Automation - a Valuable Legacy of the Pandemic

Author: Margareta Chesaru – Public Affairs Manager, UiPath

The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered the most challenging global crisis in nearly a century, and its effects will be long-lasting. In only a matter of weeks, the crisis has reshaped the way we live and work. As the world is on the rebound from the profound social and economic shock, governments and businesses are developing strategies to drive economic recovery and strengthen the resilience of the workforce.

In this context, the role of technology in mitigating the effects of the crisis has been crucial. While the first use cases have focused on maintaining communication and collaboration, and ensuring business continuity, at a macro level, countries worldwide have deployed technology to support the most affected public sectors, such as healthcare, where it helped improve patients’ treatment and control the spread of the virus.

Beyond the overwhelming health toll, COVID-19 has profoundly impacted our economies and the workforce. But the crisis has affected organizations in many different ways. These circumstances have only built up the conversation on the growing importance of RPA.

RPA stands for “robotic process automation”. Think of RPA as software robots that can execute mundane, repetitive computer tasks, with speed and error-free. Unlike physical robots, RPA deploys a virtual workforce – digital assistants – that support human employees in their daily activities.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, software robots have been deployed in the healthcare industry to accelerate data processing and medicine reporting, among others. With automation, nurses and medical doctors unlocked more time to focus on patients’ needs. By delegating the consuming admin work to their digital assistants, healthcare workers had more time to do other tasks that require human strengths, such as empathy, compassion, and resilience.

Challenged by extra workload and the need to scale up digitalization, many public and private sector organizations have turned to RPA to build capacity, resilience and respond with speed to citizens’ requests. A concrete illustration can be seen at a public authority in Romania, where RPA has helped streamline the processing of an unprecedented number of welfare applications filed after the COVID19-imposed lockdown caused mass unemployment. By clearing the massive backlogs in processing applications and automating key workflows, RPA helped the public sector workforce meet the tight deadlines, enabled employees to focus more on critical processes, and allowed applicants to receive timely financial support.

Since the start of COVID-19, organizations turned to RPA to make available new resources to adapt to the crisis. As our economies reopen, automation can help organizations - large and small, public, and private – readjust, increase their productivity and efficiency, and improve the resilience of their operations to support future growth. According to the Forrester report “The COVID-19 Crisis Will Accelerate Enterprise Automation Plans”, one of the “lasting legacies [of the pandemic] will be a renewed focus on automation.”

Furthermore, as technology develops, so does the job market. While new job profiles are rising, employees are asking for more training opportunities to upskill and reskill, as reflected in a recent survey conducted by UiPath involving 4,500 office workers worldwide. According to the survey, 86% of employees say they wish their employer offered opportunities to acquire new skills, and 83% say they wish their employer gave them more opportunity to enhance their current skills.

Likewise, employers demand more automation and AI skills from their candidates. This need is reflected in the rapid growth in roles for AI specialists and robotics engineers, reaching the top positions on the 2020 Emerging Jobs Report by LinkedIn.

Many policies will have to be re-prioritized, changed, and adapted to mitigate the disruption created by the COVID-19 crisis and foster growth in the future. In this new world, RPA can help organizations readjust more quickly, boost productivity, and unlock the creative potential of their workforce to nurture future growth and innovation. To ensure an inclusive transition towards a digital economy and reap its full benefits, automation, and AI skills training­­ should receive increased attention from policymakers and business leaders. Investing in both technology and the workforce will enable a quicker, more resilient economic recovery and provide the means for sustainable development in a post-pandemic world.

Margareta Chesaru, Public Affairs Manager, UiPath

Margareta is leading the public affairs and public policy activities at UiPath. She has an extensive background in public policy, legal and regulatory affairs. In her current role, she is bringing her energy and know-how into shaping a multi-stakeholder dialogue on the role of AI and automation technologies in the context of the digital economy, while also looking for solutions to address today’s educational and societal challenges. Margareta represents UiPath in various trade & industry associations, including the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union, where she holds the Vice-Chair position in the Future of Work, Education & Skills Task Force.