Future of jobs with robotic process automation

While industrial automation will impact the blue-collar workers, white- collar workers will face the results of increased use of RPA

We may consider robots as physical machines. But robotics and automation is evolving in non-physical ways. Companies in India are exploring and adopting robotic process automation (RPA) to address issues of efficiency and productivity where large amount of transactions are involved. RPA can make calculations, manage emails, transfer data and get data from the internet based on previously set commands. 

This frees up executives to focus on non-repetitive tasks which require more attention. Raghunath Subramanian, president and CEO (India and APAC) of UiPAth, says that RPA is applicable for any task that is rules-based and repetitive, and that handles a large number of transactions. These can exist in any company, regardless of size. “RPA is able to be placed on top of existing IT architecture and programmed to operate as a human does, only 24 hours a day, seven days a week and with 100 per cent accuracy,” says Subramanian. This becomes relevant for sectors like banking that have dated IT systems which are expensive to upgrade.  RPA is also popular among firms wanting to provide a customer service in sectors where processing speed is important. 

The interesting aspect about RPA is that it is being added to the solutions being provided by IT companies. UiPath’s products are used by TCS and Mphasis among others for upgrading the processes of their clients. RPA’s initial avatar was used in business process outsourcing industry, but in recent times the level of automation has increased significantly. Finance and banking sector has been most aggressive in adopting RPA in India. 

Globally, RPA is expected to be a $5 billion market with high levels of acceptance in emerging markets of Asia. RPA’s advantage over previous automation solutions lies in its ability to manage large amounts of unstructured data. The future skills platform launched by Nasscom has placed RPA among the eight technologies which will require new talent for professionals. 

BPO, white-collar and mid-level professionals across various sectors will have to prepare themselves with new skills. A recent report on Future of Work by the World Economic Forum underlines the same for the world. “By 2025 more than half of all current workplace tasks will be performed by machines as opposed to 29 per cent today,” the report says. While industrial automation will impact the blue-collar workers, white-collar professionals will face the results of increased use of RPA. 

The negative impact can be mitigated by intense investment in reskilling and retraining all levels of professionals. Handled well, the net impact could be an increase of jobs, according to the report. “Such a transformation will have a profound effect on the global labour force. However, in terms of overall numbers of new jobs the outlook is positive, with 133 million new jobs expected to be created by 2022 compared to 75 million that will be displaced,” says the report. 

For India, the increase in adoption of RPA means that larger number of white collar professionals will have to invest in mid-career reskilling. The question is: Who will invest in these programmes? Will the government step in? Will companies add to their reskilling budgets? Or will individuals have to spend on themselves? The answer is all of the above. India needs all three of them to invest. Government will have to invest in and enable large scale programmes.

Companies should prepare for a shift to higher levels of automation. And all individuals should consider a constant renewal plan. Investing in one’s own learning is now easier with scores of online courses meant for professionals. There was never a better time to begin learning new tricks.