‘If 2023 was the year of AI, 2024 will most certainly be the year of automation’

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the most widely discussed workplace topics in recent times. While there is no understating just how popular these tools are, the level of growth experienced may shock you.

In 2023, organisations integrating generative AI into processes grew by a whopping 400 per cent, according to a Workato study. Meanwhile, endpoints (devices connected to business networks) using AI grew by 500 per cent.

Despite these massive uptakes in usage, generative AI reportedly makes up under 1 per cent of spending. The most popular processes for utilising generative AI were revenue operations (48 per cent) and IT (31 per cent).

Automation makes up a large part of this AI usage in the workplace. Operations roles were the most common users of AI automation. In fact, 27.7 per cent of operations teams’ processes were handled by automation in 2023.

Automated processes are growing more complex, with Workato recognising a constant evolution of apps, procedures, and sophistication.

The value businesses place on automation will only continue to grow, said Workato’s chief information officer, Carter Busse.

“If 2023 was the year of AI, 2024 will most certainly be the year of automation and AI. As we see more and more teams rapidly adopt the right guardrails, governorship, and tools to scale AI and automation, IT teams have taken a strategic role in ensuring success across the business,” commented Mr Busse.

“From revenue operation teams leading the adoption of generative AI tools to the citizen development trend continuing to show strong stability as more automation work is handled by teams outside of IT, we’ll continue to see this type of hyper-growth and adoption as automation and AI become more accessible.”

Integrating AI into business strategy will become more and more of a necessity, said Saiesh Prakash, senior manager of enterprise integrations at Coinbase: “Over the last year, we’ve seen a rise in businesses embracing AI and automation. Leaders are becoming increasingly aware of how ingrained AI needs to be in our strategies, decisions, and digital transformations.”

“With Workato’s Work Automation Index, we’re seeing this foundational shift take form, with RevOps and IT teams leading the race to adopt generative AI. As more and more companies begin to experiment with AI and automation, we’ll continue to see more opportunities for all enterprises to scale these types of applications across entire organisations.”