Automation, which combines robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), takes care of the repetitive chores we’d rather not spend time on, the projects we don’t want to muck up with human error, customer contacts that demand quick responses, and much more.
1. Automating High-Value Actions
Boring repetitive jobs are currently the low-hanging fruit for automation. Although automating front-office tasks is more difficult and challenging, it is becoming increasingly popular.
In the near future, more businesses will automate high-quality customer interactions (CX).
About 17% of marketers now include automation or artificial intelligence as part of their marketing plan, according to the Dazzling Way’s Marketing Trends Report.
Over a quarter of the marketers polled in a subsequent Dazzling Way research study on media and content planning stated that they intended to use automation in their media planning strategy.
Consumers are prioritizing CX more and demanding more personalization from brands, according to the research. This forces brands to think about automation for higher-impact, larger-scale areas of their organizations.
2. Prioritizing Success Alignment, Sales, and Marketing
Automation cannot function effectively in silos.
Because they have such a big impact on the customer experience, teams are especially important and should be aligned in their approaches to marketing, sales, and success.
Automating marketing emails is no longer sufficient. What happens when a contact is transferred as they progress through the funnel? or when a lead completes a high-intent action, follow-ups?
Automation workflows must take user behavior other than that of marketing teams into account because marketing teams are simply one component of the journey.
3. The Importance of Automation in CRMs
75% of sales professionals utilize technology, typically a CRM, to close more deals, according to a 2021 LinkedIn report.
Despite this, modern salespeople spend the majority of their time catching up on administrative tasks and data entry rather than actually closing deals.
More of the leading CRM platforms are gaining potent automation features as sales and marketing teams recognise the potential of automation to handle repetitive work.
With the help of these, businesses will be able to automate repetitive processes to shorten sales cycles, deliver tailored marketing messages, and proactively handle customer care issues without having to lift a finger.
4. Automating for More Customization
According to Twilio’s 2022 State of Personalization report, nearly half of consumers say they are likely to make another purchase from a retail brand after having a personalized shopping experience.
The need for personalization increased in the wake of the epidemic, and firms must now adapt or risk falling behind.
Personalization cannot function at scale without automation, from audience segmentation and drip campaigns to product recommendations and cart abandonment alerts.
Automation will now take a larger priority for brands as a result of this new trend toward customization.
5. Automation Throughout an Organization’s App Stack
More tools than ever before are available to businesses.
More businesses will have a Head of Business Systems function in the future of automation to manage their enormous number of tools, and this position will hold a significant amount of influence and potential for change.
More than ever, the SaaS technologies we select will aid in the growth, success, and influence of our companies.
Companies will connect their technologies to facilitate automated two-way data syncing and improved accuracy in order to achieve the best results.
6. Full-Time Agents for Business Chatbots
One out of every five consumers uses live chat or in-app chat on a daily basis, according to a Vonage analysis on customer interaction from 2021.
While live chat is the primary tool used by businesses today to enable in-person interactions between customers and brand reps, more organizations are building up chatbots.
Companies can use bots to answer frequently requested queries and even solve problems without involving a team member. The top chatbots are increasingly acting as full-time customer service representatives.
A bot’s intelligence, which still has its limits but is developing quickly, is the key to its success.
Bots will advance in usefulness and intelligence in the automated future, and voice functionality may soon be included.
7. Automated Decision Making with AI
Making decisions is exhausting.
To achieve consensus from other stakeholders and look past your own prejudices, you must have access to the proper data. AI will increasingly offer a remedy for this by supplying high-quality facts that can assist in guiding the greatest choices.
According to a 2021 State of B2B Marketing Automation Report, 58% of B2B professionals believe that excellent data is the most effective strategy for boosting the performance of their marketing automation platform.
While some decisions can be automated and implemented right away, many will require human intervention for emotional and compassionate deliberation.
8. Data Collection and Reporting Automation
To guarantee data quality and integrity, automation of data management is necessary.
Reporting does not, however, have to include perplexing Excel exports and hours of data manipulation.
Your tools can produce more accurate reports with the data available if you combine all of your client data with an iPaaS solution.
9. RPA Promotes Productivity in Business
RPA, often known as “robotics” or “robots,” is the automation of rules-based processes using software that makes use of the user interface and may be installed on any type of software, including mainframe systems, web-based applications, and ERP systems.
This can entail filling out forms, transferring files and folders, and opening emails and their attachments.
RPA is likely to become a more commonplace component of our workflows in the future, whether through standalone solutions, functions of the tools we presently use, or integrated apps.
Is work as we know it being changed by automation?
Yes, but for the better, is the quick response.
According to a PWC survey conducted in 2021, 61% of people worldwide think that automation is endangering people’s jobs. The reality is that automation is changing roles rather than eliminating employment prospects.
Automation’s function is to handle jobs that computers can complete more accurately than we can, eliminating human error and enabling scalability.
Automation is sometimes misunderstood to be a set-it-and-forget-it method. But nothing could be further from the truth than that.
Even while it does save time, that time is spent feeding and optimizing to get greater outcomes. Automation enables people to concentrate on more worthwhile tasks rather than losing sight of the human element.
Although automation has advanced rapidly over the past few years, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. What will automation look like in the future?
