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Your Next Co-worker could be a Robot !

 Sharad Nalawade  |    Friday, Nov 2, 2018  | Category: Robotics

In this competitive era, businesses across all industries need to adapt to disruptive technologies and understand their impact on organizations. Over the few past years, automation and robots have been coexisting with human professionals in work and life. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) are revolutionising the way things are done in a workplace.

The invasion of our workplace by a host of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and RPA is a new common reality wherein talking and walking humanoid robots will interact with us in the break room in the near future. AI is placing an impact on our work today and will grow deeper in the way we conduct business with time until robots become our work companions. AI will work along with us through the technology we use via AI embedded in machinery, devices (wearable), etc. Our robotic co-workers will help us in carrying our job more efficiently. Further, humans will be expected to focus on directions and decisions of AI devices.

According to a survey of insurance and risk management advisory firm, Willis Tower Watson, Virginia, U.S companies will double the work done by automation (to 17%) in the next three years. 94% of companies that are using AI and robotics will expand their work of automation by the year 2020.

The myth that "Robots are becoming a risk and taking away our jobs" is just the industry rumour without any data supporting evidence. On the contrary, RPA works best with humans by not replacing them but with complimenting them. Through RPA (Robotic Process Automation), business firms can automate repetitive processes and improve their effectiveness and efficiency to remain competitive in the digital landscape. Any task that requires repetitiveness, speed, and accuracy can be performed in a better way with automation.

Companies of IT/Telecommunication sector, accounting firms, insurance companies, and online stores can benefit from RPA process automation. Firms need to evolve in the current climate and RPA is the catalyst needed for them to take the leap forward. According to industry analysts, RPA is assisting organizations in completing their tasks five to ten times faster, with an average of 37% fewer resource usage.

According to a survey by Evans Data Corporation Global Development, robotics and machine learning (ML) is at top priority for developers, as 54.6% of participants state that they are developing robotics apps and 24.7% of all developers are using machine learning in their projects.

ML, a subset of AI is the science of training machines or software or devices to perform a task and enhance their capabilities by feeding it the historical data so that it can learn" from data over time. The current machine learning applications in robotics are Computer Vision, Imitation Learning, Self-supervised learning, assistive and medical technologies, and multi-agent learning.

We are moving forward to a part human-robot workforce and companies need to train employees for this new environment. Employees will have to integrate work done through algorithmic technologies or automation and learn tools to enhance performance.


Sharad Nalawade
Data Scientist, Machine Learning & Digital Transformation Consultant at Ultitude Consulting

Sharad is a Sr. Consultant with OPTIMISTIK INFOSYSTEMS on the areas of Data Science, RPA, Machine Learning and Digital Transformation. Sharad has over 25 years of IT industry experience and executed several transformational projects for Fortune 500 customers. He held strategic and technology consulting and implementation roles at well-known organizations like Cisco Systems, Accenture, Wipro and Symantec.
He has Delivered a number of training programs in the areas of RPA, Machine Learning, Agile Scrum, Enterprise Architecture, TOGAF, Solution Architecture, Systems Thinking, Domain Driven Design ,EA, TOGAF, SOA, EAI, etc, to a number of customers in India and abroad. Some of the keys customers are PRGX, Amdocs, Ericsson, HCL, EMC, Xchanging, Syntel, NN Life, Dubai Customs, IBM, Tech Mahindra, L&T Infotech, Intuit, Al-Futtaim, Redim, CGI, Misys, Etisalat, Telecom Fiji Ltd, National Bank of Kuwait and many more.