The Future of Hyperautomation

Blog: ProcessMaker Blog

Hyperautomation is the practice of automating as many tasks as possible.

Some organizations start small with automation, using it for distinct tasks like marketing analytics or database upkeep. Hyperautomation encourages organizations to dig deeper: shove a magnifying glass onto every process in your organization to find more areas that could benefit from the power of automated technologies.

Hyperautomation doesn’t focus on one specific method of automation: it’s a family of technologies. Under the hyperautomation umbrella, you’ll find:

Artificial intelligence
Machine learning
Low-code software
Robotic process automation
Business process management
Process mining
Digital twins
Process automation
Natural language processing
Data Analytics
Intelligent document processing

And that’s just the start. The future of hyperautomation will be defined by innovative use cases and solutions that combine all these elements in new ways.

Top technology trends driving the future of hyperautomation

The expert business consultants at Gartner crown hyperautomation as a must-have strategic technology. Here are some of the key trends and developments that we can expect to see in the coming years:

Increased adoption of hyperautomation: As more businesses realize the benefits of hyperautomation, we can expect to see increased adoption of the technology. According to Gartner, by 2024, 65% of large organizations worldwide will have deployed some form of hyperautomation.
Speed, efficiency, and accuracy: Reduce repetitive tasks and manual entry errors—far faster than any human worker can perform. Technologies like intelligent document processing will benefit from new advancements in computer vision and natural language processing. Computers will better understand context and language quirks to provide better insights into your organization’s data.
Artificial intelligence seeps into every facet of hyperautomation: Every technology will integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for more intelligent and personalized automation. This will enable businesses to automate more complex and sophisticated processes, such as decision-making and predictive analytics.
Greater focus on employee upskilling: While hyperautomation can significantly improve efficiency and productivity, it will also require a new set of employee skills. Companies will need to invest in upskilling their employees to ensure they have the necessary skills to work alongside the new technology.
More focus on governance and compliance: Companies will need to ensure that the automation they deploy complies with all relevant regulations and is transparent and auditable.
Increased use of hyperautomation in new industries: While industries like finance and manufacturing have widely adopted hyperautomation, we will see its use grow in new sectors like healthcare and retail. Hyperautomation will enable these industries to automate routine and high-level tasks, allowing them to focus on providing better customer experiences and more personalized care.

One of the most significant benefits of hyperautomation is that it allows you to scale up your business quickly. Automating processes at scale, and in real-time, enables you to do previously challenging things, like processing thousands of orders per day with pinpoint accuracy.

Explore hyperautomation examples from every industry

Here’s how leaders of every industry are tapping into the future of hyperautomation by peering beyond the automation of routine tasks.

Financial services

Financial services companies can process a broader range of transactions faster and with less human intervention. Financial services firms already use automation to improve customer service, reduce costs, and improve compliance.

Here’s what we’re seeing now:

Custodian banks automate their processes by using blockchain technology to track assets on behalf of clients. This will allow them to handle more assets in real-time while reducing costs associated with manual processing or outsourcing these tasks altogether.
Improving settlement systems through smart contracts or other technologies (such as artificial intelligence) that can execute trades based on predefined rules.

Government, public sector, and defense

The government, public sector, and defense industries are all highly regulated.

As such, compliance is a top priority for these organizations. Compliance can be challenging due to the many rules that must be adhered to in each industry. Automation can help simplify this process by providing automated checks and balances at every step, so your team doesn’t have to worry about missing anything important.

Healthcare

Healthcare is one of the industries most ripe for automation.

Automation can help reduce healthcare costs by increasing efficiency, improving quality, and speeding up treatment time.

Robotic-assisted surgery and telesurgery are upending what it means to go under the knife. In March 2020, a team of surgeons inserted an implant into a patient’s brain—from 1800 miles away. Research shows that automating medical procedures can improve surgical outcomes by reducing error rates and helping doctors spend more time with patients outside of surgery.

Manufacturing and Industrial

In manufacturing and industrial environments, RPA can automate quality assurance, inventory management, customer service, and sales/marketing processes. For example:

Quality control: RPA can automatically inspect a product before it is shipped out. This helps ensure that all products are up to standard before they leave the factory floor. In addition, this reduces human error during the inspection process, which could lead to faulty products being sent out into customer homes.
IoT Cameras and sensors: Use RPA in conjunction with other technologies like machine-vision cameras or sensors so that when something goes wrong during an automated task (like an assembly line), an alarm goes off automatically instead of having someone manually check on things every few minutes or hours.

Retail and consumer goods

Retail and consumer goods companies see the benefits of hyperautomation in several areas. Hyperautomation can help organizations make better decisions about inventory management and more accurate reporting on sales trends. Using computer-vision technologies, large warehouses can deploy an armada of robots to deliver products to the picking line, or in some instances, fulfill orders autonomously. They receive their orders from a well-oiled business process management platform, guiding their movements and actions.

Information technology (IT)

The IT department likely has a lot of processes in place already, and it’s easier to get buy-in from management with automation projects when they’re not starting from scratch. Low-code software helps shoulder some of the IT to-do list. Drag-and-drop tools and visual-based editors help managers and line-of-business employees make minor updates to forms, applications, and other web apps without disrupting IT personnel.

The most exciting aspect of hyperautomation is that it’s still very much in its infancy. As technology evolves exponentially, thanks mainly to machine learning advances, we should expect even more significant leaps forward over the next decade or two as companies explore new opportunities for hyper-efficient processes.

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