Mumbai: The perceived threat of robots stealing human jobs has become so real that there are now blogs and websites such as willrobotstakemyjob.com and replacedbyrobots.info that tell you the likelihood of your job being stolen by robots or being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technology.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper suggests that such fears may be overestimated. Based on a survey of 11,000 workers conducted in May 2018 across advanced and emerging market economies, including the UK, the US, Japan, India and China, the authors of the study led by Carlos Mulas-Granados found that most workers view automation positively, especially in emerging markets.

This is possibly because advanced economies have suffered greater job losses on account of technological advancement. Notably, the survey on which this analysis is based deliberately excludes highly-educated workers and focuses on understanding the perceptions of less educated, lower income, and middle-skilled workers.

The authors found that in advanced economies, it is the women and older respondents who are more pessimistic about AI-led technological transformation. More generally, the authors find that negative views about automation and AI are prevalent among older, poorer workers, and among those who have suffered recent job volatility. Worries about AI displacing jobs is more in countries with high robot penetration such as Japan and Sweden.

Workers with higher levels of job satisfaction and higher education are more likely to have a more positive outlook about AI-enabled technology, the researchers found. These workers also expect governments to play a role in preparing workers for managing the impact of automation on the future of work through re-education and training.

Also read: Automation, Skills and the Future of Work: What do Workers Think?

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Payclip (Clip), a Mexican FinTech has selected TreasuryXpresss treasury management solution (TMS) to achieve straight-through processing of their treasury operations.

Clip is a payment aggregator that offers a mobile point of sales solutions for businesses in Mexico. TreasuryXpresss treasury management solution is expected to help the firm achieve comprehensive visibility, accurate and easy-to-achieve cash forecasting, and improved payment controls and efficiencies, according to a statement.

Our solution was strategically designed from inception to enable treasury teams to achieve automation quickly, effectively, and securely, Thomas Leitch, chief operating officer at TreasuryXpress commented.

TMS eliminates the need for multiple spreadsheets and bank portal management giving treasury teams of all sizes a single point of management for their entire treasury operations.

Powered by sustainable, digital technology, TreasuryXpress is a provider of on-demand treasury management software. Its TMS model is characterized by a frequent and controlled Agile development methodology, immediate logon access for clients, short implementation times, and digital integrations and bank connectivity.

The company delivers solutions that work for the treasury, making it easy to achieve 100% bank visibility, consolidate cash information, manage end-to-end payment processing, and automatically distribute useful and critical reports to all internal stakeholders.

TreasuryXpresss solutions centralize more than 10,000 bank accounts daily and process electronic payments for over $7 billion each year. It provides better, more innovative solutions that solve business problems.

Clip enables any business to accept card payments, at any time, and anywhere by turning a smartphone or tablet into a card terminal via an easy sign-up process in less than 5 minutes.

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PayClip taps TreasuryXpress for treasury automation - IBS Intelligence

WARREN, New Jersey and BANGALORE, India, Dec. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Mindtree, a global technology services and digital transformation company, has been recognized as an 'Innovator' in Avasant's Intelligent Automation Services RadarView 2019 report. The report identifies digital leaders that demonstrate innovation and maturity with their intelligent automation offerings, such as robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots.

The report cites Mindtree's strategic partner automation ecosystem, investments in collaborative digital innovation centers and competency in reimagining traditional enterprise processes.

The report also recognizes Mindtree's practice maturity and global automation initiatives across industries, including:

"Mindtree has made concerted investments to advance our automation capabilities through strategic partnerships, research and innovation hubs. This allows us to play an integral role in developing and deploying next generation solutions for our clients," said Manas Chakraborty, Global Head of Enterprise Service Lines for Mindtree. "It's great to see Avasant recognize our deeply ingrained digital culture and automation expertise to bring ideas to fruition and help our customers reimagine enterprise transformation."

"As the intelligent automation industry transitions from simple RPA implementations to complex process automation, Mindtree's automation strategy is moving in tandem with the industry roadmap", said Swapnil Bhatnagar, Research Director, Avasant. "The company offers automation as an integral part of its project delivery using RPA, AI, and analytics and is further developing industry-specific solutions by leveraging its robust partner ecosystem. This project delivery approach, in conjunction with continued investments made in cognitive technologies by its automation business unit has made Mindtree an Innovator in Avasant's Intelligent Automation Services RadarView for 2019"

This is Avasant's second annual report on intelligent automation services, created to address the shift towards digital services that enable enterprise transformation. Avasant's RadarView is an independent assessment that reflects the true capabilities of service providers, with a view of evaluating them as long-term partners for digitally evolving global organizations.

Read the complete Intelligent Automation Services RadarView 2019 report here.

About Mindtree

Mindtree (NSE: MINDTREE) is a global technology consulting and services company, helping enterprises marry scale with agility to achieve competitive advantage. "Born digital," in 1999 and now a Larsen & Toubro Group Company, Mindtree applies its deep domain knowledge to 350+ enterprise client engagements to break down silos, make sense of digital complexity and bring new initiatives to market faster. We enable IT to move at the speed of business, leveraging emerging technologies and the efficiencies of Continuous Delivery to spur business innovation. Operating in 18 countries and over 40 offices across the world, we're consistently regarded as one of the best places to work, embodied every day by our winning culture made up of over 21,000 entrepreneurial, collaborative and dedicated "Mindtree Minds."

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

For more information, contact:

INDIA Swetha Ganesan Mindtree Ltd +91-9789061981 Swetha.Ganesan@mindtree.com

UNITED STATES Erik Arvidson Matter 978-518-4542 mindtree@matternow.com

EUROPE Edward Stevenson Hotwire +44 783 459 7877 Edward.Stevenson@hotwireglobal.com

SOURCE Mindtree

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Mindtree Recognized as an Innovator by Avasant in Intelligent Automation Services - PRNewswire

Robotic Process Automation is becoming a popular topic, especially since it helps companies and businesses in many different ways, including by removing tedious tasks from employees.

But what is robotic process automation? Robotic process automation RPA is a system that learns small tedious tasks to complete in the graphical user interface or GUI by watching a user perform the task. After that, the RPA robots can continue the tasks while the employee can start on other projects that they didnt have time for before.

Table of Content

However, there are more RPA benefits than just that. Heres a list of the top 25 benefits.

Automated work can not only get tasks faster, but they can also get tasks done at a lower cost. This helps you get more tasks done for a much lower rate.

Repetitive and tedious tasks can slow down your employees, grabbing their time away from more significant tasks. However, with the RPA, your employees will have more time on their hands to complete those other tasks.

With more time on their hands and away from those tedious tasks, your employees can invest themselves more in their work and feel as if theyre doing more for the company.

Humans will inevitably leave some type of error; thats just humans being humans. But the RPA runs with little to no errors, which lowers operational risk.

Unlike robots, humans cannot do every task the same for hours. RPA, however, can duplicate tasks at a constant rate with little to no ways of being distinguishable from the last.

Some RPA complete tasks that humans used to fill out on paper. But now, with RPA, those same tasks can be completed electronically.

The RPA can also find ways to simplify processes when they are automated if possible. This could help create better practicable processes.

[Also Read: How AI Is Posed to Take Robotic Process Automation to the Next Level]

Since RPA does not need a timecard to clock out with, the automation processes can work 24/7 without stopping. This helps companies provide a higher level of service.

The RPA is meticulous, which helps companies have more valuable analytical data and fewer risks of any leakages. The robots can also help collect data that humans could not possibly get, opening up a wider range of critical information for companies to have.

Since RPA can work 24/7, customers can get service at any time for many tasks including processing a credit check and completing a payment.

RPA helps employees give more time to other, more important tasks like customer service.

Tasks, such as internal reports, can be completed faster without any mistakes, so tasks inside the company, like setting up a new employee, can be done faster.

