4 ways robots will transform Australian workplaces

Here's what the office of the future might look like. (Source: Getty)

With 2020 set to be a breakout year for digital automation in the workplace, businesses and workers across Australia and New Zealand will quickly start to feel the impact.

However, this doesn’t mean bad news. Key developments in technology will mean an influx in adoption of automation technology. This will deliver greater flexibility and productivity in the workplaces of the future that aren’t tied to an office and can cater to the greatest issues shaping our world today.

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Here are four ways that automation could be set to change the way you work, and the office you work in, in 2020:

1. We’ll see paper all but disappear across medium and large offices

With more companies striving to exist on the cloud and the emergence of rapidly maturing technologies that understand the written word, we’ll pass the tipping point towards wider technology usage in day-to-day business practice.

By 2025, there will be easy-to-deploy-and-teach digital processes for a large majority of paper documents in the workplace, so that human workers will never need to process an invoice again. The serious environmental benefits for businesses and individuals will also come into play.

2. Any economic recession could mean fewer new colleagues

According the 2019 Global Innovation Index, Australia fell out of the world’s 20 most innovative economies, coming in at 22nd. At the same time, with looming recession fears, solutions will need to be found to address a slowing economy.

But what does this mean for your office? The reality of a recession may mean hiring freezes, but that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily have less work to do. The introduction of digital bots, or digital colleagues, to your office means heightened productivity without having to burn the midnight oil.

3. We'll see even more pressure on company transparency around the information they collect and how it's used

The 2020s are shaping up to be a decade defined by big data – with the advent of 5G and the explosion of connected devices and smart homes. This can create pressure on staff to correctly handle massive amounts of data, and there will be serious implications if data is mismanaged.

Businesses will start to roll out solutions, including artificial intelligence (AI) and digital bots, to help office workers who handle large amounts of data to maintain compliance.

4. We'll see demand for IT skills boom across all industries and jobs by the end of the year

Over 2020, we expect to see IT skills appear across a vast array of job roles – developers, business analysts, program and project managers etc. – and in all verticals – IT, BPO, HR, education, insurance, banking, among others.

Not only does this mean new career opportunities to be forged by the younger generation, but also a chance for the current human workforce to reskill, retrain and add a new dimension to their current job roles.

Adrian Jones is the executive vice president of Automation Anywhere Asia Pacific and Japan.

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