Is RPA a threat to your career?! The purpose is to help, not replace.

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With the rise of automation, many have speculated about the effects that RPA may have on the workforce. Amid rumors and fake news, are these speculations worth paying attention to?

The purpose of RPA is not to replace people but to help them. RPA aims to conduct repetitive, mundane tasks that keep people from reaching the full potential of their job. These tedious tasks are mostly viewed through a hostile lens by the employees that need to conduct them, as they are not the essence of the job but the necessary evils that come with the job. If anything, these processes take up time from employees that could be spent on valued tasks that require expertise and time.

Most of all, RPA requires human input and intervention. It is we who set the parameters of RPA and instruct it what to do, thus leaving it up to us to oversee the workflow and these robots. RPA is not a tool to deal with changes, decisions, or exceptions and leaves these up to us.

Is RPA a threat to your career?

RPA is just like any other software meant to help the users. Could you imagine how more tedious your work life would be without the use of browsers, word processors, email clients and the like? RPA falls in the same category as it helps users by taking care of their repetitive, data-intensive, rule-based tasks.

While some careers that rotate around manual and repetitive work may become somewhat at risk, RPA also provides the opportunity for more upskilled work. It allows humans to do what machines can’t do and be able to use creativity, imagination, thinking, and intelligence within their roles.

A study from McKinsey Global Institute predicts that by 2030, two-thirds of occupations will have automation taking care of at least 30% of their tasks. McKinsey also discusses how RPA will create career paths that are not in place as of today. Similar to how past technologies have led to new career paths, which today make up a considerable chunk of the job market.

Most of all, just like any period where new technology took over jobs, we adapt. Rather than fearing for your career, I would think that it is more beneficial to prepare for it by making sure you have the skills required to keep up with this technology.

RPA is a solution that can help organisations in their digitalisation journey, as it helps them grow while reducing the repetitive workload on employees and allow employees to explore and practice their roles to their full potential. You may need a partner with a team of RPA specialists to work as an extension of your team to build the strategy, implement the tools and train your employees. Contact us at [email protected].