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Digital technology is evolving at a rapid pace. Last year, I shared my point-of-view on emerging trends in intelligent automation space. I placed my bets on five key trends – Process mining, Intelligent document processing, Low-code-development platforms, Citizen development and, of course, RPA. Fast forward one year, we are in a completely different world. We went through a roller coaster ride and experienced the dizziest free fall in a backward motion. Now the question is whether these trends still hold good, and if we can predict anything with reasonable certainty in these unpredictable times. Perhaps not! However, we can certainly project what should and what we wish to see happen!!

Top Ten Strategic Digital Trends in 2021 and beyond

1. As organizations start to recover and rebuild, their single point agenda is resilience. With digital defining the framework for building a resilient future, many organizations will embrace it as their top priority. They will pivot from random digital experiments to an Enterprise Digital Transformation initiative with a sense of urgency.
2. The speed of transformation demands organizations to be Agile in their approach and deliver speed-to-value. Alignment and synchronous progression between business, technology and operations becomes key. Organizations will leverage Agile beyond technology projects and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) will lead the way to delivering cross-functional digital value at speed.
3. Cloud offers the agile infrastructure to meet the unprecedented growth in data and the demand for anytime, anywhere access to information. The growth of cloud adoption through the global economic uncertainty will be fueled by the three A’s: Affordability of access, Availability of cloud APIs and Agility of on-demand capacity. Cloud strategy, cloud migration and cloud management will be the top three areas of focus for successful adoption.
4. With remote functioning as an essential ingredient of conducting any business, adoption of Business Communication solutions (e.g. Teams, Slack) will reach unprecedented scale. The Communication and Collaboration tools will penetrate every aspect of our lives from digital workplace to social gatherings, online sales conferences to spiritual retreats, telemedicine to virtual fitness training, and linger way after recovery from the pandemic. The space will evolve with several new entrants offering purpose-built solutions.
5. In the pandemic era, all businesses, small and large, will become online businesses. As E-commerce peaks, digital experience will become the key competitive differentiator. Both corporate and consumer businesses will be influenced by the “Amazon-shopping-experience” model, characterized by (i) knowing what the user needs, (ii) self-service, and (iii) convenience. Organizations will invest in building integrated workflows and seamless experiences behind their online businesses.
6. As process owners start to rethink their processes for resilience, Process Discovery and Mining (PDM) will come in handy to define the processes of the future. PDM tools enable organizations to discover and improve their processes, identify opportunities for location-independent delivery, monitor and analyze process breakdowns, and make data-based decisions. The growth of PDM will be fueled by the unprecedented demand for automation and the need for process optimization ahead of automation. Process mining will also replace the manual, high-cost process consulting efforts to a great extent.
7. Robotic Process Automation will continue to grow at a high rate and will be leveraged as the key enabler of capacity creation. With the addition of AI, RPA will advance from executing fixed workflows to learning, improving and adapting to changing business processes over time. Pre-engineered AI solution accelerators for common process patterns and pre-built integrations to standard business platforms will help accelerate the pace of adoption.
8. Advancements at the intersection of AI, IOT and Automation will fuel the growth of smart solutions like virtual warehouses, smart logistics, smart homes, autonomous vehicles and intelligent medical devices. The IOT network of sensors and devices along with automated processes generate large volumes of operational data for AI solutions to learn from. The predictions and interventions from AI flow back to the processes and devices boosting their performance.
9. Automation, in tandem with the COVID-19 recession, is creating a ‘double-disruption’ scenario for workers (Source: WEF The Future of Jobs 2020). Further, businesses need talent specialized in digital skills tailored to the industrial sector. As a result, a massive mismatch between job demands and skillset of resources will emerge and continue to increase. A Reskilling Revolution will rise in the most impacted business segments triggering a chain reaction across industries. Affordable online learning and MOOC (massive open online learning) solutions will cover both formal and informal workers bridging the skill mismatch over time.
10. Today’s experience economy is driving massive growth in innovative, user-centric digital applications. IDC estimates 500 million applications will be developed by 2023, and Forrester projects a deficit of 500,000 developers by 2024. While reskilling is expected to bridge some of the gap, Citizen Development offers the best alternative to overcome this shortage. Citizen Development (non-technical resources building applications) will be a boardroom agenda for progressive organizations! The business friendly, low-code/no-code development paradigm will help fulfill this goal.

What does this mean for your organization and for you as a leader?

• Think of the “what” and “why” of digital transformation ahead of the “how”! Customers don’t care whether a solution is developed using AI or IOT or a low-code technology. Get past the buzz, and address the real business problems.
• Prioritize human experience and efficiency over financial benefits: The true ROI of digital comes from delivering better start-to-finish experiences and easing the jobs of people.
• Prepare to handle the unique challenges of digital age: Data privacy issues stemming from personalization, ethical use of data in AI, cybersecurity in IOT to name top few.
• Focus on the outcomes, not the technology: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole” – Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business School professor. Choose solutions and partners who can take you to the outcome!
• Invest in reskilling and take your teams along: People are your greatest assets. Prepare them to contribute and consume meaningfully in your organizational transformation journey.