Artificial intelligence as a technology to supercharge process automation is becoming indispensable to executives in a range of industry verticals, according to a new report commissioned by Automation Anywhere. Nearly 90 percent of automation leaders surveyed in the 2023 version of Automation Now and Next: State of Intelligent Automation identified AI and machine learning—including generative AI—as key technologies for successful process automation.
The survey, fielded by Foundry for Automation Anywhere, surveyed 1,000 executives involved in automation initiatives within their organizations and found investment in intelligent automation platforms and tools will increase 17 percent from 2022 to 2023, averaging $5.6 million this year.
“Productivity is foundational to economic growth and the world’s next level of evolution. Intelligent automation, including AI and generative AI, are proving crucial to solving the massive productivity crisis unfolding in front of us,” said Ankur Kothari, co-founder and chief customer & strategy officer at Automation Anywhere. “The 2023 Now and Next report echoes our long-held belief that intelligent automation is the only true solution to the current workforce challenges facing organizations around the globe.”
Survey respondents overwhelmingly said productivity was the most important factor driving automation efforts at their organizations. And 86 percent said process automation needs to move away from task automation and toward more complex end-to-end processes to reach productivity goals.