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Robots have not taken over the world yet, but there will definitely be a lot more of them by the end of the decade.

GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, forecasts that the robotics industry will pass the $500bn mark in 2030, after a decade of growing at double-digit rates. That is an impressive figure for an industry that generated global revenue of just $45.3bn in 2020.

IN THE NEXT DECADE, INCENTIVES FOR ROBOTICS ADOPTION WILL COME FROM ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS.

GlobalData’s recent report, ‘Thematic Report: Robotics 2021’, reveals that most of the value generated by robotics comes from service robots, a broad category that includes consumer robots, as well as robots used in logistics, healthcare, security, and many other areas of the service sector. However, industrial robots will grow at a faster rate in the 2020s. Moreover, industrial robots are also a source of innovation that often spills over to service robots.

Filipe Oliveira, Senior Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Despite the long history of robotics, there is sometimes the feeling that the industry has not reached its full potential. That is about to change due to technological breakthroughs and other factors like the economics and demographics of rich and middle-income countries”.

GlobalData’s report predicts that several conditions are aligned that promise to expand the robotics market. Cloud computing and AI-enabled robots to collaborate, access huge amounts of data uninterruptedly, and, ultimately, become smarter. Further advances are needed in certain AI technologies, including computer vision, conversational platforms, and context-aware computing, and these developments will not happen overnight. Still, the foundations are in place, and advances are expected over the coming years.

Oliveira adds: “Technological developments are important, but on their own will not drive growth. For technology to enjoy wide adoption, it’s not enough for it simply to exist. Whereas scientific ingenuity and creativity are making progress in robotics possible, demographics and the economy will provide the incentives for that technology to be harnessed.”

Before the pandemic, economic growth had started to stagnate in large parts of the world. As countries and companies design their plans to recover from the pandemic, interest in robotics is increasing.

The final incentive for robotics growth comes from demographic trends. Fertility rates are low across all of the developed world, and have declined sharply in middle-income countries too. Societies are looking at robots to care for the elderly and help solve shortages in the workforce.

In the next decade, incentives for robotics adoption will come from economic and demographic trends, and it is the convergence of these trends with technological breakthroughs that promises to unlock the full potential of robots.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Robotics on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/robotics
• Read more about Artificial Intelligence on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/artificial-intelligence
• Find out more more about GlobalData @ www.globaldata.com
• Read more about GlobalData on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/globaldata

In an age of artificial intelligence and automation, new research finds that the ability of workers to improvise and innovate is already underused.

Water and waste company Severn Trent is on the lookout for new and innovative ways to manage its water pipe network, and is now looking to the robotics sector to help provide solutions to some very specific issues.

The company is looking for individuals, companies and others to share their research or practical solutions to issues such as checking on water pipes buried several feet underground or even the automatic repair of pipes that have burst.

Dr Bob Stear, Deputy Chief Engineer at Severn Trent, explains: “Simply put, we want to see what’s out there when it comes to robotics and whether there’s anything that already exists, or which could exist in the near future, to help us with some of the issues that we face today with the thousands of kilometres of water pipes that we own and operate.

“It might be that there are devices, or research, that has a practical application in our industry but which was actually developed for something completely different.

“The beauty of this process is that we have no idea what diverse technologies might come back --but we absolutely do know the areas of our business where we think a technology solution could help us, and therefore our customers.

“We’re really excited to see what’s out there in the world of robotics and look forward to talking to the market about how this fascinating technology can help us to deliver wonderful water to our customers.”

Full details and provisional tender documents are accessible via the Bravo Solutions Tool:

severntrent.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login under the project identifiers;  project_666 - Request for Information Soft Market Test Robotics Market  and rfp_648

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Atos, a global leader in digital transformation today announces that it has been identified as a ‘Leader’ by global research and advisory firm NelsonHall in its latest Vendor Evaluation & Assessment Tool (NEAT) for Cognitive IT Infrastructure Management...

Atos supports businesses in their digital transformation by providing the tools, services and consulting to enable them to successfully implement next-generation IT infrastructure and workplace services, such as those which use Artificial Intelligence (AI), cognitive, machine learning, deep learning, virtual agents, advanced analytics and robotics.

Atos’ brand new Codex AI Suite, announced recently, supports businesses and research institutes in the development, deployment and management of AI applications. It offers an easy-to-use, efficient and cost-effective solution to rapidly build and deploy AI applications, better extract value from data and develop new business opportunities.

Atos’ end-to-end Digital Workplace offering includes a range of intelligent solutions to enhance the user experience.Atos’ end-to-end Digital Workplace offering includes a range of intelligent solutions to enhance the user experience. This includes the Atos Virtual Assistant (AVA), which leverages Cognicor’s next-generation AI engine, to offer help and support for users, resulting in reduced downtime, increased user productivity, and cost reduction.

Commenting on this ranking, John Laherty, Senior Research Analyst at NelsonHall, said: “Atos is driving digital transformation across both infrastructure and service desk to improve business outcomes and end-user experience; it is embedding automation into all its standard infrastructure managed services offering for clients.”

Elaborating on Atos’ role as a leader in Cognitive IT Infrastructure Management services, Peter Pluim, Head of Infrastructure & Data Management at Atos, said: “We are delighted to be recognized as a Leader in Cognitive IT Infrastructure Management by NelsonHall. We offer an end-to-end approach to automation and robotics, thereby reducing costs, increasing quality, and creating differentiation with real-time insight for our clients.”

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Pegasystems Inc.  a software company delivering strategic business applications to a number of  leading enterprises have recently announced the acquisition of Atlanta, GA-based OpenSpan, Inc., a privately held software provider of robotic process automation (RPA)  and workforce analytics software.

OpenSpan uses robotic automation to ease the burden on customer service representatives  by automating routine desktop tasks, thus increasing employee productivity and job satisfaction. By providing insight into desktop activity and automating or eliminating repetitive, time-consuming tasks, OpenSpan frees agents to focus their energy on delivering exceptional customer experience while also helping to lower operational costs.  

Running on more than 200,000 desktops at leading global enterprises, OpenSpan provides advanced robotic automation and workforce analytics capabilities that complement and enhance Pegasystems’ Customer Relationship Management application suite and Business Process Management platform.

This acquisition unifies robotics and workforce analytics with case management and real-time analytics for the first time. Organisations can quickly experience the benefits of an integrated desktop and leverage their insights and cost savings to transition effectively into a fully-unified CRM solution.

“Organisations are under tremendous pressure to transform their businesses into customer service machines to meet the new demands of digital customers,” said Alan Trefler, founder and CEO, Pegasystems. “We’ve already seen the power of Pega and OpenSpan working together to help our clients with their digital transformation initiatives. We believe OpenSpan’s cutting-edge robotics, workforce analytics, and process automation capabilities, combined with Pega’s leading process and real-time analytics, supports an emerging era of intelligent automation working in concert with people to deliver a better customer experience.”

Meanwhile Eric Musser, CEO, OpenSpan commented:

“Over the past 11 years, we’ve built a highly successful organisation that has helped introduce the power of robotics and desktop intelligence to mainstream business,”

“But this is just the tip of the iceberg of what analytics and robotics can really do. By integrating with Pegasystems’ proven applications and platform, we believe we can advance robotic automation and desktop analytics in exciting new directions that will change the way businesses interact with their customers.”

 

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