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Do we really need human assistance to fly us miles of distance? From automated check-in kiosks now a prominence at airports to pilots actively using auto-pilot to steer the plane, the flying experience has changed a lot. However, does that mean we don’t humans at all? Who will cater to specific personal needs of flyers? Who has better decision-making capabilities in a situation whose algorithm is not fed into the plane auto-pilot?

Very few activities will be automated entirely in the near future. According to Mckinsey research, 45% of the activities presently performed by humans can be automated by adapting to currently demonstrated technologies. Automation popularly is known to affect low-skill, low wage roles, but automation has the ability to automate high paid occupations like financial investors, senior executives, etc.

The Workplace Automation Advantage

Workplace automation allows the highly trained workforce to focus on complicated jobs which involve emotions and human management. According to Mckinsey Global Institute report, A future that works: automation, employment, and productivity, activities like predictable physical activities, data collection and analysis can be automated while occupations of manage, expertise, human interface and unpredictable physical cannot be automated with present technologies.

Automation could enable large-scale businesses to rapidly adapt to changes across the globe Automation would also improve performance evaluation of employees by easily measuring and monitoring, thereby bringing transparency and accountability. However, such a large scale adoption of technology would require stronger internal controls as a small error could have large consequences.

The financial benefit of workplace automation is achieving maximum road on your assets and cost savings whose benefits can pass on to the customer.
Reducing human error is one of the most important benefit inducing the companies to adopt for automation. This can save time and money and optimize workflow. Automation is to enhance human productivity rather than replace humans at work.

The Workplace Automation Disadvantage

Every technology has its downsides. Improper workplace automation can cost businesses time, money and efforts. Integration of automation into your workplace can be difficult as it would require adapting to technology and a rigid system. On the other side, humans can adapt to multiple situations making them flexible at work. More the automation integration in the workplace, the longer it will take to integrate it. While automation is designed to reduce work, they still add to it by the continuous requirement of maintenance by trained professionals and regular updates.

 Find a Balance

In spite of the downsides of automation, businesses in the future will rely on automation. What matters is a proper automation implementation to avoid imbalance. Businesses would require recognizing opportunities for automation which will improve their workflow and employees productivity.

A proper understanding of workflow and how automation would help optimize it would give desired benefits of automation rather than blindly implementing the technology. With automation, the employee’s roles would be required to be redefined so as to include both managing the automation technologies and high skill tasks. This calls for effective training and recruiting workforce so that they are capable to add value to the company.

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