Hyperautomation and its business uses | AI in business #23

The global hyper-automation market was worth about $9 billion in 2021. It is expected to grow to about $26.5 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 23.5% between 2022 and 2028. This significant growth is the result of practical, business applications of hyperautomation. From transforming everyday tasks to revolutionizing management, hyper-automation is the key to a future-oriented, automated business environment.

What is hyperautomation?

Hyper-automation is the concept of holistic automation of a company’s processes using advanced technologies. It includes, but is not limited to:

• Robotization of business processes (Robotic Process Automation, RPA),
• Application Programming Interfaces (APIs),
• Artificial Intelligence (AI),
• Machine Learning (ML), and
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies.

Its goal is to reduce the need for human intervention in repetitive tasks in favor of focusing on creative work and building competitive advantage.

The main advantages of hyperautomation are:

• reducing the cost of company operations,
• saving time and human resources,
• error elimination,
• greater flexibility,
• significant scalability of operations and
• improving the quality of customer service.

Nonetheless, challenges such as high initial investment costs or the need for specialized knowledge can be a barrier for many companies.

Hyperautomation vs. automation

Hyperautomation differs from traditional automation in scale and scope. While automation focuses on single tasks, hyperautomation encompasses a company’s entire processes and ecosystem and aims for a comprehensive digital transformation rather than a point improvement in the efficiency of a company’s operations.

Automation

Automation refers to the use of technology to minimize or eliminate the manual performance of repetitive tasks and processes. Tools such as make.com or Zapier enable automation of tasks, such as moving data between different applications, generating notifications or scheduling tasks. For example, Zapier can automatically update a spreadsheet in Google Sheets when a new entry is added in Google Forms.

Source: make.com (https://www.make.com/)

Hyperautomation

Hyperautomation, on the other hand, is a more advanced form of automation that integrates various technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), and application programming interfaces (APIs) to create a system that can automatically manage and optimize complex, multi-step business processes.

Source: Keysight (https://www.keysight.com)

Hyperautomation features tools such as RPA platforms to integrate with various systems via APIs to automate a wide range of tasks and processes.

Hyperautomation applications in business

Hyperautomation applications in business include, but are not limited to:

• HR and recruitment – robots analyze recruitment documents such as resumes and cover letters, and then pre-screen candidates automatically, schedule recruitment appointments and send notifications. For example, Santander Bank has implemented a fully digital recruitment process based on hyperautomation,
• Finance and accounting – a combination of RPA and API capabilities along with artificial intelligence allows automating the entire process of generating reports and invoices, posting documents, and verifying payments,
• Manufacturing and supply chain – the industry applies hyperautomation for inventory monitoring, production scheduling, automated reporting, among other things, which reduces downtime and improves on-time delivery.

How to implement hyperautomation?

Implementing hyperautomation in a medium-sized company can become a complicated process that requires careful planning and execution. Here are steps that can help you organize and execute it:

1. Analysis of the current state – at the outset, you need to identify and evaluate the current business and technological processes to be automated. Understanding what technologies are currently in use and identifying areas that can be improved with hyper-automation is key to its successful implementation.
2. Defining goals – the second step of setting specific, measurable goals that you want to achieve by implementing hyper-automation, such as increasing efficiency, reducing errors, or improving customer service.
3. Technology selection – Equally important is the selection of appropriate technologies for implementation, such as robotic process automation (RPA) tools, artificial intelligence (AI), and application programming interfaces (APIs).
4. Process design – not all processes operating in the company are worth automating one to one, in all likelihood, you will need to develop new processes and procedures that will be automated and integrated through selected technologies.
5. Development and testing – building, configuring and testing a hyperautomation system to make sure it meets requirements and achieves its intended goals is a lengthy process that must involve both hyperautomation specialists and the company’s team.
6. Team training – training the employees who will be working with the new system so that they understand how to use it and how they can use it in their daily work.
7. Implementation – putting the hyperautomation system into practice, monitoring its performance and resolving any problems that may arise during implementation.
8. Optimization– Regular monitoring of the hyper-automation system’s performance and making improvements, as well as reporting problems and resolving them on an ongoing basis, are necessary to make sure the hyper-automation system continues to contribute to business goals.

Implementing hyperautomation is a long-term process that requires a significant commitment of management teams and resources. When properly planned and implemented, hyper-automation can make a significant contribution to improving efficiency and innovation in a company.

Hyperautomation technologies – API and RPA

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a technology that allows tedious, repetitive tasks to be automated with “robots” that can mimic the actions of humans in operating applications. In its basic form, RPA can, for example, copy text from a selected browser window and paste it into a spreadsheet. When RPA is equipped with artificial intelligence, it can handle very complex processes, selecting appropriate actions depending on the result obtained in a given step. With RPA, processes such as claims handling can be automated, speeding up customer response and saving staff time.

On the other hand, application programming interfaces (APIs) enable communication between different applications and systems at the code level. APIs feature the exchange of data between different systems in a programmable way. For example, generating Google documents based on data from other systems can be helpful in scenarios such as automatic invoice creation in e-commerce companies.

The combination of RPA and API can offer the best of both worlds, allowing both surface and deep automation, leading to greater efficiency and flexibility in business process automation. This hybrid approach can become particularly beneficial in complex business environments where different systems and processes must be integrated for maximum operational efficiency.

Summary

Hyperautomation is undoubtedly one of the most promising and disruptive concepts in business process automation in recent years. Combining the potential of advanced technologies such as RPA and APIs, complemented by artificial intelligence and machine learning, it opens up opportunities for companies to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. Indeed, its goal is the holistic digital transformation of the company by eliminating the need for manual handling of repetitive tasks.

Hyperautomation differs from traditional automation in scale – as it involves entire processes rather than individual tasks. It saves costs, time and human resources, and reduces errors.

It has wide applications in business and can be implemented in customer service, HR, finance or supply chain. However, to do so, the transformation process needs to be carefully analyzed and planned. Although the implementation of hyperautomation is not easy, and a fully automated company is still in the realm of science fiction, certainly, hyper-automation will soon become an everyday reality of modern business.

Hyperautomation has the potential to revolutionize the functioning of modern companies, but it requires a careful and gradual introduction to maintain a balance between human and machine work. Its full potential can be realized by skillfully combining different technologies.

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