Brief: The time to Leverage Automation is Now

Right now, the headlines are full of stories about layoffs. I’ve seen more articles in the last month about layoffs in the Wall Street Journal than I ever have before. Companies are reducing their workforce by the thousands. This trend is very reminiscent of 2008, but there is one major difference: there was no one picking up the slack from those laid-off employees 15 years ago.

Now, with the advent of Intelligent Automation, organizations of all sizes have the ability to leverage digital workers (software robots) in the wake of layoffs. Most roles, particularly back-office work, can be backfilled by a digital worker. Digital workers learn a human employee’s actions on a computer – in fact, a digital worker can do anything a human can do using a keyboard and mouse. Not only can Intelligent Automation automate individual tasks, but it can also digitize a process end-to-end, streamlining and providing a bigger return on the investment.

Digital workers are available to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – as opposed to a human who works 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. You do not need to provide these software robots with health insurance and HR oversight. They don’t take time off, get sick, or even make errors. Digital Workers may be the best employees you have! They will definitely be the least expensive.

Why aren’t more organizations leveraging Intelligent Automation to streamline their operations, cut costs, and save time? Maybe they don’t understand the benefits of an Enterprise Automation Strategy, or they feel it may be too complex of a project to take on. The best news is, it is not a huge lift, it won’t take a lot of resources, and automated processes can go live in as little as six weeks.

If your organization is about to announce layoffs, CFO’s and HR leaders should consider developing an Enterprise Automation Strategy to soften the blow for those human workers that remain. Automation will keep your business running smoothly during these turbulent times.