RPA forces organizations to come to an agreement about who owns each application, which helps define governance structures. This allows the robots to have the same access to every application as a human does.

The RPA does not require you to replace your existing IT systems. Instead, it can use your existing systems just as an employee could.

Since the RPA is scalable, companies can scale down or upon their operations to ensure that their company can make an adjustment as needed.

RPA can work for the companies as long as they are needed since they do not need to ever go home, change jobs, or retire. They also do not hack or damage the companies data.

For any company, IT included, the focus is critical. Having less tedious work to do allows IT workers to focus on more important tasks at hand.

Since RPA is doing tedious work, more employees can focus on other tasks, such as creating more sophisticated analysis and core domains. They can develop work areas that they never had the time to before.

Since the RPA produces little to no errors, customer pain points will dramatically decrease. Customers will be able to have fewer problems with each company since robots get more work done in a timely manner.

Companies who use RPA can see benefits from having robots in weeks, if not days. RPA robots can be a quick solution.

RPA can let the company know about the Service Level Agreement (SLA) analysis in real-time, which helps the companies understand how their company is improving or not.

RPA robots make logical decisions that are designed by the best small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The SMEs can help the RPA find the best practices that will ensure that the companys RPA workforce is performing at a high standard.

The RPA robots automatically document everything they have done, which gives the company a clear audit and a way to easily recover if an unexpected shutdown was to occur.

Some people believe that in the future, the workforce will consist of robots and humans working together to produce the best content. Nothing will fully be automated. By joining the new cutting-edge technology, known as the RPA, companies are becoming more innovated.

The RPA is helping humans have time to generate new, revolutionary ideas to help transcend into the next level of company service and products.

New technology changes can be stressful for employees for many different reasons, including the fact that their current roles and responsibilities may shift. Making sure that employees are kept up to date on the whole RPA process will help the transformation process become smoother.

Companies have different processes, including repetitive ones or more complex activity-based ones where the RPA would interact directly with customers. Its critical for companies to decide which work processes they have are appropriate for their RPA, so everything can run effortlessly.

Companies, upfront, need to realize and understand the limits of what any RPA can and cannot do. Some tasks are not meant to be automated as much as the companies desire them to be. Set realistic goals and continue discussions about expected results from the RPA company-wide.

With the rise of robotic process automation, there are many robotic process automation tools. Heres a list of the top five tools to consider for 2020:

[Also Read: Robotic Process Automation Tools for CIOs]

RPA is something that every company, especially IT, should consider bringing onto their team. Despite the cons, the RPA has many pros that can help a company in expediential ways.

Robotic Process Automation Tools for CIOs TechFunnelImportance of Robotic Process Automation in Content IntelligenceImprove New Employee Onboarding with Robotic Process Automation 4 YouTube Social Media Marketing StrategiesBenefits of Intelligent Process Automation for Your Business

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25 Benefits of Robotic Process Automation in Today's Time - TechFunnel

The Global Process Automation Systems Market 2019-2024 report gives an overview of the relevant market including analysis, latest market trends and developments including features, technology and market chain types, applications and top manufacturers. Process Automation Systems market research report also gives an analysis of the key players along with upcoming industry supply, market demand, price, competition and industry forecast from 2019 to 2024. The report is the opinion of industry experts and gives an overview of the past. Year and current market condition.

Sample report can be viewed in a PDF form by visiting @ researchunt.com/report/global-process-automation-systems-market-research-report-2019-2025/#Free-Sample-Report

The global Process Automation Systems market is valued at xx million USD in 2018 and is expected to reach xx million USD by the end of 2024, growing at a CAGR of xx% between 2019 and 2024.

Process Automation Systems Market Segment by Manufacturers include:

Process Automation Systems Market Segment by Regions includes:

North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)

Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)

South America, Middle East and Africa

By Types, the Process Automation Systems Market can be Split into:

PLC Process Automation Systems

HMI Process Automation Systems

Other

By Applications, the Process Automation Systems Market can be Split into:

Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ researchunt.com/report/global-process-automation-systems-market-research-report-2019-2025/

Report Objectives:

Browse Detailed TOC, Tables, Figures, Charts And Companies Mentioned In Process Automation Systems Market Research Report [emailprotected] researchunt.com/report/global-process-automation-systems-market-research-report-2019-2025/#Buying-Enquiry

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Process Automation Systems Market 2019, Trend, CAGR Status, Growth, Analysis and Forecast to 2025 - AnalyticSP

The latest study added by MarketResearch.biz titled, Global Automation Testing Market Research Report. Our analysts offers an complete analysis of global Automation Testing market. The study analyses the various aspect of the market by studying its historic and forecast data from 2020-2029. The report provides SWOT analysis, Porters five force model, and PESTEL analysis of the Automation Testing market. The different areas covered in the report are market size, segment analysis, drivers and restrains, major players, geographic outlook of the market, and competitive landscape.The market study on the global Automation Testing market will encompass the entire ecosystem of the industry, covering major regions namely Asia Pacific, South America, North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, China and the major countries falling under those regions.

Qualitative information will discuss the key factors driving the restraining the growth of the market, and the possible growth opportunities of the market, regulatory scenario, value chain & supply chain analysis, export & import analysis, attractive investment proposition will be a part of qualitative information. The report covers detailed assessment of the Automation Testing market including enabling technologies, regulatory landscape, market drivers, key trends, challenges, standardization, deployment models, future roadmap, operator case studies, opportunities, value chain, ecosystem player profiles and strategies. The report also presents forecasts of Automation Testing Market investments from 2020 to 2029.

The Automation Testing report provide market value for base year and forecast year with an estimated CAGR value. To know the exact data and values, fill your information so that our sales team can get in touch with you.

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Market Segmentation:

Segmentation by testing type:

Functional TestingNon-functional TestingCompliance TestingPerformance TestingApplication Programming Interface (API) TestingUsability TestingSecurity TestingCompatibility TestingSegmentation by service:

Support and MaintenanceAdvisory and ConsultingImplementationPlanning and DevelopmentDocumentation and trainingOthers (Assessment Services, Framework Services, etc.)Segmentation by organization size:

Large EnterprisesSmall and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)Segmentation by vertical:

Defense and AerospaceLogistics and TransportationHealthcare and Life SciencesBanking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)Energy and UtilitiesTelecom and ITAutomotiveRetailManufacturing

Top Companies in the Global Automation Testing Market: CA Technologies, Microsoft Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Tricentis GmbH, Ranorex GmbH, Micro Focus International plc, Cigniti Technologies Limited, SmartBear Software Inc, Parasoft Corporation and Capgemini SE.

KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS

The study offers analysis of the Automation Testing market size along with the current trends and future estimations to elucidate the imminent investment pockets.

Data about the key drivers, restraints, and opportunities and their impact analysis on the market size is provided.

Current and future Automation Testing market trends are outlined to determine the overall attractiveness of the market.

Porters five forces analysis illustrates the potency of buyers and suppliers operating in the industry.

The quantitative analysis of Automation Testing market share is covered to determine the market potential.

Table of Contents

Market Overview: The report begins with this section where overview and highlights of segments of the global Automation Testing market are provided. Highlights of the segmentation study include price, revenue, sales, growth rate, and market share.

Competition by Company: Here, the competition in the global Automation Testing market is analyzed, taking into consideration price, revenue, sales, and market concentration rate, market share by company, competitive situations and expansion, trends, merger and acquisition.

Company Profiles and Sales Data: As the name suggests, this section gives the sales data of key players of the global Automation Testing market as well as some useful data on their business. It talks about the price, revenue, products, gross margin, and their competitors, specifications, applications, manufacturing base, and the main business of players operating in the global Automation Testing market.

Market Status and Outlook by Region: In this section, the report discusses about gross margin, sales, market share, CAGR, revenue, production, and market size by region. Here, the global Automation Testing market is deeply analyzed on the basis of regions and countries such as North America, Europe, China, India, Japan, and the MEA.

