Around 93% of Indian firms plan to expand automation budgets by 2023, finds study

A whopping 93% of Indian organisations are planning to expand automation budgets in the next 12 months and some two-thirds (66%) are boosting automation funding by 25% or more, said a recent study.

The third edition of the ‘Automation Now and Next report’ conducted by research firm Futurum Research and commissioned by American software firm, Automation Anywhere, carried out across eight countries including India, noted that reliance on automation technologies, including robotics, artificial intelligent/machine learning, edge solutions and internet of things (IoT) etc., has not only risen dramatically in the last one year, but has also become the key to navigate current market challenges and sustain business performance.

According to the study, 98% of Indian organisations believe automation is helping them address supply chain issues, and 86% of business leaders in India said that automation has helped them better address staffing shortages. Almost everyone surveyed agreed (99%) that collaboration between humans and intelligent assistants will play an important part in their future-of-work strategies.

Elsewhere too, consequences of the pandemic and political-economic volatility have disrupted business operations and hence, it is not surprising that of the 1,000 global organisations surveyed more than 90% agreed that automation addresses the impact of supply chain and economic uncertainty.

“Automation has become a strategic priority for business leaders across India in the fallout from the pandemic, but it has also become core to digital transformation efforts,” said Milan Sheth, executive vice president of the IMEA (India, Middle East and Africa) Region for Automation Anywhere.

“The report validates the top drivers for Indian companies adopting automation to be cost savings, business continuity and delivering great customer experiences amid ongoing disruptions,” he added

The report further revealed that actual bot deployments in India surpasses those in the rest of the world, with 67% of companies having already deployed over 300 bots across their enterprise organisation (compared to just 21% in other global markets). Moreover, the research found that cloud-based automations are becoming vital for future-proofing business transformation strategies, with 93% stating that they have already adopted a cloud-first approach for all new automation initiatives.

This is not the only study that stressed on the increased use of automation among Indian businesses. In June, another study conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company also said that Indian companies are using edge solutions, IoT applications, and networks as well as automation and robots to optimise their manufacturing processes and innovation. In fact, nearly 70% of respondents said they were either piloting or already using cloud-managed networking and security solutions to benefit from improved flexibility, scalability, and defence capabilities. 

More recently, a study by Zebra Technologies said that 90% of warehouse operators expect to leverage sensor-based technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), computer vision, fixed industrial scanning, and machine vision systems to become more prevalent over the next five years.