From the course: Intelligent Automation Foundations

Intelligent automation: Hype or reality?

From the course: Intelligent Automation Foundations

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Intelligent automation: Hype or reality?

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- Before we go any further, I think it's important we address a critical topic and perhaps a very real question you have. Is intelligent automation real? Is this a topic and a trend that's worth you dedicating your valuable time to learn about? Yes. And I'll prove it in two ways. The market potential and your career potential. First, the market potential. As mentioned in the introduction, intelligent automation is everywhere. It is progressively more and more embedded into the very fabric of how companies are evolving and transforming. When you hear someone reference digital transformation, they're referring to the shifts going on thanks to adopting some or all components of an intelligent automation portfolio. No matter what industry, function, geography or product type, enterprises are transformaing using intelligent automation. And as you would expect, that makes the market size of these tools and techniques huge. Leading analyst firms forecast the intelligent automation market is between 5 and $10 billion already and growing fast. The fact is we just don't know enough yet to properly size this opportunity but when you consider that software powers absolutely everything, you get the picture. Intelligent automation is a massive market. So what does that mean for you? Quite simply, opportunity. If you're still in school, you're likely learning some degree of coding or have been told you should check it out. If you're just starting your career, you're most likely joining a company mired by legacy systems but aspiring to innovate and break free with the help of automation and cloud-based tools and platforms. If you're leading teams, you are constantly being approached by creative and enterprising members suggesting that there's a better way. And if you're in charge, if you are privileged enough to be in a senior leadership position, you are shouldering the immense burden of expectation. You are expected to make change happen. And that change is, for the most part, rooted in digital, and geared toward achieving either growth or better customer experience or more likely, both. So as you can see, regardless of where you are in your careers and where you sit in your organizations, this is the common thread and organizing principle that is driving you and your colleagues. Of note, the other common thread is often around security compliance and resilience, which also has a heavy digital component. In summary, because software is everywhere, the scale of the intelligent automation market is massive and because it's so massive, there is 100% chance that your job today and your career in the future will be shaped and hopefully improved by intelligent automation. So let's get into what it is.

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