You might not have noticed but science fiction, by its very name, isn’t real science. But, what makes truly great sci-fi different from the rest is that it’s often grounded in reality – it’s believable. Sci-fi has given us good and bad predictions of the future – some of which, but not many – are now playing out. Today, we’re looking at 5 famous sci-fi movies and the predictions they made about future automation.

Terminator

Of course, we’re starting with a favorite, but also one that really missed the mark on what the future of automation would be like with cyborgs. The terminators, in the films, are extremely adaptable, and able to deal with new situations and information constantly. The reality, however, is that bots only do what you tell them and anything outside of that will leave them stumped. We’re a long way off killer robots…. which is good news to be fair.

Ex-Machina

In Ex-Machina we see AI machines fall in love, care, cheat, and manipulate all as part of their very ‘being’. But the truth is that they dropped the ball on showing the difference between intelligence and consciousness. The machines in the film behave in an intelligent way in that they aren’t actually loving – they are just mimicking emotions to manipulate and be able to preserve themselves. But they aren’t protecting their existence – they’re protecting their programming. Also, one lone genius in the woods could never make such a staggering AI breakthrough on his own. Just saying.

2001: A Space Odyssey

From the visionary mind of Stanley Kubrick, this sci-fi classic features the infamous computer HAL. Now, credit to the vision of Kubrick, much of HAL’s job is to fulfill computing tasks too complicated for the human crew to do and in doing so keep them alive. This very much represents the world now with machines being built to tackle tasks too repetitive, too complicated, or too vast for people to carry them out. Because of that great prediction, we’ll ignore the part where HAL makes the decision to turn into a killer AI (*spoilers*).

I, Robot

This film took the concept of machines controlled by fundamental rule sets, laid out interesting visuals about future automation… and then sort of just decided to make an action film (!).  For that, we can forgive it, because there are some fun moments but the idea of a bot reprogramming itself is quite ridiculous. The knowledge and, importantly, intelligence required to do that just doesn’t exist in robots today or for a very long time.

Blade Runner

Blade Runner is rightfully called one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made, and its special effects and philosophies on humanity have aged well for a movie made back in 1982. It didn’t get everything right, sure, but it was on point with connected devices throughout the home and the rise of video calling. Whenever we want to eliminate the bots we make we just hit delete – which is a lot easier than Deckard had it.

Got a favorite piece of movie robotics or automation? Chat about it with PAteam today.

You can hardly blame people for having the wrong idea about intelligent automation. But we’re here to tell you that it isn’t some evil thing to be feared and shunned – but instead, something to embrace. It’s just the next step in freeing us up to do what we’re great at. That’s right, robots aren’t going to steal your job, they’re just going to help you with it.

“People are usually afraid of change because they fear the unknown. But the single greatest constant of history is that everything changes.” – Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow”

Intelligent Automation Will Lead to Job Changes

Research by McKinsey shows us that automation, along with other technologies, will continue to impact jobs around the world in the future. The most common jobs to be automated are those involving the operation of machinery. For many years, car manufacturers have used robotic production plants to increase speed and accuracy, and for that reason, repetitive manual tasks are increasingly being replaced by robots.

The cost of robotic hardware is so great that most SMEs have little opportunity to implement it at scale. That differs from software automation where the rollout is based on the cost of design, implementation, and maintenance – rather than all of the above, on top of expensive hardware. For this reason, changing practices in administrative functions are likely to see more impact across businesses of all sizes.

How Can Humans Remaining Relevant in the Age of Robots?

Despite what might seem like a new challenge, humans have been dealing with technological advancement in the workplace since the dawn of the industrial revolution. As machinery became more accessible, companies looked to implement it to overcome historically labor-intensive tasks such as operating looms. Notice a similarity?

The key for companies and people is to focus on additional upskilling. People can think and feel – robots cannot. Humans are built for dealing with new information and adapting so training revolving around critical thinking is key.

What Exciting Innovation Can We All Expect from Automation?

Intelligent automation can, without question, fuel company growth and this will create more jobs that will lead to new products and services. Automation is already available and while there is the drive to improve intelligent versions of it, the automation itself is going to lead to innovation in every area where it is used.

The truth is, we don’t know what innovation is on the horizon yet. Up until now, so many people’s time has been filled with repetitive tasks that sap them of the time and motivation to be creative, critical, and problem-solving. That is all going to change as we take the next step in our working lives.

Automation is a big change for workforces everywhere. It’s going to shift us away from the old ways of working and into the future, offering businesses a fantastic opportunity to reinvest in human beings.

Interested in the future of intelligent automation? We’re ready to chat – speak to PAteam today.

Retail is coming under increasing pressure, and its evolution is one of necessity more than choice. Between increasing labor costs and competition from lower-cost e-commerce only outfits, traditional retail must adapt if it wants to survive – and this is where retail automation comes in.

What is Retail Automation?

Retail automation is an umbrella term that describes the use of technology, within a retail environment – one that’s designed to streamline processes, reduce human intervention, and improve efficiency. It also aims to reduce cost and errors, as well as increase the value humans can offer by giving them more time to focus on their specific roles.

Examples of retail automation can be seen in both offline and online settings. In-store, it could include managing staff timetables and replenishing low stock; and online, popular uses include marketing functions – such as feedback and sales offers based on a customer’s purchase history.

Bigger uncertainty & challenges in the retail industry

Changing customer demands, coupled with low cost, personalized services, and issues in the global supply chain over the past couple of years have impacted fuel charges, material prices, and labor costs – which have all had a massive effect on the retail sector.

Customers want everything faster, with longer return options and all from the comfort of their own home. This is particularly at odds with real-life stores that rely on foot traffic to sell their products. In addition, young brands are continuing to disrupt the market with increasingly customized services.

