McKinsey Global Insights: Harnessing automation for a future that works

Hundreds of organizations around the world rely on OpCon’s automation to improve performance and reduce errors and overhead costs. Our clients know that automation is a necessity to continue to grow and keep up with today’s changing business landscape.

The McKinsey Global Institute has been conducting research on automation and its potential impact on productivity in the global economy.

“The automation of activities can enable businesses to improve performance by reducing errors and improving quality and speed, and in some cases achieving outcomes that go beyond human capabilities. Automation also contributes to productivity, as it has done historically.”

Researchers asked what tasks, jobs and industries could benefit from automation, and what a potential rate of growth could be.

“Automation will change the daily work activities of everyone, from miners and landscapers to commercial bankers, fashion designers, welders, and CEOs. … And what will their impact be on employment and productivity in the global economy?”

Researchers found that, though almost every occupation has at least a partial automation potential, employees are not at risk of becoming obsolete: “As processes are transformed by the automation of individual activities, people will perform activities that complement the work that machines do, and vice versa.”

McKinsey estimates that in the next 50 years, automation could raise productivity growth from 0.8 to 1.4 percent. Today, McKinsey estimates that about half of all work tasks can be automated – a potential savings of $15 trillion.

This productivity growth estimate is a large one, but we believe it’s accurate. We’ve seen many of our clients experience triple-digit growth without adding any personnel or infrastructure resources simply through automating backend processes. Bringing this level of automation to the front office through self-service portals, GUI automation technology (RPA), intelligent monitoring and cognitively-reactive operations (AIOps) and, of course, actual robotics will push equally large growth figures with little additional resources. The future does look very exciting, and we can’t wait to create it.

Click here to read the McKinsey Global Institute study.