The next wave of job automation won't just be robots

While industrial robots may get more of the attention, the real acceleration in workplace automation will come via software. Why it matters: Robotic process automation (RPA) allows companies to program computer software to emulate the actions of a human worker online. That potentially opens up a much larger portion of the economy to automation at a moment when the pandemic has already forced businesses to go remote. A recent survey from Bain and Company of nearly 800 executives worldwide estimated that the number of companies scaling up such automation technologies is set to double over the next two years -- and that coronavirus will almost certainly accelerate that timeline. Details: Physical robots are certainly getting a boost as companies respond both to the pandemic and the economic downturn, as I wrote in Future last week.