RPA has been a problem solver for organizations in the last decade. The robotic process automation tools have been refined over time to include more than just process automation. They have developed at an incredible rate and managed to solve a majority of organizational problems in companies in a short period of time. Needless to say, RPA trends in 2022 will continue to build on the existing platform it shares in the market to increase operational efficiency and reach places it has never before.
RPA has evolved from solving only process-oriented tasks into other tools that can be used to help around the house such as a robot vacuum cleaner. Robotic process automation has managed to reach the consumer technology and appliance industry to help solve everyday problems for people like you and I. Artificial intelligence is a boon to us, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein all of us were left to our own devices and had to take matters into our own hands.
The solutions provided by robotic process automation tools have managed to simplify lives on a personal, organizational and societal level, and they will continue to do so even in 2022.
RPA Trends in 2022
Robotic process automation will grow in its acceptance rate in many industries
Currently, there is not much knowledge about the RPA field. The number of service providers for implementing RPA functions in the IT industry is also fairly limited. This is why the rate at which companies are looking to adopt the tools and services are hesitant. In 2022, this is likely to change because the number of benefits that come with robotic process automation clearly outweigh the costs, and companies are beginning to realise that.
The acceptance rate is going to grow and more organizations will be willing to adopt RPA services for simplifying operational processes and reducing costs. The adoption rate of robotic process automation has already increased significantly in the last two years. RPA has grown from a 12% adoption rate by companies in 2019 to 20% (Computer Economics) in 2021.
People will look to robotic process automation to solve daily problems
Robotic process automation has immense scope of growth in different industries. Companies around the world will use it for their daily use. It will help them solve everyday problems. The intelligent processes that currently employ automation will become smarter once they integrate RPA tools into their systems and the overall problems solving capabilities will rise. Smart integrations will help promote this across industries.
The integration between artificial intelligence and robotic process automation will continue to increase
Smart technologies that use artificial intelligence will adopt robotic process automation tools as well and this integration will continue to rise well into 2022. RPA tools integrated with AI will be able to analyse their existing data, build on it, and continue to grow without any external interference. It will greatly reduce the reliance on human involvement to get basic tasks done and they will continue to occur in the background. Companies will end up saving costs on resources and human labour to perform menial tasks and they will be able to allocate their resources to more meaningful work.
RPA systems will become more self-reliant and independent
The rise of robots is what most people find troubling. People, in general, are afraid that they will be easily replaced by robots, but that is not the case at all. This mindset is slowly changing the same way the convenience and benefits of machine learning and artificial intelligence happened to change the way people viewed the technology when it was new.
People favour convenience and ease of use over pretty much everything else – which is what robotic process automation provides. They are extremely useful resources, and now that companies have begun to realise that, they are becoming less resistant to the changes. This means the innovation in the field will continue to grow in 2022, and the new RPA systems, tools and appliances that are released will be more independent and have higher functioning capabilities.
The robotic process automation market will continue to integrate with consumer technology and development
When people think of RPA they only think of IT and AI. Another field that robotic process automation that can help greatly is consumer technology and smart home industry. Robots do help us clean already. The rise of the home appliance robot industry, in tools such as the Roomba (a robot vacuum cleaner) has clearly been a positive indicator for the same. The revenue the parent company, iRobot, has generated in 2019 through their smart home robots shows how customers around the world are looking for convenient alternatives to simplify their lives. The annual growth rate observed in the final quarter of 2018 and the final quarter of 2019 rose by 11% (IROBOT).
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the audiences are looking for the best way to keep their surroundings safe, sanitized, and clean. As we reach the end of the second year of the pandemic, we can only expect this trend to continue.
The ease of scalability for RPA systems will continue to remain difficult
The biggest problem with robotic process automation is that it is difficult to scale. This is because of lack of customer support and the heavy maintenance. Since RPA is still in its infant stage, the solutions to move it beyond the pilot stage to graduate into a large-scale and company-wide adoption are still unavailable. This shift will take a while to become reality because of the lack of investment in the field. The situation is not likely to change at least in the first two quarters of 2022, despite the increase in its adoption rate.
The safety of consumer data will become an even bigger priority
As the integrations of robotic process automation with artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to grow, the concerns about the safety of data grow with it. RPA is going to be used in both internal and external operations by organizations, which, in all likelihood, will cause conflict in how well managed the privacy and safety of data will be. The ideal way of tackling this issue would be to implement external cybersecurity measures to safeguard organizational data and protect it from any cyber-attacks.
RPA will help make IT more lenient
Information technology has been integrated into all industries around the world. The maintenance that comes with it is quite high, and RPA is one of the technologies introduced to help reduce the cost and effort it takes for it. The fragile systems that artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are placed in will find more robust homes with RPA in 2022. The development of better tools with the help of robotic process automation will enable companies and developers who work in information technology, reduce the complications that come with AI adoption and make IT systems a lot easier to work with.
The RPA CAGR will continue to rise at a rapid pace
The CAGR of robotic process automation has been estimated to grow at a rapid pace in the coming decade. The current market share of robotic process automation in 2021 is estimated to be around 1.90 billion USD (Grand View Research). From 2021 to 2028, the industry is expected to grow at the rate of 32.8% due to the heavy investments in the field. The market share will rise to nearly 14 billion USD by 2028 due to the reduction in operational costs and ease of use.
Robotic process automation will become more standardized
The number of current maintenance and service centres for robot process automation is minimal. Over the next year, as more and more companies adopt this technology, the RPA CoEs (centres of excellence) will continue to grow. It will make RPA services and tools a lot easier to access, which will help make it a lot more standardized and easier to use. It will result in increasing the business value of the services, reducing costs and helping increase production as well.
Read also: RPA in Healthcare | Top 3 Trends in 2022
Final Thoughts
RPA trends in 2022 are focused on simply diversifying its reach, adopting it with other smart technologies, and integrating it with common tools and technologies so that it becomes a lot easier and more accessible. The way the general population views robots is changing rapidly. It’s not a scary phenomenon, they are becoming our daily helpers. Robot vacuum cleaners are the most basic example. Soon, they will assist humans with most of our tasks, and self-driving cars, cleaning equipment and integrated technologies will be the least of them.
