The Automation Imperative Part One: You will automate

You will automate.

How do I know? Because you already have.

(You: humans. Our collective civilization. Yes, you personally just get dragged along by the you collective. Sorry.)

In 1790, 90% of the US workforce was required to work in agriculture to produce enough food to feed the country.

But by the 2000s the share of the US workforce dedicated to agriculture had dropped below 3% -- certainly there are many factors in this transformation but "automation" (or mechanization) was the primary factory that allowed the productivity of each worker to skyrocket.

Manufacturing jobs were 32% of the US workforce in 1950 and had dropped to 10% by 2010. Yes, some of this was the relocation of manufacturing work offshore. But according to analysts looking at worker productivity increases, 85% of the job loss can be attributed to automation.

A study out today shows that your office job is next. Management consulting firm Protiviti released "Taking RPA to the next level" which outlines how companies are spending millions to implement automation in the workplace. The study identified a set of common objectives that companies hope to achieve:

• Increased productivity (22%)
• Better product quality (16%)
• Strong competitive market position (15%)
• Customer satisfaction (12%)
• Greater speed to market (11%)

The economic equation will play out in the office in a similar way to the factory and the field. Organizations able to operate the production and distribution of goods at a lower price will have a market advantage over their competition. Cost advantage will initially translate into margin improvement but then will develop into price reduction, ultimately compressing the margins for companies that have not adopted the approaches necessary to achieve lower prices.

Thus first movers succeed initially by being more profitable and then by increasing market share -- laggards do not recover.

So which one do you want to be? The first mover? Or the laggard?

Go on to read The Automation Imperative Part Two: You want to automate

And The Automation Imperative Part Three: What will you automate?