IT Decision Makers will Increase Investments in Intelligent Automation Post-Covid-19, According to New Study

By CIOReview | Monday, July 13, 2020

San Francisco, CA - Nearly two-thirds of US IT decision makers plan to increase their investments in automation technology over the next year as a result of Covid-19, noting that intelligent self-service has been key to adapting during the crisis. These are some of the findings from a new survey conducted by market research firm Opinion Matters and commissioned by Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA) platform provider Inference Solutions.

The study, Intelligent Automation Post-Covid, explores how IT leaders in mid-sized businesses and enterprises across eight industries are evolving their digital strategies in the wake of pandemic, and how they have used automation to tackle challenges driven by shutdowns and social distancing. Significantly, 71% of IT decision makers agree that intelligent self-service automation has helped their organization remain agile during Covid-19, and 64% expect their organization to increase investments in automation technology over the coming year as a result of the crisis. More than a quarter (26%) of organizations will increase automation investments by more than 10%.

When asked which automation technologies and practices they expect to play a significant role in their organization's resilience over the next two years, 69% of respondents selected customer service automation, 54% chose employee service automation, 39% named supply chain automation, and 37% flagged Robotic Process Automation. Increasing employee efficiency and productivity topped the list of priorities in respondents' automation strategies over the next year, followed by reducing costs and improving the ability to meet customer demands.

Three-fourths of IT decision makers agree that tools that allow them to build and manage their own applications are also key to their automation strategy. The survey identified cost, reliance on professional services due to implementation complexity, and time to development as the top three barriers to adopting automation solutions.

"Cloud-based, self-managed platforms that give businesses more control of their customer- and employee-facing self-service applications will be key to overcoming the barriers to adoption flagged in our research," said Callan Schebella, Inference Solutions CEO. "We are pleased to see that IT leaders plan to use automation not only to lower operating costs, but to better support their workforces as they navigate the challenges of doing business in a post-pandemic world."

For more information about the research, including trends in banking, enterprise tech, government, healthcare, home delivery, home entertainment, insurance, and retail, download the full Intelligent Automation Post-Covid report.