Application or End User: This part of the research study shows how different application segments contribute to the global Automation Testing market.

Market Forecast: Here, the report offers complete forecast of the global Automation Testing market. It also offers global sales and revenue forecast for all years of the forecast period.

Upstream Raw Materials: The report provides analysis of key raw materials used in the global Automation Testing market, manufacturing cost structure, and the industrial chain.

Marketing Strategy Analysis and Distributors: This section offers analysis of marketing channel development trends, indirect marketing, and direct marketing followed by a broad discussion on distributors and downstream customers in the global Automation Testing market.

Research Findings and Conclusion: This is one of the last sections of the report where the findings of the analysts and the conclusion of the research study are provided.

Appendix: Here, we have provided a disclaimer, data triangulation, our data sources, market breakdown, research programs and design, and our research approach.

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Global Automation Testing Market Quantitative Information of Size, Leading Players, Shares, Threats and Trends - Neptune Pine

Intelligent Process Automation Market Growth Assessment

The Intelligent Process Automation Market is forecasted to witness a significant growth over the course of the forecast period according to a newly published report by Fact.MR. The study highlights the critical trends that are likely to mold the growth of the Intelligent Process Automation Market in the forecast year 2018 to 2027. Further, the report introspects the various factors that are expected to influence the overall dynamics of the Intelligent Process Automation Market.

The report is an essential tool for stakeholders, upcoming market players, established companies, and investors who are looking to establish a strong presence in the Intelligent Process Automation Market landscape. A detailed understanding of the raw material suppliers, vendors, manufacturers, and other components of the supply chain is provided in report.Request 100 Page Sample Report Now athttps://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=2983Key Takeaways from the Report

Current and future prospects of the Intelligent Process Automation market in over the forecast period 2018 to 2027Opportunity analysis for investors and market players in various regional marketsRegulatory and government policy framework relevant to the Intelligent Process Automation MarketMergers, acquisitions, collaborations, and partnerships in the Intelligent Process Automation MarketGrowth potential of the emerging market players in the Intelligent Process Automation Market

The report caters to the following questions related to the Intelligent Process Automation Market:

What is the anticipated value of the Intelligent Process Automation market in 2029?Who are the leading market players in the Intelligent Process Automation Market in region 1 and region 2?Which region is expected to witness the highest growth in terms of value during the forecast period?How are market players in the Intelligent Process Automation Market adjusting to the economic slowdown worldwide?Which country in region 3 is expected to have a majority of the market share during the assessment period?Access Research Methodology Prepared By Experts athttps://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=2983

key players operating in the Intelligent Process Automation market are Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., UiPath Inc., Nintex Global Ltd., Accesa, WORKFUSION, INC.. , Software AG, Red Hat, Inc., IBM Corporation, K2 Inc. and Bonitasoft, Inc.Regional Overview

The intelligent process automation market is segmented across North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, SEA and others of APAC, Japan and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to be a large market for intelligent process automation as a majority of the intelligent process automation vendors such as Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., UiPath Inc., and Nintex Global Ltd. are based in the region. The significant traction towards adoption of automation technologies are driving adoption of intelligent process automation in European countries, such as Germany and UK. The growing popularity of intelligent process automation in developing regions, such as APEJ, Latin America and parts of Africa, are characterized by the increased spending automation technology in the regions. Rising disposable income among people in the countries mentioned above is likely to increase the scope of penetration of intelligent process automation in these regions in the near future.Report Highlights:

Detailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics in the industryIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and valueRecent industry trends and developmentsCompetitive landscapeStrategies of key players and products offeredPotential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective on market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintRequest Customized Report As Per Your Requirements athttps://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RC&rep_id=2983Why Our Business Insights Make a Difference

Data collection strategies are well-defined and highly systematicOur analysts interview industry experts to collect accurate and relevant dataCountry-wise analysis of each regional marketCustomized reports include relevant and insightful data in accord with the clients requirementsWe leave no stone unturned while curating market studies

I have formerly spent over 3 years as a trader in U.S. Stock Market and is now semi-stepped down. I work on a full time basis for News Cast Report specializing in quicker moving active shares with a short term view on investment opportunities and trends.

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Intelligent Process Automation Market Generate Massive Revenue In Upcoming Future 20192027 - News Cast Report

A new informative report on the global Process Automation Software market titled as, Process Automation Software has recently published by Contrive Datum Insights to its humongous database which helps to shape the future of the businesses by making well-informed business decisions. It offers a comprehensive analysis of various business aspects such as global market trends, recent technological advancements, market shares, size, and new innovations. Furthermore, this analytical data has been compiled through data exploratory techniques such as primary and secondary research. Moreover, an expert team of researchers throws light on various static as well as dynamic aspects of the global Process Automation Software market.

Research Snapshot:

Historic Period: 2013-2017

Base Year: 2018

Forecast Period: 2019-2026

Key Segments: Type, Application and Regions

Key Players: Adobe, AppSheet, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Celonis, Creatio and others.

Different leading key players have been profiled to get better insights into the businesses. It offers detailed elaboration on different top-level industries which are functioning in global regions. It includes informative data such as company overview, contact information, and some significant strategies followed by key players.

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The Top Key Players include: Adobe, AppSheet, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Celonis, Creatio, Datamatics TruBot, Epicor, Intellibot, K2, kintone, Kissflow, Laserfiche, Minit, Ninox, Nintex, Pega, Pipefy, Process Street, ProcessMaker, Quick Base, Salesforce, Scoro, UiPath, WinAutomation, Zoho Creator and more.

The global Process Automation Software market is the professional and accurate study of various business perspectives such as major key players, key geographies, divers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges. This global research report has been aggregated on the basis of various market segments and sub-segments associated with the global market.

Global Process Automation Software Market Key Segments:

On the Basis of Type:

Business Process Management Software

Digital Process Automation (DPA) Software

Process Mining Software

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Software

On the Basis of Application:

Large Enterprises

SMEs

On the Basis of Region:

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Geographically, the global Process Automation Software market has been analyzed in various regions such as North America, Latin America, Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, and India. The global Process Automation Software region is dominating this market in the upcoming future.

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The study objectives of global market research report:

To analyze the global Process Automation Software market on the basis of several business verticals such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities

It offers detailed elaboration on the global competitive landscape

To get an informative data of various leading key industries functioning across the global regions

It offers qualitative and quantitative analysis of the global Process Automation Software market

It offers all-inclusive information of global market along with its features, applications, challenges, threats, and opportunities

The major key questions addressed through this innovative research report:

Table of Content (TOC):

Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview

Chapter 2 Industry Cost Structure and Economic Impact

Chapter 3 Rising Trends and New Technologies with Major key players

Chapter 4 Global Process Automation Software Market Analysis, Trends, Growth Factor

Chapter 5 Process Automation Software Market Application and Business with Potential Analysis

Chapter 6 Global Process Automation Software Market Segment, Type, Application

Chapter 7 Global Process Automation Software Market Analysis (by Application, Type, End User)

Chapter 8 Major Key Vendors Analysis of Process Automation Software Market

Chapter 9 Development Trend of Analysis

Chapter 10 Conclusion

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Global Process Automation Software Market Size, Growth, Industry Analysis and Forecast 2019 To 2026 - Testifyandrecap

The new investment round will enable ChatBook to further capitalize on its position as the market leader in social media automation to strengthen their solution offering.

Tokyo:Tokyo based startup ChatBook has raised a$1 millionfunding round led by from Monex Ventures Co., Ltd., Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, VOYAGE VENTURES Co., Ltd., and East Ventures Co., Ltd., The startup has managed to attract key partnerships with Facebook, Salesforce and Marketo and has fully integrated ChatBooks chatbots into the fast-growing B2B enterprise landscape and with processed more than 1 million data points of customer information, since their start in 2018.