However, automation can play a positive role in alleviating many of these pain points – helping to improve efficiencies, retain customer loyalty, and deliver an improved level of service.

Big opportunity for automation in the retail industry

Retail automation offers classic brick and mortar stores the opportunity to be a part of something completely new. We’ve seen the initial success of Amazon Go in the US where they’ve managed to begin cornering the fresh food market with almost staffless and totally cashless transactions. Or, look at Carvana which has become the fastest-growing used car dealer in the US, making itself famous for its car vending machines.

The shift to e-commerce within many sectors along with the impact of COVID has created a perfect environment for retail companies to pursue automation. Working with big retail giants isn’t new to us and recently we managed to save 1000 hours annually for a major furniture retailer while completely removing any human error from a part of their order checking process.

Research shows that automation in retail is no longer an option – it’s a necessity. Struggles to hire quality people are increasing worldwide and because of this, a focus on retail automation is now crucial as companies must seek software solutions to their processes. Beyond the strain of managing workloads, businesses everywhere must strive to become more efficient to avoid the pinch of price increases else they won’t be able to compete at the scales they are built for.

Does your retail business need a leg up from automation? – Contact PAteam today!

Logistics firms are struggling to cope with the demands of the market when there are so many challenges globally in the industry. If that sounds like your logistics operation then read on – logistics automation is here to help.

What is logistics automation?

Logistics automation, much like business automation, is the use of control systems and software to reduce or remove the need for human intervention in a task or process. In a logistics setting that could be printing despatch notes, updating tracking information for customers, or having robots assemble packed kits ready for delivery. The possibilities for logistics automation are endless.

Big Challenges and Opportunities

Automation is spreading in logistics at a key time for the industry. In fact, automation is uniquely positioned to deal with several of the challenges the sector faces.

Changes in the way we shop has created greater demands on the logistics industry. Deliveries need to be faster, cheaper, and more reliable. All of these benefits can be drawn from good automation and so the need for this technology is growing. Yes, there are challenges that face the industry, but there is an opportunity to solve them with logistics automation.

The Great Resignation

The move to remote work and the gig economy experienced in the US is now happening in Europe too – leaving many empty roles. Recently, the UK had in excess of 1 million job vacancies. This lack of a workforce is a great thing for automation as it’s driving adoption. Bots can take on the tasks people aren’t willing to do and keep logistics operations running smoothly. If you’re struggling to fill your vacancies then ask yourself – could a bot do this?

Trade Challenges

With Brexit, we’ve seen that countries can leave the EU, but this does result in a very complicated import/export system. In more recent times, sanctions on countries affect the way that cross-border goods movements happen. Rather than have people scramble to manually create commercial invoices or pre-calculate new duties – a bot can be put together to take that headache away.

Cost of Doing Business

Rising inflation and hikes in commodity prices mean that businesses are looking to shave costs wherever they can. They might not be able to affect the price of raw materials so they’re going to pressure you to help them out. You’re already contending with climbing fuel prices – so what can you do? Well, automating parts of your business can bring cost savings and these can be passed on to your customers while you reap the benefits of scalability and error reduction.

We’ve helped a transport company by taking their 6-8 week refund claiming SLA down to 2-3 hours and with 0 errors. That right there is the potential of RPA in a logistics setting. Take the claims seriously, the benefits are available to you too. Logistics automation can transform how you deliver and help your business succeed while others struggle.

Facing challenges in your logistics operation? We can help – contact PAteam today!

People are starting to wake up to the power of automation. The clever cats over at Gartner have made a list of the top tech trends for 2022 – and, unsurprisingly, it includes hyper-automation. To be precise, they predict that by 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% simply by combining hyper-automation technologies with redesigned operational processes.

While hyper-automation is a specific area in the broader field of automation, the impact of that prediction cannot be understated. Imagine if you could save 30% of your operating costs. Future automation is almost here – are you ready for it? In case you aren’t, here are the top 5 future automation trends of 2022.

Semantic Automation

Semantic automation is a move away from rule-based approaches where developers tell bots what to do in a step-by-step way. Instead, the bots are able to observe a task and begin to emulate it. This emulation includes the action itself, the data required, and where the data is to be sent. The bots will then start to do the heavy lifting on their own. This really is the next step in accessible machine intelligence.

Automated Process Discovery

You need to know that understanding processes comes before automating anything. Once you know what you’re doing – you can make it better. Automated process discovery offers huge potential for your business. A bot can watch your people interact with your systems, which can be office suite, ERP, CRM – everything. It can then bring all those data points together to find processes you might not even know about that can then be automated.

Process Intelligence

Adding data and further machine intelligence to your organization will be a key part of the future. Bots won’t only be able to work with less supervision, they’ll also do a better job of reporting on the quality of your processes. Small changes in the way your business works create ripples throughout your departments. Being able to see that impact in real-time will help you keep your processes healthy.

Automation’s C-suite Champions

In 2022 CSOs and CIOs everywhere will fuse their powers of sustainability and information by using automation to create more sustainable IT. Automation saves time and money and these things can be invested back into our world and the people on it. Whether it’s cutting down on processing time and therefore power requirements or creating additional tech jobs for the underserved – future automation is the catalyst.

Human-Digital Workforce

The future of automation isn’t just reserved for behind-the-scenes processing improvements. It’s going to directly help HR teams everywhere meet employees where they are. Whether it’s automating new starter onboarding or driving social engagement between distributed teams – management of the digital workforce will rely on automation. Your people are going to become used to working with bots and begin to really value how much time they give them back.

Your 2022

So that’s what we see as some of the major future automation that will impact us all this year. But what are you going to do? If automation isn’t already a part of your business, can you afford to miss out on it?

Whatever type of automation you want to pursue – we can help. Get in touch with PAteam today!