Automation is much more than robots powering factories and manufacturing plants. Although this is indeed the best example of workforce automation, the concept can be applied in all modern businesses.

Whether they be small or large, whether they belong to healthcare, real estate, or the education sector, workforce automation principles can be applied to some of the other tasks to save both time and resources.

According to statistics, the finance sector holds the most potential for automation, with around 80% of all tasks having a possibility of automation. Learning and development lag in this respect, with only 12% of work having a potential for automation. On average, every sector and every industry can automate around a third of its workforce.

The need for automation has always been there. To save time, resources, and effort and smoothen the operations of any sector, automation has proved to be an effective solution. The degree of automation, however, differs from sector to sector, as stated before.

Over the years, automation has seen a rise, owing to AI and other revolutionary technologies that have aided the adoption of automation in the workplace.

Automation in the Workforce Today:

Workforce automation today takes a lot of forms. Starting at the minor step possible, when we see something to be done repeatedly, we naturally look for automation alternatives. Finding something that needs to be done more than once, which also adds value to the process, is a prime use case of workforce automation.

With the development of cloud-based platforms, it has become much more reachable to all businesses. Contrary to the past, where automation meant having expensive servers and having a team of experts on standby to maintain them, automation today involves cloud-based technologies, where the need for physical servers is eliminated, thus shaving off a large portion of the cost. This makes workforce automation tools accessible to small and large companies alike.

Examples of Some Common Workforce Automation:

Workforce automation today has crept into all industries imaginable. Whether a small business or a large one, some or other kind of automation is used by everyone.

The smallest form of automation:

Email marketing is one form of automation used by even the smallest businesses. Nowadays, one can find products in the market that allow you to tailor your email marketing campaign to your needs. Without any human intervention, these kinds of workforce automation products can be used even at the lowest of levels to save time and resources.

Healthcare Industry:

Regarding workforce automation in healthcare, there is a 29% potential for automation, as studies by EY report. Of this, nurses and other technicians, which form an integral part of the workforce, can be automated to 33%.

Cloud-based workforce management solutions, such as GE Healthcare and WorkForce software, provide accessible automation services for all use cases. These workforce automation solutions help you cut costs, comply with regulations, and control excess costs, without any human intervention.

Manufacturing Industry:

Perhaps the best example of workforce automation comes from the manufacturing sector, with robots being used to automate all manufacturing processes. Although this might seem romantic, this is more than just a possibility now.

With technologies such as AI and machine learning powering the equipment of today, automation in manufacturing, replacing human labour with machine labour, is getting incredibly close to fruition.

Education Industry:

On paper, the learning and education sector presents the least potential for automation, but the numbers are significant enough to consider this thought. Reforming how education is delivered using the principles of workforce automation has long been discussed.

Nowadays, workforce automation products, which are a step above the conventional teaching aids used, are being deployed to replace human labour with machine labour. Although the age-old debate of humans vs robots as teachers remain, it is to be seen how the advent of technology can change this mindset.

Real Estate Industry:

Real estate spans sectors ranging from finance and marketing to property management. The question ‘how to automate your real estate businesses’ is frequently asked, and workforce automation in this sector has boomed.

Products like Thoughtonomy, and their real estate automation solutions, provide services such as automatic real estate listings management, client and buyer background checks, and finance automation.

What does the Future Hold for Workforce Automation?

Now that we’ve adopted automation, we will only adopt it more. The potential for its use in sectors is enormous, and some of those use cases have been discussed above. As time progresses, more and more complex applications of workforce automation will surely come up.

Technologies such as machine learning are expected to act as the catalysts for these complex use cases, with newer forms of intelligent automation being made possible due to these technologies. Combining AI and machine learning will provide some exciting workforce automations opportunities shortly.

As software learns, it becomes even more adaptive, thereby widening its range of complexity of tasks that it can achieve. One can only expect workforce automation to reach dreamy heights as time passes. Accessibility and complexity are bound to increase, and it is only for the better.

We at Affle Enterprise are enabling thriving startups & giant enterprises to solve complex business challenges through our Chatbot & Mobile app development services. Please get in touch with our team at enterprise@affle.com.