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April 20, 2017 10:25 IST
It may not be an exaggeration to say that in the next three years, in India itself a
million jobs or more might be at risk due to automation.

How we leverage its benefits will determine our fate in the digital era, says
Ganesh Natarajan.
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IMAGE: What is most nerve-wracking for industry associations and governments

seeking to protect and boost jobs is the rapid advancement in AI and automation -- Did you know that
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Process Automation in the automation of knowledge processes. Photograph: Nigel
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Digital transformation is a catharsis that most companies are addressing, some with positive
"winner takes all" enthusiasm and others with trepidation, wondering if they can catch up with Mbappe, Falcao
send Monaco into
the leaders. semi-finals

But what is most nerve-wracking, not just for firm-level strategists but also for industry
associations and governments seeking to protect and boost jobs is the rapid advancement in
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation -- through robotics and shop floor automation in Start-up mantra:
manufacturing and through Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the automation of knowledge 'Ship today, fix
tomorrow'
processes.

Most services organisations, ranging from government to financial services to information

technology (IT) services and business process management have many functions where there
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are a large number of repetitive transactions. RPA has the power to save time and money and you know Babita?
also minimise the cost of rework and inaccuracies by automating and enhancing the efficiency of
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It may not be an exaggeration to say that in the next three years, in India itself a million jobs or
more might be at risk and planners will have to work at redeployment to higher value-adding Steely Juventus
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20/04/2017 New digital era: Will you be a winner or an also-ran? - Rediff.com Business

The importance of human workers in the smart machine age

The Institute for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence has defined RPA as
the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer
software or a "robot" to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction,
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A classic example of RPA lies in the way robotic advisory services will work in the near future.
A scenario built by a research group at McKinsey & Co compares the present cumbersome
process to what it could become.

The regional manager of the investment advisory firms most of us deal with typically gets
investment ideas from the CIO and defines an investment opportunity that fits the client's
appetite.

After trying to call, he sends a recommendation mail or in some places further obsessed with
security, sends a formal letter.

The letter is ignored for a few days and after some gentle prods, the client calls or mails back
with some specific tax queries.

After a few more days of internal consultations at the advisory firm, the client and consultant
finally confer to take a "go-no go" call on the investment idea.

With robotic advisory, AI and deep learning systems will have the ability to automatically
identify the investment opportunity and push it to the smartphone of the client. The client is
provided a graphical representation of the impact this investment could have on his portfolio,
which piques his interest enough to do a call with a robotic advisor to resolve tax queries.

In an exceptional situation, the call could be routed through an Uber-like expert finding
protocol for a quick chat with the nearest available expert anywhere in the world and the
decision could be arrived at within 10 minutes of initiating the transaction compared to 10 days
or more in the traditional case.

Imagine the efficiency benefits, but also spare a thought for the number of people who could be
replaced.

AI may take your job, if you don't learn: IT leaders

RPA is fast beginning to find application across a variety of applications in financial services,
claims processing in insurance, a whole raft of government-to-citizen interfaces and the entire
area of IT support and management services.

Automated management of IT infrastructure enables faster process throughout and order of

magnitude improvement in the efficiency of service desk operations with self-service becoming
the norm rather than the exception.

Automation software at the presentation layer provides an attractive user interface that
mimics and enhances the rules of erstwhile human interface processes without compromising
the existing IT architecture.

RPA enables all functionality to be replicated and in some cases enhanced with unlimited
capacity to meet variable demand.

RPA will expedite back-office tasks in finance, procurement, supply chain management,
accounting, customer service and human resources, including data entry, purchase order
issuance and all interfaces and better user experiences that demand simultaneous access to
large data lakes and multiple contiguous information systems built by the organisation.

To take a final example from the HR and learning space, the IT sector is now engaged with the
agenda to re-train 2 million managers and new entrants in multiple skill streams needed for the
new digital world.

Since the scale will be beyond the capabilities of traditional training departments, RPA solutions
will have to be employed to gauge aptitude, build a learning path and crawl through the
multiple content sources available on the internet to stack up learning modules chosen to fit the
interest area and learning style of each individual.

RPA is here today and expanding fast. How we leverage the benefits will determine the
winners and also-rans of the new digital era for corporations and governments.

The author is chairman of 5F World and the National KM & Business

Transformation Committee of the CII.

Ganesh Natarajan

Source:

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20/04/2017 New digital era: Will you be a winner or an also-ran? - Rediff.com Business

Related News: RPA, AI, Artificial Intelligence, automation, jobs

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