It’s that time again, when everyone is making their predictions for what the hot new trends will be in the coming year. What colors will we be wearing and painting our living room walls? How will we be working? What will we be doing when we’re not at work or at home?
Business and tech are no different. A simple Google search of “tech trends 2022” delivers about 333 million results. It’s in our nature to want to be prepared—to get a jump on things so we don’t get left behind. And maybe it’s because of the rampant unpredictability of the times we’re living in now that we’re more inclined to look to what’s just over the horizon and try to determine what our needs will be, what we should budget for, what kind of change management will be necessary if we adopt one of the new technology trends. If that hot new trend turns out to be something that helps temper the unpredictability, then all the better.
Analyst firm Gartner has released its Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022, which includes technologies that “will enable CEOs to deliver growth, digitalization, and efficiency.” The list of 12 trends covers topics ranging from AI to cybersecurity, autonomic systems, and composable applications. Near the middle of the list is the more specific automation trend of “hyperautomation,” which Gartner defines as “a business-driven, disciplined approach that organizations use to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. Hyperautomation involves the orchestrated use of multiple technologies, tools, or platforms …” including AI, machine learning, low-code/no-code platforms, robotic process automation (RPA), intelligent business process management (iBPM) suites, and others.
Hyperautomation sets itself apart from simple automation with this combination of a disciplined approach and orchestration of the various enabling technologies. We believe these two characteristics become key when considering Gartner estimates that leading companies have over 10 hyperautomation initiatives underway at any given time. Without discipline and orchestration, such projects could quickly derail and result in an accrual of tech debt.
So why is hyperautomation such a hot topic for 2022? This has to do with business’s unwavering commitment to growth and innovation. And growth and innovation can only exist in environments where there is minimum friction and maximum agility. Efforts to achieve this ideal state are often driven by technology. As per Gartner, “80% of executives expect to increase spending on digital business initiatives in 2022.” If that sounds like a heavy lift for IT, it is. And with the much-publicized shortage of IT talent in the workforce, how are organizations going to satisfy this hunger for innovation?
What has traditionally been referred to as “shadow IT”—with all its negative connotations of business stakeholders going rogue to create their own applications when IT is unable to do so—is evolving more into a democratization of IT. More and more non-IT personnel are becoming involved in the design, development, and production of business applications.
So, what is the best approach then to achieving the needed orchestration and optimizing the expertise in multi-disciplinary teams? Your hyperautomation initiative should include:
- Technology that handles the orchestration for you. Instead of cobbling together disparate tools for your RPA, AI, iBPM and other automation needs, partner with a technology provider that can manage people, existing systems, data, bots, and AI in a single workflow.
- A low-code application development platform (LCAP). Rapidly automate end-to-end processes or applications using no-code integrations to connect with data, systems, AI, bots, and even third-party RPA providers. Look for platforms that deliver both flexibility and scalability. Low-code also promotes collaboration between IT and the business with its visual approach to designing and building applications. Business stakeholders will find it easier to define their requirements when using low-code’s graphical process modeler, and IT will be able to more effectively translate those needs into application functionality.
- Enterprise automation at scale: The technology must enable you to rapidly discover, deliver, monitor, and optimize enterprise automations to scale beyond RPA, driving digital transformation and a hyper-efficient enterprise.
As with any technology project, a successful hyperautomation initiative comes down to the involvement of and collaboration between domain experts to fully define the issues and requirements the initiative will address. The technology itself must not only satisfy those needs, but also include the flexibility and extensibility to address future needs. It should ease collaboration within the project team—for both IT and non-IT team members—and give your organization an edge when unpredictability is the rule of the day.
Sources:
Gartner, Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022, 18 October 2021, By David Groombridge, Frances Karamouzis, Et Al.
Gartner, Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022: Hyperautomation Published 18 October 2021, By Stephanie Stoudt-Hansen, Frances Karamouzis, Keith Guttridge.
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