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Service Automation: robots and the future of work
Hashtag for Twitter users: #LSErobots
Department of Management public lecture
Professor Mary Lacity
Curators Professor of Information Systems, University of
Missouri, St Louis
Dr Edgar Whitley Chair, LSE
Professor Leslie Willcocks
Professor of Technology Work and Globalisation, LSE
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Copyright © Lacity and Willcocks 2016
Department of Management
London School of Economics and Political Science
May 9, 2016
Leslie Willcocks and Mary Lacity
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There is plenty of fear and hype in the popular media about
service automation…
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How are businesses using service automation?
What are the implications for global employment rates and the
future of work?
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Surveys: 148 delegates at OWS in 2015 198 delegates at OWS in
2016
Interviews: 16 client adoption stories 6 service automation
providers 5 advisors
Training and demos
We studied the automation of business services, services
performed by organizations, either back office support services or
customer-facing services.
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Copyright © Lacity and Willcocks 2016
Realm of RPA Realm of CA Structured Data Unstructured Data
Rules-based Processes Inference-based Processes Deterministic
Probabilistic
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RPA Adoption (n = 188 responses)
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CI Adoption (n = 198 responses)
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FTE savings resulting in high ROI Better service quality Faster
deployment of new services Higher compliance Increased scalability
More flexible workforce Happier, more productive employees
SHAREHOLDER VALUE
EMPLOYEE VALUE
CUSTOMER VALUE
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# processes automated
RPA Adoption
Year
# robots 2015
# RPA transactions per month
ROI
35% of back office (15 core processes)
2010 >160 500,000 650% to 800% 3-YR
35% of back office 2005/2008 300 1 million 200% 1-YR
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Strategy: 5 practices
Launch: 7 practices
Mature Enterprise Capability: 6 practices
Change Management:
4 practices
22 action principles
e.g., cultural adoption by C-suite
e.g., centre of excellence
e.g., Bring IT on board early
e.g., standardise/stabilise processes first
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Summary of what we did not find…
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Myth 1: RPA is only used to replace humans with technology,
leading to layoffs Myth 2: Business operations staff feels
threatened by RPA Myth 3: RPA will bring back many jobs from
offshore Myth 4: RPA is driven only by cost savings Myth 5: RPA
replaces an entire person’s job
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Will job types and numbers change dramatically?
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“It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in
the labour of calculation which could safely be relegated to anyone
else if machines were used.”
High technology-caused unemployment “due to our discovery of
means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at which
we can find new uses for labour”
“Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master”
— Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: mathematician, philosopher, and
inventor, 1685
— John Maynard Keynes, Economist, 1933
— Christian Louis Lange; Nobel Peace Prize, 1921
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Agrarian Economy
Industrial Economy
Service Economy
Digital Economy
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THREATS: • cybersecurity risks
• integration risks • compliance risks
• social risks
Less human work
More human work
OPPORTUNITIES: • New data
• New services • New combinations
New Technology
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The Great Automaton Giorgio De Chirico 1925
Sign of the times?
Copyright © Lacity and Willcocks 2016
Book can be obtained from [email protected]
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Service Automation: robots and the future of work
Hashtag for Twitter users: #LSErobots
Department of Management public lecture
Professor Mary Lacity
Curators Professor of Information Systems, University of
Missouri, St Louis
Dr Edgar Whitley Chair, LSE
Professor Leslie Willcocks
Professor of Technology Work and Globalisation, LSE
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