1. What is hyper automation?

Hyper automation is the concept of automating everything that can be automated in an organization. Organizations that use hyper automation aim to use artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), and other technologies to run without human intervention.

Despite the fact that hyper automation is a novel approach to automation, Gartner has already identified it as one of the top ten strategic technology trends. According to a recent survey, 85 percent of respondents intend to “increase or sustain their organization’s hyper automation investments over the next 12 months,” with over 56 percent already running four or more concurrent hyper automation initiatives. “Hyper automation is rapidly shifting from an option to a necessity,” according to Gartner, with “outdated work processes ranking as the No. 1 workforce issue.”

It’s also worth noting the role the pandemic has played in the market’s adoption and acceleration of hyper automation, fueling the prioritization of digital transformation and automation initiatives over the last year. With a distributed business ecosystem, hyper automation alleviates the burden that repetitive processes and legacy infrastructure place on an organization and its resources. The transformation that hyper automation provides an organization allows it to operate more efficiently, which often results in lower costs and a stronger competitive position.

Legacy infrastructure and processes can slow down an organization and impair its ability to compete. Simple, task-based automation does not produce the cross-functional results required to drive business decision making and outcomes. By automating as many processes and tasks as possible, hyper automation transforms an organization.

Automation vs. hyper automation

The line between automation and hyper-automation is often blurred. The accomplishment of a repetitive task without manual intervention is referred to as automation. It usually happens on a smaller scale, with solutions designed to address specific tasks. Hyper automation, on the other hand, refers to the use of multiple automation tools to enable intelligent automation, such as machine learning and robotic process automation, in order to scale automation initiatives.

2. How to Begin with Hyper automation

Several steps and components can assist organizations as they embark on their hyper automation journey. These are the steps to take:

1. Compile information about the processes, workflows, and environment. Process mining can be used to investigate how existing processes operate, identify gaps, latency, and bottlenecks, and identify opportunities for digital process automation. Some organizations will create a duplicate model of a process, known as a digital twin, to generate a clear view of existing processes. A digital twin replicates an ecosystem using technology to better visualize processes, inputs, and outcomes, identify areas for improvement, and create efficiencies.
2. Determine the structured and unstructured data, as well as other inputs, that will be required to complete the processes.
3. Predict outcomes in terms of efficiencies and (ROI)
4. Determine the automation platform and automation technologies that will best serve your needs, possibly by leveraging existing tools and algorithms. This could include combining RPA, optical character recognition (OCR), AI, and machine learning with other strategic technology tools to create purpose-built bots to perform the automated tasks.
5. Automate complex business and technology processes and tasks, including the automation of the automated, to gain greater efficiencies or further cost savings.
6. Use AI tools to complete the tasks identified, such as cognitive learning, OCR, and natural language processing (NLP). Low-code or no-code technologies, which use a graphical user interface for configuration, are used to simplify the automation process, requiring less technical knowledge and allowing for faster deployment.

3. The Advantages and Difficulties of Hyper Automation

Businesses are transformed by hyper automation because it streamlines business processes by eliminating repetitive tasks and automating manual ones. This has a number of significant advantages. It enables organizations to complete tasks consistently, accurately, and quickly. This, in turn, lowers costs and improves the overall customer experience.

Hyper automation, like any new approach to business processes or infrastructure, will undoubtedly present challenges. Many businesses do not feel prepared to tackle automation efforts due to a lack of resources with technical skills to address it. There are retraining program available to assist organizations in addressing these needs and developing an approach that is well-suited to achieving their objectives.

Other difficulties include selecting products from an ever-expanding and changing marketplace. It can be difficult to decide which products organizations should offer to their customers. Given the crowded market, the market anticipates a series of mergers and acquisitions to reduce redundancies across product offerings, allowing clients to more effectively evaluate potential vendors.

4. Use cases for hyper automation

·                    Hyper automation in healthcare

Hyper automation can benefit the healthcare industry by providing a better patient experience, a stronger bottom line, and more accurate data. Billing cycles, customer communication, and collection are all automated using hyper automation. It can also handle patient record management, data collection and collation, and output useful for more accurate treatment plans.

In addition, hyper automation is frequently used to ensure regulatory compliance, which is critical to the viability and success of any healthcare organization. It can also be used to manage drug inventory and procurement, as well as to schedule personnel and other resources. The applications for hyper automation in the healthcare industry are limitless, and the benefits can benefit the organization, partners, and patients.

·                    Supply chain

The pandemic has had a significant impact on the ability to receive materials on time, and low staffing levels have resulted in process delays, creating a logistical challenge at best.

Inventory stock checks can be performed 24 hours a day, seven days a week using RPA, ensuring that a current view of inventory levels and product availability is available at all times. RPA can also be used for procurement, pricing, billing, quote request, follow-up and data input, and system maintenance and repair, in addition to inventory checks. Hyper automation can improve speed, efficiency, and accuracy by eliminating the need for manual intervention in repetitive processes.

·                    Banking and finance

The banking and finance industries are constantly under pressure to cut costs, improve efficiencies, and provide a more accessible and personalized customer experience.

Hyper automation can provide staff members with higher data quality, allowing them to use business process management (BPM) more effectively to provide customers with information that allows them to make more informed decisions. Back-end efficiencies that support 24×7 availability of online banking and finance applications, as well as the regulations and reporting that it necessitates, are also provided by hyper automation. Both the banking and finance industries generate large amounts of data, which can be difficult to manage. Hyper automation streamlines the processes involved, making them faster, more consistent, and less prone to error.

Many regulations and compliance requirements apply to the banking and finance industries as well. Many of their core processes have been transformed by hyper automation, allowing them to meet these requirements with greater efficiency and at a lower cost.

·                    Retail

The retail industry is ripe with automation opportunities. E-commerce has a stronghold on order processing, with more people ordering online and using loyalty programs than ever before. Front-end processes such as targeted marketing via ad placement in social media and targeted email marketing, loyalty recognition online, facial recognition when a customer enters a store and more can be streamlined with AI-assisted hyper automation.

Hyper automation has the potential to lower costs while increasing the efficiency and accuracy of back-end retail processes such as procurement, billing, supplier management, inventory, and transportation.

Furthermore, hyper automation has been used in the marketplace to track and analyses criteria such as competitive pricing and customer feedback, enabling faster, more accurate decision-making that drives revenue and profitability.