Marketing Technology News:Rubicon Project Partners With Telaria to Enhance Sell-Side Advertising Platform

The new investment round will enable ChatBook to further capitalize on its position as the market leader in social media automation to strengthen their solution offering through product innovation and sales growth as it will be the key area of focus for ChatBook, which will enable customers and businesses transform their social media campaigns. ChatBook CEOMaiko Kojima, We are in an era where marketing and sales pipeline development strategies are quickly becoming outdated at a faster pace. ChatBook actively works with smart marketers and advertising agencies that are striving to maintain control of the customer journey and deepen their customer relationships.

Marketing Technology News:Airship Appoints Marketing Veteran, Michael Lavoie as Senior VP of Customer Success

ChatBook is changing how an enterprise sales organization can automate the tedious process of using social media as a channel to develop a sales pipeline, says Kojima. Many fast growing organizations adopting chatbots notice that utilizing chatbots in social media environments quickly help identify opportunities and freeing employee resources to focus on more strategic tasks. Kojima adds, Our chatbots will augment and automate the task of lead generation and provide rich data from customer interactions, as we anticipate seeing more companies looking to build a better customer experience through the use of ChatBook.

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ChatBook Raises $1M to Strengthen Its Social Media Automation Platform - MarTech Advisor

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There is an ever greater focus on the impact of automation on work and what it will mean for jobs. Certain kinds of routine work are on the front lines, including the analytical activities of administrative assistants and bank cashiers, and the manual jobs of warehouse assistants, assembly line workers, and delivery drivers. Many tasks within these jobs are likely to be automated: For instance, delivery workers now scan packages and generate automated driving statistics.

The agenda for routine, lower-skilled work in this new world includes upskilling (giving employees access to new and often higher-value tasks within the same job) or re-skilling (making them able to accomplish a completely new set of tasks). Neither of these undertakings is straightforward, however. Bringing new skills to the workplace inevitably brings a range of stakeholders into the picture, including the companies doing the re-skilling, the government and education systems that help out, and the employees themselves.

Weve heard from managerial populations about how theyre navigating this agenda. In a survey of CEOs, for example, two-thirds (67%) said they have a responsibility to retrain employees whose tasks and jobs are at risk of being automated out of existence.

What has not been adequately heard in this conversation are the voices of employees themselves. How are people who perform low- to medium-paying jobs thinking about upskilling and re-skilling? What do they see as the opportunities and challenges?

These were our starting questions in a series of focus groups and roundtable conversations held with people whose jobs are most susceptible to automation. My research company, Hot Spots Movement, collaborated with BritainThinks, a strategy consultancy, and Capita, a consulting, digital services, and software business, to speak with people across the U.K., including those who work for Capita. Our research was published in a November 2019 report.

The conversations were fascinating. They gave us deeper insight into the working lives of those on the front line of automation, while also highlighting key areas in which future action is needed. We heard four key themes: excitement about the upsides, the need for preparation to reduce anxiety, the importance of getting change right the first time, and the impact of personal coaching.

During the course of our conversations, many people told us they could see or imagine the positive impact of automation on their jobs and the tasks they performed. They described how automation had the potential to remove some of the most boring and repetitive aspects of their roles.

The automation of scheduling has made my job more efficient and a lot quicker, is how one delivery driver described it. It has smoothed out the little frustrations and helps me meet my performance targets.

Automation has already meant fewer manual tasks and more intellectually challenging tasks for some. It also has meant more exciting work and the possibility of securing new and different jobs.

As we spoke to people, we learned that one of the details that really affected their experiences was how much opportunity they had to prepare, both for a single automation event and for the longer-term trajectory of automation.

Employees felt that changes worked well when they had some control over making their own plans for managing their future options. For example, one person said, We heard about it relatively early, and the staff welcomed it with open arms it was something we really needed.

Without advance preparation and prior insight, however, employees were left to worry and speculate about potential changes. As one person said, Weve introduced bar coding into the store, so we need one [clerk] instead of four. Thats good; it saves money. But what happens to the other three people?

For many employees, following the path of automation means they must let go of some component of their jobs to robots or AI while developing new skills to perform new tasks. Some of these new skills are simply a slight expansion of current skills. Others require new ways of operating.

Getting these new approaches right can be tricky. When everything clicks, people really feel excited. As one person remarked, Its satisfying when it works there is nothing better than pressing go and it works how you want. Getting new changes right boosted peoples confidence.

For those who did not have sufficient on-the-job support, the chances of getting it wrong were high. People described how changes that didnt go smoothly sapped their enthusiasm and confidence. When things went wrong, managers were quite hard to get ahold of, said one discussion participant. Technology that didnt operate as planned or was poorly implemented brought a lot of rework and undermined peoples trust in the new systems.

Training budgets are tight in most companies, and nowhere is this more evident than in low-paid work, where it can be hard to make a case for training. Its no surprise, therefore, that efforts to re-skill the most routine jobs often focus on low-cost e-learning.

Thats fine to a point. In our discussions, employees said they were comfortable with e-learning, describing how they already learn at home from video platforms like YouTube. (There are, for example, enormously popular online cooking channels that teach new skills.) Many embrace video tutorials, and we heard examples of people being self-taught and proud of it. But there was a general feeling that without the support of peers and managers, e-learning was just not enough.

To capitalize on employees initial excitement about the potential of automation, company leaders need to take four actions before they make changes:

Build enthusiasm. Leaders need to create projects that show how jobs will change. They need to give employees an opportunity to see the benefits themselves.

Lay out plans in advance. Anxiety significantly impacts the possibility of change and learning. Leaders can reduce this by clearly describing what the implication of automation will be and creating a pathway that describes how employees will be upskilled in their current jobs or re-skilled into new jobs.

Provide no-pressure run-throughs. Leaders must help employees get change right the first time. People we spoke with talked about the importance of getting clear walk-through demonstrations and the opportunity to try out new technologies and responsibilities in a safe space.

Arrange ongoing face-to-face training. Leaders need to be sure to supplement e-learning with peer support groups and coaching.

Lynda Gratton is a professor of management practice at London Business School and director of the schools Human Resource Strategy in Transforming Companies program. She is coauthor of The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity (Bloomsbury, 2016). She tweets @lyndagratton.

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What Employees Tell Us About Automation and Re-skilling - MIT Sloan

Automation has put a huge dent in the need for jobs in the auto industry. There's no need for so many cashiers because people can check-out on machines.

One study suggests the next wave of automation will wipe out work in industries that make up a big chunk of Orlando's workforce.

Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics, Kempler Industries, an Illinois-based machinery buyer and seller, listed the jobs most susceptible to automation. The study also lists the regions that could suffer the most potential job loss.

That chunk of the workforce is made up of hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks, secretaries, administrative assistants, and textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators all jobs the analysis forecasts will be on the robot chopping block.

Las Vegas, at 31 percent, was the only metro to edge-out Orlando on Kempler's list of impending automation-doom. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metros finished third and fourth.

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New study says the next wave of automation is coming for Orlando's workforce - Orlando Weekly

Convoy CEO Dan Lewis, right, speaks with Ben Gilbert, left, and David Rosenthal at a recording of the Acquired podcast at the University of Washington in Seattle on Tuesday. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)

Convoy has reached another milestone on the long road toward complete automation of the trucking industrys brokering process.

The Seattle-based digital freight network announced Wednesday that it has achieved fully automated load pricing. The breakthrough comes less than a year after Convoy achieved fully automated load matching. Convoy says the combined pieces of brokering, which traditionally involved manual, time-consuming work identifying available trucks and negotiating on bids via calls and emails, can be handled by its platform in minutes with no calls or emails.

Convoy has come a long way since CEO and co-founder Dan Lewis was visiting shippers and truck stops, learning about the market and getting feedback on Convoys early ideas. Speaking Tuesday night at a live recording of the Acquired podcast in Seattle, he recalled walking into a shippers office for the first time, so nervous that all he could do was ask to use the bathroom.

