ISG Research: Automation and AI Use to Triple by 2019

Overall investment in automation technologies – including robotic process automation (RPA), autonomics, virtual customer service agents and personal assistants, natural language processing and machine learning – is expected to double in the next two years, the survey finds, as enterprises look to harness technologies that have the flexibility to solve more than one business problem. "Automation and artificial intelligence are top of mind for business executives and service providers alike – and with good reason," said Todd Lavieri, partner and president of ISG Americas. "Robotic process automation, autonomic systems and cognitive agents are making employees more productive by taking over routine, process-oriented tasks. At the same time, data scientists are using machine learning to find patterns and make predictions on vast troves of structured and unstructured data. These technologies, taken together, promise to usher in the next wave of enterprise growth and profitability."