior executives agree that new software "robots", leveraging attributes such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and effective use of big data, will unlock significant value within the next three to five years, according to a new study released by Cognizant.
The study, conducted by Cognizant's Center for the Future of Work, polled 537 senior business and technology decision-makers across multiple industry sectors. Respondents largely agreed that the benefits of intelligent process automation (IPA), and mining the resulting big data, can be characterized as providing money and meaning for their businesses—faster processing with fewer errors, unlimited scalability, and lower cost of ownership, along with the ability to make more timely business decisions through automation-enabled analytics.
Executives surveyed consider their use of process automation to be high, but indicate they are still in early stages compared to the technology available. The study concludes there is a long tail of process systems yet to be automated, as machine learning and artificial intelligence enable a new generation of knowledge "robots" that can mimic human actions while interacting with multiple applications.
Respondents believe they are automating, on average, 25 to 40 percent of their workflow today, while about half of the respondents saw automation as significantly improving their business processes within three to five years. About 44 percent have similarly high expectations for business analytics.