But as he talked with drivers and shippers about the concept, Lewis found an industry in need of transformation. That was in contrast with some of his past ideas.

Id had some really bad ideas really bad ideas, said Lewis, a veteran of companies including Amazon, Google and Microsoft. This one, every time I shared it with someone from the industry, they were excited about it and felt like it was necessary.

Fast-forward more than four years, and Convoy is one of the Seattle regions unicorns, valued at more than $1 billion. The 4-year-old startup, backed by high-profile investors including Jeff Bezos, Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates and U2s Bono, competes against traditional brokers such as C.H. Robinson, the largest U.S. freight broker, and newer players such as Uber Freight.

Convoy says its new milestone in automated pricing will help it operate more efficiently, and lead to reduced costs for shippers and full trucks for carriers.

Weve been working for the past four years on improving our pricing models, Convoy Chief Product Officer Ziad Ismail told GeekWire. And as weve been building more and more density we have more and more data for us to train our models. Weve also gotten more drivers to use our app. The combination of those two things have led us to 100-percent automated pricing in Convoys top markets.

Those markets include Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, and Los Angeles, among others.

Truckers earn more when they get more load options, better routes, and make fewer empty mile trips. Convoy aims to increase capacity and decrease costs for shippers with more truckers on its platform. Automated brokering produces further benefit for both sides of the marketplace, the company said.

The technological breakthrough comes just a month after Convoys latest funding round of $400 million, at a $2.7 billion valuation. And in Ismails view, its a top tech accomplishment for the company, alongsideAutomated Reloads, which uses machine learning to group full-truckload shipments for carriers and is helping reduce empty mile carbon emissions.

Once you automate the core of the marketplace, which is the matching and pricing side, your ability to run experiments ends up being completely different, Ismail said. When you have human-based processes, trying to run small experiments to test differences is very difficult. But once you have a digital network, you can innovate, experiment and learn at a completely different pace. And so thats kind of what were seeing now, its setting Convoy up really to experiment the way that you would expect a true technology company to experiment.

Speaking with Acquired podcast co-hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal at the University of Washington in Seattle last night, Lewis recalled overhearing skeptical brokers cast aspersions on Convoys early plans, under the theory that computers dont match freight; people match freight.

Such skepticism from traditional players put Convoy in a position to write the rules and be the first to come up with the models for key parts of the process including payments, matching and providing data and insights to customers, Lewis said.

In a sign of how much things have changed, Lewis didnt outright dismiss the question of whether Convoy could someday operate a third-party marketplace for other brokers, similar to what Amazon does with its marketplace for third-party sellers. It could move in that direction at some point, he acknowledged.

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Convoys latest digital trucking breakthrough is 100% automation of the load pricing process - GeekWire

The twin trends of rapid population aging and automation have been unprecedented in speed and scope. Both academia and industry have dedicated extensive research to understanding the direction, magnitude, variations, and impacts of these separate trends.

In the first report of this two-part series, Marsh & McLennan Advantage Insights, in collaboration with Mercer and Oliver Wyman (each an affiliate of Guy Carpenter), contributed to this literature by focusing on how automation affects workers above the age of 50 across 15 major markets in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The report showed that older workers are at moderate-to high risk of being displaced by automation, with those in advanced and emerging markets in Asia at highest risk.

There is broad consensus in the literature that older workers not only experience major difficulties in the labor market, but also face severe fallout from displacement due to automation. Displacement leads to a more precarious financial situation, as well as adverse health effects both physically and sociopsychologically. These are serious issues that have commanded increasing attention from governments through research and public policy but governmental efforts alone, unfortunately, will not be enough. The call has been growing for companies to be part of the solution and help ensure adequate social protection and well-being for older workers. This now constitutes a critical part of the discourse on healthcare and inequality in many countries.

At the same time, many companies now also find themselves under pressure to remain competitive by undergoing digital transformation. This focus on the technological side of organizational transformation has led many organizations to overlook the plight of older workers, regarding the problem as NIMBY (Not In My Backyard), until they realize that they themselves are increasingly relying on an aging workforce. In turn, companies will also increasingly face other macro problems associated with population aging, such as talent shortages and loss of institutional knowledge, heightening the need to keep older workers productive for longer.

In this paper, the contributors propose potential solutions to these challenges. They first re-conceptualize the perception of older workers through unpacking their values as experienced workers those above the age of 50 whose tenure within organizations and industries has provided them with a wealth of experience and knowledge that companies can leverage to enhance competitiveness. This term will be used throughout the paper. The report takes a corporate perspective to the intersection of aging and automation to argue that companies must seriously challenge current dominant narrative of older workers and seek to build more age-inclusive organizations. The question is, how do new technologies feature in this new vision?

Proposed answers to this question have focused on technological potentials how technology can be applied and deployed to aid older workers. To complement this, we propose that companies approach the question from a workforce perspective to cultivate and leverage a tech-empowered experienced workforce: Many companies have underestimated experienced workers capacity to contribute, as well as the potential synergies between technology and an experienced workforce, and would benefit greatly by directing their energy to foster this synergy. The strategy proposed here can serve as a blueprint for these areas of synergy, thereby laying the foundation for wider initiatives to bolster organizational resilience to fast-paced technological changes as a whole.

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The Twin Trends of Aging and Automation - GC Capital Ideas

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HelloSign, a leading eSignature and digital workflow platform, today announced it has been positioned by Aragon Research, Inc. in the Leader section of the Tech Spectrum for Workflow and Content Automation, 2020.1

HelloSign which offers eSignature, digital workflow, and electronic fax solutions helps more than 80,000 customers and millions of people close deals faster, onboard new hires with ease, and automate their document-centric processes.

The Aragon Tech Spectrum is an evaluation of vendors in emerging and mature markets based on their strategy and performance. According to the report, Workflow and content automation (WCA) is becoming the de facto way to automate business processes that involve documents. WCA overlaps with robotic process automation (RPA) but it focuses on the machine creation and routing of documents. This shift to the automation of content represents a change in how documents will be produced.

We believe being positioned as a leader in the Workflow and Content Automation Tech Spectrum is a validation of the value our solutions deliver to businesses who want to simplify complex processes, says Whitney Bouck, COO, HelloSign. This is a great reflection of the deep investments weve made in automating document-based workflows.

Disclosure

Aragon Research does not endorse vendors, or their products or services that are referenced in its research publications, and does not advise users to select those vendors that are rated the highest. Aragon Research publications consist of the opinions of Aragon Research and Advisory Services organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Aragon Research provides its research publications and the information contained in them "AS IS," without warranty of any kind.

About HelloSign

HelloSign simplifies work for millions of individuals. Over 80,000 customers world-wide trust the HelloSign platform which includes eSignature, digital workflow and electronic fax solutions with HelloSign, HelloWorks and HelloFax to automate and manage their most important business transactions. For more information visit http://www.hellosign.com.

Aragon Research. The Aragon Research Tech SpectrumTM for Workflow and Content Automation, 2020 by Jim Lundy, December 2019

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Aragon Research Positions HelloSign as a Leader in the Tech Spectrum for Workflow and Content Automation, 2020 - Business Wire

Factory connectivity and communications have become cornerstone technology trends for automation and control engineers in the last 10+ years as the development of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has emerged as a corporate objective. But as we head into 2020, edge computing is evolving into a unifying force for machine designers implementing computing at the edge architectures that provide performance and security in a world offering a wide range of communication solutions.

New edge computing architectures are leveraging edge nodes and gateways to connect IoT devices and subsystems with different types of data centers (private, public or hybrid). Edge nodes perform local processing and storage operations. (Image source: Industrial Internet Consortium

A new white paper from the Industrial Internet Consortium, The Edge Computing Advantage explores not only the business benefits of edge computing but also how it has become a keystone in the IIoTs evolution in the smart factory.

