Arecent survey by McKinsey found that over two-thirds of organizations are at a minimum piloting workflow automation in one or more business units. Experts estimate that organizations will spend a combined total ofmore than $7 trillion on digital transformation initiatives by 2023.Yet these totals are skewed by certain industries that are investing heavily inworkflow automation, while others are falling behind. In this article, we will look at 5 industries that have been slower to adopt workflow automation technologies and will need to in order to remain competitive going forward.
Energy and Utilities
According to aMcKinsey report, the heavy industry sector (such as energy and utilities) has lagged behind others in terms of workflow automation for several reasons. First, the fragmented nature of operations makes it difficult to scale automation. Unlike industries like banking and high-tech where operations and technology are somewhat integrated, heavy industry typically uses field workforces that operate separately from technology functions.Second, the industry is more risk-averse than others which can contribute to a distrust of workflow automation technology. Third, labor dynamics can hinder automation initiatives. For instance, “utility companies in the United States represent the second-highest unionized workforce in the country, which makes reskilling roles around technology and reassigning a significant share of the workforce to higher-value activities challenging.”Yet despite these obstacles, some industrial organizations have managed to implement workflow automation at scale. For example, utility organizations are using (RPA) to replace manual regulatory reporting tasks and energy organizations are automating their budgeting processes. For an industry that has been, workflow automation technologies can provide more efficient and cost-effective ways of working.
