Are Autonomous Businesses Next? – InformationWeek

Automation leads to cost reduction and operational efficiency, but what might be the next ‘big thing’ in its deployment?

Businesses automate workflows all the time. That said, automation has carried over from manufacturing to sales and SaaS distribution for the last decade or two.

In her article Are Autonomous Businesses Next? for Information Week, Lisa Morgan asks a number of lead industry executives, including Tech-Azur’s founder and managing director Michael Richardson, a few debatable questions on modern-day and future capabilities automation.

Automated vs. Autonomous: Purposes & Limitations

Autmated Systems vs. Autonomous Systems

Automation mainly cuts production costs and helps upscale and accelerate the work process. It also delivers human employees from tedious, repetitive tasks; many errors occur once people lose motivation or lower their guard.

Autonomous systems constitute a supreme form of automated platforms, overseen by humans only nominally. Robert Greene, senior director at Oracle Autonomous Database product management, explains that the key difference is that – contrary to autonomous systems – automated units still rely on human-made decisions. 

Deciding What to Automate and What to Make Autonomous

Switching to automated operations works best with the smaller stacks and discretional steps. Take text recognition, for instance: users ensure the machine processes data correctly and then give up manual text processing. Chris Nicolson, the founder CEO of Pathmind, believes that gradual automation helps organizations to realize how to partially robotize hybrid processes that involve people.

On the other hand, autonomous systems deal with tasks of a much larger scope. Robert Greene admits that autonomous software makes decisions in an environment with a tremendous amount of interactions and endpoints.

Examples & Risks of Autonomous Systems

Autonomous controlling and processing already seeps into ambitious next-day projects. Autonomous self-driving cars and interactive AI advisors for booking and trading platforms are just the tip of the iceberg.

But unlike a human person, a machine cannot yet explain why it fails.

Therefore, a lack of transparency and accountability might hurdle the adoption of autonomous solutions. After all, who’s to blame for accidental harm if the system goes awry? The producers, the user, or the legal body that permitted its use?

And what about regulating the interconnection of tech from different entities? Michael Richardson, founder and managing director of Tech-Azur, assumes that counterparts will set terms of use and responsibilities on a case-by-case basis, but according to general regulatory policies.

What’s Next? Make an Informed Decision About Business Automation

A comprehensive and industry-relevant consulting at Tech-Azur will help you avoid hidden pitfalls when transferring a whole stack of business processes to a digital environment. Contact us so we can devise cost-effective and growth-oriented applications that meet your demands.