- RPA is one of a number of technologies that's central
to this fourth industrial revolution.
And in the last five years, the concept of RPA
has become increasingly popular.
RPA digitizes manual tasks and transforms legacy processes
meaning that it will have a big role in the transition
to a digital era of business.
There have been numerous studies about this.
No matter where you look,
there's no doubt RPA will have a significant impact
on today's enterprises and the jobs within them.
For example, HFS Research are reporting that the RPA market
will reach $1.2 billion in scale by 2021.
While there's no consensus on whether RPA will increase
or decrease job numbers,
there's certainly been quite a lot of research on the topic.
In one study by Forrester Research,
it's anticipated that over 500,000 jobs will be replaced
or significantly augmented by RPA in 2018 alone.
McKinsey & Company predict that automation technologies
like RPA will have an economic impact
of around $6.7 trillion by 2025.
And a widely sited study by Osborne and Frey
from Oxford University suggests that 47% of U.S. jobs
could be automated by 2030.
You'll find optimists and pessimists who differ
in their job automation predictions.
But from my experience, I'm an optimist.
Because I've seen how businesses
are using these technologies to adapt and grow
creating more opportunities for their people to contribute.
I've also seen how jobs have evolved
and have been redesigned to take advantage
of what people are best at, judgment, communication,
customer care, and critical thinking.
Chances are good if you're watching this course,
you may work in a shared services
or outsourcing environment.
Having come from this industry myself,
there's no doubt RPA will have an impact on the workforces
around the world.
Today, the size of the global outsourcing industry
is over $365 billion and it employs
over five million people.
A significant portion of these jobs may well be automated
as businesses turn to tools like RPA
to improve efficiency and cut costs.
And make no mistake about it,
this trend is only just beginning.
RPA will be a huge disrupter in the next few years.
So as I said in the beginning,
change will happen and I think it'll be good.