The authors of the white paper conclude that edge computing has grown steadily as a way to extend the technology of data centers closer to the physical devices within the factory. Cloud computing offers flexibility and scale, offering benefits by connecting systems, but also need to be balanced against increased security risks.

Emergence of edge computing paradigm

Given that many industrial facilities have maintained a so-called airgap between plants and the Internet (by not being physically connected to the Internet), edge computing has continued to emerge. The benefits: better use of bandwidth on factory networks, reduced latency and variation of data along with use of local data and computation that improves privacy, reliability, resiliency and safety.

Along with these practical benefits, edge computing technology itself is providing a flexible approach that uses a fully distributed computing model between IoT devices and layers of edge nodes that provide communications to the data center.

According to the white paper, the topology of the network enables IoT systems to make use of layers of edge nodes and gateways to interconnect IoT devices and connected subsystems with various types of data centers. The cloud is the highest-order resource, and is usually implemented in large, protected data centers. It may be public, private or a hybrid to process and store data for specific vertical applications. Edge nodes perform local processing and storage operations.

IT and OT convergence

Efficient, reliable and maintainable Industrial IoT data handling presents significant challenges because the data management solutions that exist today have been mainly designed for information technology (IT) applications. A customized solution to fill the gap between the IT and OT (operations technology) applications is required.

A wide range of suppliers are providing intelligent IoT gateways to help build seamless data processing solutions that bridge this gap. Gateways are being used to mass-deploy IoT devices in the field, acquire data and route it on-demand to a centralized system, other devices or a remote site. The use of edge nodes along with traditional routers, gateways and firewalls provides both storage and computation capabilities that is distributed across devices, nodes and the data center itself.

Opportunities and challenges

The white paper concludes with a discussion of both the opportunities and challenges that this new computing paradigm is creating. Whats expected in 2020 is a continuation of the blurred lines from the edge to the data center, as cloud-computing and edge-computing architectural models merge and emerge.

To read the full IIC white paper, view this PDF.

Al Presher is a veteran contributing writer for Design News, covering automation and control, motion control, power transmission, robotics, and fluid power.

January 28-30:North America's largest chip, board, and systems event,DesignCon, returns to Silicon Valleyfor its 25th year!The premier educational conference and technology exhibition, this three-day event brings together the brightest minds across the high-speed communications and semiconductor industries, who are looking to engineer the technology of tomorrow. DesignCon is your rocket to the future. Ready to come aboard?Register to attend!

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Edge computing key industrial automation trend in 2020 - DesignNews

Business concept. Improving productivity, reliability and business processes. Automation concept

Its been a banner year for the RPA (Robotic Process Automation) software market.The fundings have definitely been eye-catching.In April, UiPath announced a Series D round for $568 million, led by Coatue, for a valuation of $7 billion.

Then last month there was Automation Anywhere, which raised $290 million in a Series B round led by Salesforce Ventures for a valuation of $6.8 billion.

So why all the interest?Simply put, RPA has been shown to generate quick and high levels of ROI (Return On Investment) for customers.The software essentially automates worker activities that are often tedious and repetitive.

And with all the money sloshing around in the RPA space, we should expect quite a bit of action next year. Vendors with a combination of cash and vision will succeed, said Ryan Duguid, who is the chief of evangelism and advanced technology at Nintex.Theyll flesh out their stacks by combining RPA, traditional BPM, workflow, and cloud services, layering in process documentation, process discovery and analytics, and looking to enable a virtuous cycle of process improvement.

His company has already been working on this expansion strategy.Nintex acquired EnableSoft (for drag-and-drop functions) and Promapp (a process mapping and documentation platform).

Keep in mind that RPA has been concentrated in certain industries, like finance.But it seems like a pretty good bet that the technology will see expansion across more sectors.As RPA adoption approaches near-ubiquity, well see an uptick in public sector adoption over the next year, ultimately improving citizens access to critical public services, like Social Security, said Prince Kohli, who is the CTO of Automation Anywhere.The RPA benefits of speed, reduced costs and productivity are especially relevant to this sector.

Jon Theuerkauf, the Chief Customer Officer at Blue Prism, agrees with this. Well see RPA extend its reach across mainstream industries such as the medical, pharma and telecom spaces given the high volumes of sensitive data, he said.Ultimately, a true connected-RPA cloud-based platform will look like the re-creation of a human being and possess a skill-set that allows the platform to collaborate with employees on key day-to-day tasks.

But in terms of the core RPA technology, expect to see dynamism in the new year as well.Here are some areas to consider:

Although, the biggest technology trend will likely be AI (Artificial Intelligence).Executives will prioritize opportunities to automate more aggressively, linking AI projects to KPIssuch as revenue growth, cost reduction and enhanced customer experience, said Bill Hobbib, who is the SVP of Marketing at DataRobot.Executives also will place greater emphasis on change management and encourage greater involvement from business usersrather than just data scientists or specialist teamsto increase their AI capabilities across more lines of business and processes.

All great, right? Absolutely. But as with any technology, there are nagging issues too.

For example, there are over 70 vendors on the marketand many will have a tough time standing out. Technology and solutions are getting increasingly similar, so if a smaller company has a true differentiator, or a solution that bridges a gap, they will be prime for acquisition, said Ray LeBlanc, who is the product strategy manager at Verint. These smaller companies are also more dependent upon partnerships, and we will likely see M&A activity by SIs and other large service providers and BPOs.

There will also likely be some reality checks with RPA, as the hype is at fever pitch.Next year, the market will wise up and realize that not everything that claims to be RPA is actually RPA, said Francis Carden, who is the vice president of digital automation and robotics at Pega.In truth RPA is just one component of a broader intelligent automation platform that must be combined with other automation technologies.

Finally, as RPA continues to grow, the industry will come under increasing scrutiny.This seems inevitable.

RPA will be on the global stage, said Guy Kirkwood, who is the Chief Evangelist at UiPath.Extra-governmental organizations, like the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, will discuss RPA in the context of jobs, wages and global economics.

Tom (@ttaulli) is the author of the book,Artificial Intelligence Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction.

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RPA (Robotic Process Automation): Whats In Store For 2020? - Forbes

As 2019 enters its final weeks, it seems timely to start looking at what sectors are poised to close out the year with a bang.

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For this first installment, were concentrating on industries that attracted both high funding totals and a lot of individual funding rounds. The methodology, which well detail more below, 1 focuses most heavily on North American startups and attempts to avoid the distortive effects of single supergiant rounds on funding totals.

We ended up focusing on four sectors that are attracting rising funding: Fintech, real estate, insurance and automation. All are seeing particular traction at the late stage, where checks are largest.

Below, we unpack the numbers and trendlines for each industry in more detail:

Fintech And Banking

This seems to be the year that every startup decided to become a bank. And every venture capitalist decided to write a check to one or more of those startups.

Much of the funding went to neobanks, a fancy term to describe upstart digital banks working on everything from savings and checking accounts to mobile debit cards. Many are focused on bringing banking services to both consumers and businesses that have previously been underserved by traditional banks.

Investors are apparently banking on some big returns. Companies focused on fintech, banking and mobile payments in North and South America brought in $11.7 billion in 2019, per Crunchbase (see query). Thats up from $9.2 billion in all of 2018, per Crunchbase.

It wasnt just a handful of giant investments either. This years funding was spread across more than 700 known rounds for startups.

Still, supergiant rounds did help boost the totals. One of the best known upstart banking brands, Chime, pulled in an astonishing $700 million across two mega-rounds this year, pushing its valuation to $5.8 billion. Brazils Nubank, meanwhile, raised a whopping $400 million in a single July round.

Real Estate And Property Management

The single biggest headline generator in the venture-backed real estate space for 2019 was undoubtedly the implosion of WeWork and its ill-fated IPO. But setting that debacle aside, other trendlines for the real estate startup sphere this year have been pretty positive.

