Business resilience refers to the ability of an organization to adapt and respond to the new environment and circumstances while maintaining continuous business operations. It is more a strategic risk management, which incorporates numerous disciplines into a single set of integrated processes, and is custom-tailored to an individual business's requirements. In order to support and meet this business continuity, companies need to make a leap towards technology, especially robotics process automation (RPA).

This has the potential to effectively assist in designing and informing risk management strategies and business continuity plans. RPA can help organizations to manage their business continuity by improving business flexibility through relieving pressure on staff and freeing up time and by maximizing the ability to run processes without human intervention.

In the time of crisis caused by COVID-19, businesses face major disruptions as the pandemic impacted almost every business operation and delayed the overall supply chain. While the outbreak is causing economic downturn and battering a range of businesses, many reports claims continued demand of certain technologies and an uptick in confidence in future business prospects.

RPA to Expand in Demand

As the onset of COVID-19 has impacted businesses across every industry worldwide, it has also paved ways for the adoption of technologies, particularly stimulated the automation technology. In a blog, Leslie Joseph, Principal Analyst at Forrester noted that as companies have recovered their revenues and reopened their supply chains, they have increasingly invested not on rehiring the workforce but on automation and on reducing their dependence on manpower.

The market research firm predicted that by 2027, 29 percent of existing U.S. jobs will be lost to automation, while the automation economy will create 13 percent equivalent of new jobs. Some of these jobs are already emerging, including data scientists and automation managers.

Undeniably, RPA has a vast impact on business processes as it manages heightened volumes of testing results, processes a large volume of claims, supports the surged need for customer service and empowers remote workforce, among others. The continuously evolving capabilities of robotic process automation, cognitive technology driven by cloud, big data, analytics, AI, and machine learning, delivers immense promises to transform business services and create a new category of digital labor.

For instance, direct customer-facing businesses such as banks are deploying Chatbots or Voice bots in order to ensure there are no customer complaints left unaddressed. They are also using technology to automate the account opening process that can improve processing speed, lessen operating costs and dependency on agents.

RPA can slacken most of human hours within organizations; however, it creates a real fear among employees which jobs will soon become obsolete. As the wake of COVID-19 disrupts the global economy majorly due to the lockdowns and closures of business operations, the fear of job loss is peaking high. In this regard, RPA vendors must address these concerns while fostering the benefits of the technology.