Rakesh Parbhoo, Westcon-Comstor

People have been worried about technology replacing their roles for a long time. It’s understandable as, after all, history has set a precedent. However, automation, this delectable technical beast that can insert itself into multiple platforms, operations and organisations, is less about replacement and more about enhancement. As PwC’s ‘Future of Automation in Business’ report points out, it’s technology that’s focused on taking away the tedious so people can focus on the interesting and the invaluable.

The same PwC report found that, currently, the industry most focused on automation for growth is healthcare (51%), with consumer markets (49%) and tech, media and telecoms (45%) coming in at second and third place respectively. This is a view shared by McKinsey in its Global Survey, which found the number of companies adopting automation is rising, with 70% piloting automation across business units, an increase of 4% on 2020.