As of early December, investors had pumped just over $5.2 billion into an assortment of U.S. startups. The largest funding recipients include Knotel, the furnished workspace rental provider, Knock, the online home-selling platform, and Compass, a tech-enabled real estate brokerage. Altogether, those three companies raised nearly $1.2 billion in funding rounds this year alone. Other potentially less capital-intensive areas of proptech also attracted investors favor, including a bevy of property management software providers.

Insurance

Insurance is a startup sector thats been growing steadily for a few years now, and it hit its highest funding levels to date in 2019.

As of mid-December, U.S. companies in the insurance and insuretech categories secured just over $4.75 billion in seed through late stage funding (see query). Thats up from $3.4 billion in 2018.

A huge wave of seed-stage insurance startups launched three to five years ago, and thats one of the reasons big financings and investment totals are rising so much. Hot companies in that cohort are rapidly maturing, and theyre seeking ever-larger later-stage rounds. Corporate venture arms of established insurance companies are also active in the space, contributing to rising valuations.

Clover Health, a provider of health plans for Medicare recipients, closed the largest funding round, a $500 million Series E. Root Insurance, which offers car insurance with rates tied to driver behavior, raised $350 million, while Lemonade, a home and renters insurance provider, pulled in $300 million.

Automation

Automation is essentially shorthand for getting technology to do something that used to require a human. In the dawn of the industrial age, this generally entailed huge, heavy machines voraciously sucking down fuel. Today, its likely a software program capable of running on a pocket-sized device.

To that end, automation software developers are securing rising sums of venture capital. In 2019, U.S. companies in the space pulled in $2.89 billion in known funding, per Crunchbase data. (See query.), exceeding 2018 levels. This years total is expected to rise higher in coming months as more late-reported funding rounds get added to the database.

Familiar names topped the list of largest funding recipients. UiPath, which develops software to automate repetitive tasks for office workers, pulled in $568 million in Series D financing, bringing total funding to date to $1 billion. Rival Automation Anywhere, meanwhile, closed on a fresh $290 million last month.

Its Not All Up

Overall, 2019 is shaping up as yet another really strong year for U.S. venture funding. The rise of supergiant funding rounds, a robust fundraising environment for well-regarded venture firms, and growing momentum across a host of hot sectors are all factors contributing to keeping the investments flowing.

But while this piece highlights standout sectors, it wasnt all rosy in startup-land this year. Thats why, for the next installment in this end-of-year series, well look at sectors that posted significant declines in 2019.

For now, though, well end on an optimistic note, observing that while everything was up, automation, real estate, fintech and insurance all posted pretty impressive venture funding tallies.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.

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This Was A Big Year For Fintech, Real Estate, Insurance, And Automation - Crunchbase News

By Steve Dunne, Staff Writer, Workday

In a recentMcKinsey survey,only 13 percent of CFOs and other senior business executives polled said their finance organizations use automation technologies, such as robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning. Whats more, when asked how much return on investment the finance organization has generated from digitization and automation in the past 12 months, only 5 percent said it was a substantial return; the more common response was modest or minimal returns.

While that number may seem low right now, automation is coming to the finance function, and it will play a crucial role in furthering the CFOs position in the C-suite. Research suggests corporate finance teams spend about 80 percent of their time manually gathering, verifying, and consolidating data, leaving only about 20 percent for higher-level tasks, such as analysis and decision-making.

In its truest form, RPA will unleash a new wave of digital transformation in corporate finance. Instead of programming software to perform certain tasks automatically, RPA uses software robots to process transactions, monitor compliance, and audit processes automatically. This could slash thenumber of required manual tasks, helping to drive out errors and increase the efficiency of finance processeshanding back time to the CFO function to be more strategic.

According to the report Companies Using AI Will Add More Jobs Than They Cut, companies that had automated at least 70 percent of their business processes compared to those that had automated less than 30 percent discovered that more automation translated into more revenue. In fact, the highly automated group was six times more likely to have revenue growth of 15 percent per year or more.

In the right hands, automation and machine learning can be a fantastic combination for CFOs to transform the finance function, yet success will depend on automating the right tasks. The first goal for a finance team should be to automate the repetitive and transactional tasks that consume the majority of its time. Doing this will free finance up to be more of a strategic advisor to the business. AnAdaptive Insights surveyfound that over 40 percent of finance leaders say that the biggest driver behind automation within their organizations is the demand for faster, higher-quality insights from executives and operational stakeholders.

Accentures global talent and organization lead for financial services, Andrew Woolf, says the challenge for businesses is to pivot their workforce to enter an entirely new world where human ingenuity meets intelligent technology to unlock new forms of growth.

Transaction processing is one of the major barriers preventing finance from achieving transformation and the ultimate goal of delivering a better business partnership. It's not surprising that its the first port of call for CFOs looking toward automation.

RPA combined with machine learning provides finance leaders with a great way of optimising the way they manage their accounting processes. This has been a painful area of finance for such a long time and can have a direct impact on an organizations cash flow, says Tim Wakeford, vice president, financials product strategy, EMEA at Workday. Finance spends a huge amount of time sifting through invoices and other documentation to manually correct errors in the general ledger, while machine learning could automate this, helping to intelligently match payments with invoices.

Machine learning can also mitigate financial risk by flagging suspect payments to vendors in real time. Internal and external fraud costs businesses billions of dollars each year. The current mechanism for mitigating such instances of fraud is to rely on manual audits on a sample of invoices. This means looking at just a fraction of total payments, and is the proverbial needle in the haystack approach to identifying fraud and mistakes. Machine learning can vastly increase the volume of invoices which can be checked and analyzed to ensure that organizations are not making duplicate or fraudulent payments.

Ensuring compliance to federal and international regulations is a critical issue for financial institutions, especially given the increasingly strict laws targeting money laundering and the funding of terrorist activities, explains David Axson, CFO strategies global lead, Accenture Strategy. At one large global bank, up to 10,000 staffers were responsible for identifying suspicious transactions and accounts that might indicate such illegal activities. To help in those efforts, the bank implemented an AI system that deploys machine-learning algorithms that segment the transactions and accounts and sets the optimal thresholds for alerting people to potential cases that might require further investigation.

Read the second part of this story, How Automation and Machine Learning Are Reshaping the Finance Function, which takes a closer look at how automation and machine learning can drive change.

This story was originally published on theWorkday blog. For more stories like this, clickhere.

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Automation And Machine Learning: Transforming The Office Of The CFO - Forbes

Working with hospitality partner and Las Vegas Convention Center food service provider, Centerplate, Picnic will allow CES attendees, for the first time, to enjoy pizza produced by its acclaimed robot using AI, cloud and automation technology

Seattle-based Picnic, an innovator of food production technology and Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) solutions, announced today that its automated food assembly system has been selected by Centerplate, a leader in live event hospitality, to serve attendees of the worlds largest technology event, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), January 7-10, 2020, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Centerplate will use and showcase Picnics robot, with capabilities of producing up to 300 12-inch customized pizzas an hour, on the CES show floor. Specific location details for Picnics robot and where to enjoy its pizza will be revealed at hellopicnic.com, prior to the start of CES 2020.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191218005222/en/

Centerplate Executive Chef Taylor Park stands in front of Picnic's automated pizza assembly robot at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners. Continuing their relationship with Centerplate, Picnic will now allow attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (January 7-10, 2020) to enjoy pizza produced by its acclaimed robot that uses AI, cloud and automation technology. (Photo by Kyu Han of Picnic)

"Picnics distinct culmination of food production customization and throughput, smart data and cloud analytics is quickly resonating with food service operators," said Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic. "Our continued relationship with Centerplate illustrates our ability to tailor our offerings to the specific needs of our partners and jointly transform the food experience for their consumers. This is one robot that wont be a CES exhibitor only showing futuristic concepts; it is already in use in real-world kitchen settings and will only continue to grow its capabilities, as will be seen through Picnics delivery of mass customization food production and great-tasting pizza provided to CES attendees."

