Razvan Atim, UiPath: 2025 education trends shaping businesses

The past year has accelerated the digitalization of public services and businesses all around the world. How does automation fit in for large companies & the public sector and can startups benefit from it as well? How can leaders and managers create a more tech inclusive culture and what are some of the trends in education shaping the next 5 years? Some answers in this interview between Ciprian Stănescu, founder of Future Magazine and Răzvan Atim, General Manager for Eastern Europe of UiPath.

Which aspects should entrepreneurs take into account when it comes to RPA and/or AI and which kind of businesses do you think will successfully integrate AI/RPA in their model?

Any business leader should know that the introduction of RPA, complemented by AI and other technologies across departments such as legal, finance, HR, and the customer-facing teams, has a tremendous potential to enhance both employees' experience and that of customers. Particularly during the lockdown, automation has allowed businesses to tackle backlogs of customer requests within a short time, ensuring customer satisfaction and empowering their employees to face spikes in activity during a highly charged time. Regardless of the growth stage and size of their business, entrepreneurs should know they can count on fast and accurate digital assistants that allow them to scale activities regardless of the size of their team.

Moreover, what the previous months have shown us is that automation projects can be implemented quite fast. Incentivized by the need to respond fast to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have taken the shorter route to digitalization by embedding automation into their activities. That is because, on the one hand, RPA can be integrated seamlessly with legacy systems, and, on the other hand, it is a low-code technology, and thus, designing and using software robots is accessible to a broad category of professionals. Not least, automation is suited to companies of all sizes and across all sectors. As to the types of businesses that are well-positioned to successfully integrate RPA into their business models, tech startups are an obvious pick. As 'digitally native' businesses, startups are perfect candidates for automation because a prerequisite for introducing software robots to the workplace is to have digital processes.

Which are in your opinion some top trends in education that will impact the business environment in the next 5 years?

First of all, the inclusion of broad basic digital skills literacy programs in schools' learning curricula will be key in achieving a sound and inclusive transition for all to the digital society and economy. When it comes to other learning trends, many of these will likely be launched by students and learners who have experienced a transformation in their needs and expectations. To name a few directions, lifelong learning and self-led learning will become more prominent in answer to an uncertain climate. We will probably see an increase in short courses through microcredentials, nanodegrees, or other new forms of learning and knowledge development. A multi-stakeholder approach is also critical to help balance the current and present needs of the workforce with market demands.

Opportunities for reskilling and upskilling launched within companies as a way of future-proofing their business and empowering employees, or in the form of public-private partnerships, are also expected to emerge and scale in the future. As we have already seen in the past year, there has been a surge in demand for tech education, driven by the stringent need for qualified tech professionals and the fact that firms have kept on hiring for tech roles during the pandemic. Consequently, many are now considering a career change and looking to pursue roles in the tech sector. We've witnessed that interest in RPA training has remained steady during the past months. UiPath, as a provided or free and open RPA education via UiPath Academy, has offered during lockdown a short course of four weeks designed to teach how to build software robots and the response has been very positive.

How do you think entrepreneurs should present the idea of lifelong learning to their employees?

Companies of all sizes should look at lifelong learning both as an opportunity to help and support the career pathway of their employees, as well as a critical competitive advantage. Encouraging and rewarding the mindset for continuous learning, should be coupled with investments in the workforce, such as employee training and development. Such initiatives should be seen and carried out through human-focused education, which reduces employee anxiety that can stem from adopting new technologies. Communication and empowerment are equally important – leaders should inform and involve employees in the digital transformation processes while directly addressing possible concerns. Many of our customers who have introduced automation to the workplace have designed and implemented company-wide communication campaigns. Next, they have made sure to involve staff in choosing the processes to be automated and even ran naming competitions for the robots. Not least, peer-to-peer learning can also enable employees' professional development, and it is also a great way of innovating and having fun.