Following the volatility of the past three years, organizations are working to minimize disruptions to their business by building a strong digital core. Business leaders need be ready for nearly anything: from supply chain hiccups to workforce gaps, from economic uncertainty to rapidly-changing consumer needs, the ability to respond quickly can mean the difference between surviving and thriving.

Automation technology sits among the foundations of a strong digital core. Done right, automation helps organizations truly reimagine business processes to empower their people to get more done and build a thriving business, even when uncertainty looms. Successful automation at scale leads to higher employee satisfaction, increased productivity, greater efficiency, cost savings and business resilience.

The opportunity is immense: Gartner predicts that by 2024, organizations will be able to lower operational costs by 30 percent through automation and reimagined business processes. Elsewhere, Gartner forecasts that global spending on automation technologies will surpass $720 billion by the end of this year.

What’s driving this massive acceleration in automation? In part because there’s never been a moment like the present to harness automation at enterprise scale. New technologies like generative AI as well as shifting priorities are fuelling new possibilities to address thorny or resource-intensive business processes.

A stronger, AI-powered automation engine from Microsoft
I believe that among the landscape of automation technology vendors, nobody stands taller than Microsoft. Our clients are increasingly turning to its flagship business automation service, Microsoft Power Automate, part of its Power Platform portfolio, to accelerate automation value at enterprise scale. Forrester named Power Automate a leading automation solution, and Gartner named Microsoft a leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

Just a few weeks ago at its Build conference, Microsoft announced some very compelling updates to Power Automate that will dramatically reduce development time while accelerating value. Among the new features, plugins and tools:

• Copilot in Power Automate, featuring experiences powered by AI that use natural language for developers to accelerate new automations
• Copiliot capabilities throughout Power Platform to assist coders, like Copilot for Power Apps that speeds application development
• More intelligent Power Virtual Agents fueled by Power Automate flows

More broadly, we learned that AI Copilots will soon be embedded across the entire Microsoft stack. Copiliots will help the humans who power every business, in collaboration with AI, to get work done more efficiently.

Four trends fueling automation transformation
Let’s take a closer look at trends covered in our just-published point of view, “Enter the future: The age of AI-enhanced enterprise automation,” now available for download.

Avanade works with clients across the globe to solve problems with automation. In our ongoing engagements and conversations with clients, we see four emerging trends that are driving change – and opportunity – with automation.

Hyperautomation: This describes the strategic approach to automate as many processes as possible, not just within a single department or function, but across the entire organization. Hyperautomation is the evolution of intelligent automation and RPA, which focus more on discrete tasks and routines. Power Automate is part of the hyperautomation engine, helping you orchestrate and manage automations at scale.

Generative AI: In the era of pervasive AI, we’re seeing more clients adopt an AI-first mindset. Generative AI, the rapidly-evolving AI toolset that delivers new intelligence and capabilities, will change the way all of us get work done. It’s not just a productivity tool; increasingly, AI will be harnessed to help predict and prevent machine failures, improve supply chain management and personalize customer experiences through targeted recommendations. We would love to show you what generative AI can do for your use cases ― connect with us and book a workshop.

Citizen development: In the past, automation success was largely driven by specialized experts in the IT department. Today, suites like Power Automate enable low-code and no-code development, bringing the power of automation creation, optimization and expansion to nontechnical “citizen developers.” More teams can tackle their own challenging business processes, saving time and accelerating value.

Cloud-first: As we’ve seen through modernizing data for thousands of clients, successful digital transformation depends on having data accessible and organized in the cloud. And it’s no different for automation. Once data is migrated to the cloud, you can more effectively use AI for hyperautomation.

Get started optimizing your automation journey today
Explore the latest advances in enterprise automation. Download our POV to learn more about the latest automation trends and advances. Ready to discuss what’s possible at your organization

Whether you’re just getting started, or ready to scale and simplify automation for the AI era, book an Avanade automation workshop today.