Centerplate, providing live event hospitality for more than 115 million guests each year at hundreds of prominent sports, entertainment and convention venues, revealed, in October 2019, that Picnics successful pilot was operating at their T-Mobile Park location, home of the Seattle Mariners. In addition to todays announcement, Centerplate is also using Picnics robot to provide all of the pizzas at Enchant Christmas, the current winter wonderland holiday event, taking place at the stadium through December 29th.

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"Picnics automated food assembly platform has shown an ability to enhance quality and speed of service for our kitchen operations," said Steve Pangburn, CEO of Centerplate. "Our initial pilot with Picnic was very positive and their differentiated capabilities are proving beneficial. We look forward to introducing Picnic to the Las Vegas Convention Center in January and helping them scale their technology in an effective way."

The Picnic platform is initially focused on the production of high-volume, customizable pizzas. However, the companys technology is applicable to other food categories. "Bun, bowl, tortilla or plate our automated assembly system is designed for and capable of improving the businesses of many food service segments," added Wood.

Many U.S. and international food service providers are recognizing that Picnics platform offers unique capabilities to address common business-thwarting challenges and pain points. As part of the systems intelligence, deep learning AI technology continually learns and helps to meet the changing needs of all types of food service operators, keeping them more competitive and protecting their brands.

"Picnic continues to experience increasing interest in our technology and solutions from large chains to mom and pop storefronts, and emerging food service venues, such as virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens," said Wood.

The compact, freestanding system integrates Picnics issued U.S. patent and other U.S. and international patent-pending modular, configurable equipment, with its software, cloud and deep learning technology.

The platform only requires a small footprint and the modular, configurable equipment makes it flexible to slip into a wide array of stationary and mobile kitchen formats. It is extremely flexible and painless to set up. Its safe to work around and only minimal training is required.

Picnic will deliver, install and maintain the system, and provide platform and software updates for a monthly fee with no money upfront. The company can also provide custom design software solutions for operators to integrate with existing point-of-sale and ordering systems.

Companies interested in installing Picnics new platform in their food operations can contact the company by visiting hellopicnic.com, emailing info@hellopicnic.com or calling 206.717.3455.

About Picnic

Founded in 2016 Vivid Robotics, Inc., (dba Picnic) (hellopicnic.com), has collected an experienced team of food and technology industry veterans to develop and provide specialized intelligent technology and exclusive solutions for the food service and hospitality industries. Restaurants, convenience and grocery stores, university and corporate campuses, casinos, hotels, cruise lines, sports venues, catering groups, healthcare cafeterias, small kiosks, ghost kitchen operators, mobile food operations, food trucks, delivery and military sites are among the many segments poised to benefit from the companys automated food assembly platform integrating RaaS, software, cloud and deep learning technology.

Follow Picnic on hellopicnic.com, facebook.com/picnicgroup; linkedin.com/company/picnicnews; twitter.com/picnicnews; and Instagram.com/picnicnews.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191218005222/en/

Contacts

Mike McLaughlinmike@hellopicnic.com

Teresa FaustiTeresa@fausticommunications.com

Amanda Barryabarry@summitslc.com

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Picnic Announces Its Automated Pizza Assembly Robot Will Serve Attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7-10, 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Miners at the underground Syama gold mine in the Malian desert are of a different kind. Gone are the days of descending in elevator shafts to toil with picks and shovels. The 1,500 workers at this state-of-the-art subterranean mine are as likely to be dressed in office wear as overalls and hobnail boots.

Owned by Australia-based Resolute Mining, the $223-million site is the worlds first fully automated mine. Equipped with everything from driverless trucks to robotic drills, the mine operates 24/7 and is up to 30 per cent more efficient than conventional mining operations.

Mining automation is taking off at pace around the world, but what are its implications for workers? Does its spell the end for soot-faced mine workers and, if so, what does the future hold for them?

John Welborn makes no bones about the fact that mining is entering an epoch-changing moment, yet Resolute Minings chief executive only sees advantages for workers. Automation offers jobs that are safer, higher skilled, longer lasting and, thanks to efficiency gains, better paid, he insists.

Because automation was built into the creation of the Syama gold mine, the threat of job losses hasnt arisen. That said, Mr Welborn concedes that mining companies looking to shift to more automated systems have an obligation to invest in training up new employees and retraining existing workers.

We need to work across sectors in new ways to equip people with the skills they will need in an increasingly uncertain future

Again, he is characteristically upbeat about the prospects of doing so. By way of illustration, he cites his octogenarian mother who, although once unable to even operate a video recorder, now uses a smartphone with ease. What has changed, he suggests, is the intuitive nature of modern technology.

He goes on to note that all 16 senior managers at the Syama underground mine were initially expats. Four years on, six are Malian. The remaining ten, meanwhile, have instructions to train up eventual local replacements within the next 36 months.

Such inclusion of local people is vital if the mining sector is to maintain its social contract, argues Nicky Black, director of social and economic development at the International Council on Mining and Metals, who says local communities rightly expect to benefit from mining automation.

Meeting this expectation will require proactive steps by the industrys big players. We will need to work across sectors in new ways to equip people with the skills they will need in an increasingly uncertain future, she says.

Initial moves are already afoot. The government of Western Australia, for example, has a memorandum of understanding in place with COMESA (the trade bloc for eastern and southern Africa) that includes provisions to transfer mining-related knowledge and training.

Individual companies are also taking a lead. A case in point in Sandvik. The Swedish engineering firm, which is behind much of the automated tech in the Syama gold mine, offers its new clients a combination of classroom training, high-tech simulators and hands-on instruction. Mastering its automation system only takes a couple of weeks, according to the Riku Pulli, Sandviks vice president of business unit automation.

Rio Tinto is another company addressing the pending skills gap. The London-listed mining giant, which operates a Centre for Mine Automation in Sydney, recently announced a 5.26-million education programme with startup accelerator BlueChilli and Amazon Web Services.

The four-year initiative aims to help school-age learners across Australia acquire work-related digital skills, such as systems design and data analytics. The focus on transferrable skills, rather than mining-specific aptitudes, marks a tacit acceptance of the role that mining companies have in preparing workers for jobs outside, as well as inside, the sector.

Capturing the technology and knowledge spillovers from the mining automation process is especially critical for resource-dependent emerging economies, says technology innovation expert Nahom Ghebrihiwet.

Host countries should aim to convince international mining companies to establish research hubs and encourage mining firms to collaborate with local knowledge institutions, he says.

Creating such hubs will not be straightforward, Dr Ghebrihiwet concedes, although he points to the United Nations-backed African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) in Addis Ababa as a good place to start. If successful, such alliances can help create spin-off firms that can in turn provide high-tech services to the mining industry as well as other sectors.

In low-income, resource-rich African countries, it will obviously be difficult to establish such research hubs. However, organisations such as the AMDC could help establish pan-African centres of excellence.

While the Syama gold mine proves that an inclusive approach to automated mining is possible, workers remain understandably nervous about the future. Coal India, for example, alone employs nearly 300,000 people. If mining automation affects just a fraction of these jobs, the investment required for retraining will be vast.

Even with the right training, mine workers will be disappointed if they expect a like-for-like swap in their employment. Truck drivers most likely wont be overseeing the truck fleet once it is fully automated. Instead, the promise of automation is new jobs will emerge in areas such as mine maintenance, information processing and data science.

It is futile to try to halt mining automation, especially given the improved safety it offers, says Jeff Geipel, managing director of Canadian non-profit initiative Mining Shared Value. Yet the harsh reality is direct employment at mines is destined to dwindle. So governments and industry will have to be creative to address this, Mr Geipel concludes.

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Mining automation: is Mali leading us into the future of work? - Raconteur