Robotic Process Automation (RPA) trends and predictions for 2022

Global Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software revenue is projected to pass $2 billion in 2022 and is poised to hit $13.74 billion by 2028. In 2020, the pandemic forced organisations to rapidly adopt widescale RPA and automation processes to bolster operations and thus digitisation was forever cemented into the global business landscape. Now that companies are nearing the end of the initial learning curve, 2022 is set to be the year where businesses begin to experience the true benefits of RPA and automation technology.

So what does RPA have in store for businesses in future? Here is our list of the top RPA and automation trends for 2022.

1. Automation fabric

Forrester asserts that almost 5% of Fortune 500 companies will adopt automation fabric to drive business innovation in 2022. Automation fabric is an advanced framework from which to create and govern a hybrid workforce of human and digital workers. This ‘fabric’ weaves together all automated components of business processes to drive targeted growth and innovation. This type of advanced automation program will enable businesses to surpass competitors using traditional RPA deployment methods, making it a top automation trend for 2022.

2. The rise of automation CoEs

The benefits of RPA are well documented, but businesses can only leverage them after RPA has been successfully deployed – which isn’t so easy. RPA has an implementation issue: it requires highly skilled people to organise, deploy and implement across an organisation. In 2022, we will see the rise of automation centres of excellence to solve the AI deployment problem. This is a small internal team of automation experts who deploy RPA and automation technologies into businesses quickly, helping organisations realise the benefits of the technology sooner. We see CoEs being a huge automation trend in 2022.

3. Semantic automation will revolutionise RPA

How can automation become faster and easier? The answer is semantic automation: a liberation from rules-based development processes where robots observe processes and emulate them without following predetermined rules. Semantic automation thus frees up developers’ time, makes automation easily accessible to all, and enables easier scalability. Semantic automation, although not entirely new, will take centre stage in the development industry as a key automation trend in 2022.

4. IPA will continue to grow

The global Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) market is expected to reach USD 1,4392.4 million by 2024. IPA blends the rules-based automation capabilities of RPA with the sophistication of AI, together with the trial-and-error learning capabilities of Machine Learning (ML) and fundamental process redesign. 

This advanced tech is having a revolutionising effect on business efficiency and strategy and is likely to spawn new business approaches and more diverse ways of working. Although still relatively new, IPA is set to be closing in at a rapid rate thanks to the recent upswell of RPA adoption on a worldwide scale. The mind boggles at the possibilities of what a highly sophisticated, constantly learning and ever-evolving smart automation system can offer the world of business in 2022.

5. Rise in global business RPA capacity

As RPA technology continues to improve, so must an organisation’s capacity to improve add-on and advanced features and functionalities to their portfolios to accommodate the changes. This will likely come in the form of new and updated licences and larger core capacities to handle the higher loads of traffic and processing requirements. 

The expectation for businesses to be present across all devices and technologies is the driving factor for the increase in capacity for their RPA portfolios. RPA streamlines efficiency in these key areas of growth which will result in a higher degree of company-wide RPA adoption in 2022. 

6. Hyperautomation remains key

Global spending on technologies that enable hyperautomation is set to reach $596.6 billion in 2022, according to a new forecast from Gartner, Inc. As a smarter, faster, and more sophisticated version of RPA, hyperautomation is set to become widely used across large-scale enterprises in 2022. Harnessing the power of AI, RPA, and ML, hyperautomation is designed to process massive volumes of data end-to-end seamlessly to optimise business processes across multiple and diverse areas. As automation will be adopted at much higher volumes in the coming years, the need to automate more complex tasks will become more apparent. 

Hyperautomation allows businesses to automate entire processes previously compartmentalised by traditional RPA (integration, DevOps, monitoring and management) into one process. This further boosts efficiency and productivity at a much larger scale than ever before.

7. Summary

There are your RPA and automation trends for 2022 as we see them. What the figures in our list prove is that RPA is becoming the bedrock for modern business processes in the digital world. In 2022, businesses that are not leveraging RPA and automation technologies will quickly be left behind as they will not possess the ability to compete equally.

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