There are gaps in knowledge in certain industries between the stakeholders, for instance around legal and administrative topics.
For tax declaration, lack of knowledge in taxation rules, or the jargon used in this field creates frustration for taxpayers, and actually sometimes stop them from filing their non-mandatory taxes. (Taxfix, the Automated Tax Accountant, Raises $65 Million, n.d.) Similarly, with flight compensation automation, the gap is due to a lack of knowledge of legal rights with regard to filing claims against airlines. When consumers lack the knowledge, there is hesitance to deal with larger organizations as the likelihood of winning cases seems minimal.
Not only individuals but also organizations may have gaps of knowledge on technical matters. For instance, the B2B data exchange communication is an automation to target the start-ups or the companies lacking the infrastructure or technical knowledge to deal with larger traditional retailers’ data exchange systems like EDI. In this case, automation is a powerful lever to connect two parts of the value chain, based on the gaps of knowledge.
The tasks that happen regularly and frequently are regarded as the best candidates for automation. (When You Should Automate a Task | Zapier, n.d.) These tasks could range from scheduling meetings to filling out forms or copying data from one system to another. These tasks create bottlenecks for execution of operations.
For processes that involve a high amount of manual work causes the process to be prone to human errors, as well as taking up time in workers’ or individuals’ schedules to focus on more value-added tasks.
As one interview partner explained:
[...] And, you can like very quickly see that this kind of manual operational work does not scale at all. [...] (Interview Partner )
Repetition of manual work leads individuals and organizations to automation, as the manual work quickly piles up and hinders processes to grow at scale. Looking at the the use-cases from the market, for instance for flight compensations, AI-powered tools, and complex machine learning algorithms allow verifications to be executed and claims to be processed at a speed that cannot be replicated by humans. (“How AirHelp Is Automating Flight Delay Compensation for Air Passengers,” 2019)
For individuals, using automated services could be more economically viable than traditional services, for instance filing taxes with tax advisors versus applications, or hiring lawyers to fight against unjust subscription fees versus using a robot lawyer.
Similarly for organizations, one of the motivating factors for deploying automation is cost-savings, as manual work directly or indirectly translates into costs either through extra headcount needed for execution of operations, or the time it will take to complete the operations manually.
Time-savings is a recurring for automation of tasks for businesses as well as individuals.
An expert interview partner stated that time is one of the first points that lead organizations to decide for automation.
[...] In most cases, spending excessive time on operations is the first complaint that comes from business units. Nearly all employees want to spend their time doing more valuable work than daily operations. [...] (Interview Partner )
For individuals, automation of services also simplify tasks, hence shorten the time needed for completion. For instance, tax declaration software is a simplified, automated platform and reduces the time for filing taxes. According to Taxfix, the process takes on average 22 minutes, which is far from what it would take if done manually. (Taxfix, the Automated Tax Accountant, Raises $65 Million, 2020) Companies in this field highlight that the automated process, compared to manual execution, takes considerably less time and effort.
This aspect is also covered by practioners, Lacity and Willcocks (2015) highlighting the fact that knowledge workers want to have more capacity to work on more value-added tasks rather than completing mundane tasks.
One interview partner explained that manual processes are prone to human errors and this is one of the factors that lead to automation.
[...] “it's prone to errors because people have to do it. And those people who do it, uh, probably are not the most satisfied because it's not the most satisfying work, copy-pasting between two systems” [...] (Interview Partner 2)
The automation systems are designed in a way such that the data is validated by algorithms in the background. For instance, tax automation companies check the plausibility of responses, as well as the flight compensation companies check if the flight number entered exists or not.
This removes the potential problem of entering typos or incorrect information, which could have been present when manually filling in information. This ensures better data quality in automated processes.
Another pattern identified is the data availability in processes, concluded from the use-cases identified. There are two aspects of it: either the abundance of data or lack of it has led companies to provide automation as services.
For instance, base on an expert interview, the lack of structured, unbiased data in HR processes has led companies to automate reference checks in order to gather more data and derive valuable insights for employers to base decisions on. (HiPeople -Automated, in-Depth References Checks, n.d.) Conversely, the financial industry is an industry that has the most data on its consumers argued by Warren (2021), and responding to consumer requests and personalization of offers on a greater scale has been possible due to automation. (Dolgorukov, n.d.)
🗄️References:
Summary of results and interview transcripts
Taxfix, the automated tax accountant, raises $65 million. (n.d.). Taxfix. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://taxfix.de/en/press-releases/taxfix-the-automated-tax-accountant-raises-65-million/
When you should automate a task | Zapier. (n.d.). Retrieved January 9, 2022, from https://zapier.com/blog/when-to-automate/
How AirHelp is automating flight delay compensation for air passengers. (2019, June 25). NS Business. https://www.ns-businesshub.com/technology/airhelp-flight-delay-compensation/
Lacity, M. C., & Willcocks, L. (2015, June 19). What Knowledge Workers Stand to Gain from Automation. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2015/06/what-knowledge-workers-stand-to-gain-from-automation
Warren, A. (2021, November 16). Cognizant BrandVoice: Personal Financial Wellness: A Banking Opportunity And Imperative. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognizant/2021/11/16/personal-financial-wellness-a-banking-opportunity-and-imperative/
Dolgorukov, D. (n.d.). Council Post: Future Of Finance: What FinTech Evolvers Can Teach Us. Forbes. Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2022/01/26/future-of-finance-what-fintech-evolvers-can-teach-us/