Nearly half of all businesses in India will implement robotic process automation (RPA) by 2024, said an IDC study on Wednesday. The study commissioned by Automation Anywhere, a global leader in RPA, found that 57% of organisations are investing in RPA and intelligent automation to build resilience post-COVID, as opposed to 21% investing in analytics/big data, 7% in machine learning, and 15% in other emerging technologies.
Indian organisations cited trustworthiness as their top priority for digital transformation and are looking to automation for increased security and overall governance of processes.
Respondents also said they believe that RPA can improve accuracy, consistency and security of transactions.
The IDC study, which surveyed technology executives across India, combined with Automation Anywhere's survey of more than 1,600 customers in multiple industries, revealed that the pandemic spurred a recalibration of business plans accelerating digital transformation and RPA adoption.
The report, titled "Building Business Resiliency: Automation the Path to the Future Enterprise", identified four key pillars essential for an automation journey that include business resiliency, democratisation with automation, efficiency and scalability -- and trust, as businesses move to a new normal.
"The pandemic is a stark reminder of the critical importance of being prepared for any future calamity or uncertainty," Milan Sheth, Executive Vice President, IMEA (India, Middle East and Africa), Automation Anywhere, said in a statement.
"Automation is at the core of any business transformation strategy -- and two out of every three customers today are starting that journey in the cloud. Cloud RPA is the future, enabling remote work, reducing the burden on IT resources, and lowering infrastructure costs."
Among the key findings, 56% of organisations surveyed plan to deploy digital workers and software bots that work directly with employees, encouraging more human-bot collaboration.
The study found that 47% of employees believe that RPA increases business efficiencies.