AI-Powered Bots May Be The Answer To The Great Resignation And War For Talent

When a new technology is developed, it’s first met with skepticism by many and enthusiastically embraced by others. Over time, more often than not, people realize that smartphones, computers, the internet, cryptocurrency and virtual reality add value to our lives and work.

One company that is on a mission to fully automate businesses is UiPath. The tech company is a leading enterprise automation vendor, headquartered in New York City and has offices around the world with about 3,000 employees. Its sophisticated software platform helps clients build AI-powered bots that take care of important, but mundane tasks that bog down human workers. 

Using machine learning, AI and bots, UiPath is changing and improving the way people work. Its mission is to unlock human creativity and potential by empowering workers through automation. It uses robotic process automation, a software technology that makes it easy to build, deploy and manage software robots that emulate human actions. 

More than 9,600 customers, including 80% of the Fortune 10 and more than 60% of the Fortune Global 500, use UiPath’s technologies. Its clients include Chipotle, Eversource, Equifax, Cleveland Clinic and Autodesk.

Similar to workers, the software robots can do things like understand what’s on a screen, complete the right keystrokes, navigate systems, identify and extract data and perform a wide range of tasks. The bots, however, can do many of these basic routine tasks faster and more consistently than people. Bots also don’t require vacation time, holidays off, coffee breaks or gossip with the other robots. 

These are basically digital assistants, called “Ricky the Robot” and “Athena” that take on the tedious, manual tasks that take up much of workers’ time. The tech automates any process, ranging from the most common and time-intensive to the most nuanced and specialized.  

Robotic process automation (RPA) streamlines workflows, which makes organizations more profitable, flexible and responsive. It also increases employee satisfaction, engagement and productivity by removing irritatingly annoying, time-consuming tasks. These repetitive, low-value chores include logging into applications and systems, moving files and folders, extracting, copying and inserting data, filling in forms and completing routine analyses and reports. They can also take it to the next level. Interpreting text, engaging in chats and conversations, understanding unstructured data and applying advanced machine learning models to make complex decisions can be handled by AI, machine learning and bots.

When robots do these types of repetitive, high-volume tasks, humans are freed to focus on the things they do best and enjoy more: innovating, collaborating, creating and interacting with customers. Enterprises get a boost too: higher productivity, efficiency and resilience. It’s no wonder that RPA is rewriting the story of work.

A survey commissioned by UiPath found that 62% of executives at large U.S. companies are struggling with the current labor shortage. As a result, 78% of them are likely to invest or increase their investment in automation to manage through the impact of higher-than-normal turnover rates.

Eighty-six percent of executives surveyed believe automation will enable their employees to focus on more creative work—and spend less time on mundane, repetitive and time-consuming tasks. As a result, 85% say that incorporating automation and automation training into their organization will help them retain employees and attract new talent. Surveyed executives also believe automation is helping their companies perform better by saving time (71%), improving productivity (63%) and saving money (59%).

Many large organizations are trying to solve the Great Resignation. Sixty-two percent of executives say their companies are struggling with the current labor shortage. The challenges their companies are experiencing due to the labor shortage include struggling to attract new talent to take on necessary tasks (74%), losing skilled people to manage necessary tasks (69%) and disrupting workflows, due to higher rates of onboarding and offboarding (58%).

While there are myriad reasons people leave their jobs, executives surveyed believe that the greatest contributing factors are pressures on work-life balance (58%), low compensation (54%) and lack of advancement opportunities (42%). Most executives surveyed believe employee job performance—and therefore job retention—can be improved through a better work-life balance (73%), opportunities to learn new skills on the job (60%) and opportunities to improve existing skills on the job (53%).

Offering automation training is necessary for companies to keep and hire new talent. The survey also revealed one in three executives cite lack of skills training as another reason why people leave their jobs. Currently, 51% of organizations offer automation training, according to this survey. Sixty-three percent offer on-the-job training of automation skills during work hours, while 29% train outside of work, but costs are subsidized by the company. These findings are further evidence that organizations are expanding access to automation technology to provide employees with automation skill sets. A previous UiPath study of 4,500 global office workers found that 91% believe their employers should be more willing to invest in digital and technology training skills for their employees to be successful in the future of work.

“The dynamics of work and the workplace continue to evolve, creating multi-faceted pressures on employers to retain employees and attract new talent,” said Bettina Koblick, chief people officer at UiPath. “Business and technology leaders recognize automation is both a long-term strategy that maximizes the impact of their existing technology stack and a solution that helps each individual employee grow and succeed. The skills these workers gain in automation-first environments provide rich career opportunities in inventive workplaces.”

When deployed intelligently, employees benefit. They gain more time to focus on creative, analytical and empathetic work. The freedom enables UiPath employees to work wherever they want. The company can hire across the U.S. and around the world. Workers have flexibility with their hours and there isn’t a set standard of taking time off.