RPA and Hyperaution Adoption Takes Flight

In a recent interview with TechTarget, Mike Cawsey, senior vice-president and general manager of Blue Prism Asia-Pacific, was asked about the current state of RPA adoption in the APAC region. He responded, ”Operational excellence, resilience, cost efficiency and error reduction continue to be major drivers of RPA adoption in the region. However, more mature customers which have successfully scaled up their digital workforce are looking at ways to move the needle, and it’s more around delivering a more connected customer experience and new differentiated products rather than cost efficiency. That said, my view is that RPA adoption in APAC is still very much in its infancy based on my experience across the region.”

Though the region may be a bit behind the U.S. when it comes to current RPA deployments, following the global COVID-19 pandemic, the hunger for these types of solutions is certainly growing. 

In fact, according to our recent IAN Outlook report, 30% of APAC digital transformation leaders have already invested in Intelligent Automation and 42% had already invested in RPA. 47% expect their budgets for these solutions to increase over the next year. 

The Cloud Experiences Explosive Growth

2021 was a record-breaking year for cloud spending in the APAC region. According to research firm Information Services Group (ISG), annual contract value (ACV) for cloud-based as-a-services above US$5 million rose 62% year-on-year to a record US$3.1 billion during Q3 of 2021. To put it a different way, cloud services accounted for over 84% of the total APAC IT and business services spending in Q3, the largest percentage out of all regions globally.

And that was just Q3. Q1 and Q2 of 2021 also saw explosive growth in cloud services purchasing. Though things dipped in Q4, long-term growth is still expected. According to The Future of Cloud in Asia Pacific report by Cisco and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), overall cloud spending is expected to reach US$200 billion in the region by 2024, with investment into the cloud growing at a CAGR of 20%

Cloud Integration Takes Center Stage

As more and more organizations embrace the cloud, Integrated Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solutions are emerging as a powerful enabler of business resiliency and innovation. In fact, according to our own  IAN Outlook report, 63% of APAC-based organizations surveyed said they have already invested in iPaaS solutions with 47% of those respondents confirming the expect budgets for these tools to increase over the next year. 

In a recent interview with DIGIConAsia, Ajit Melarkode, Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan, Boomi explained, “The businesses I speak to reiterate that accelerating digitalization and transitioning more applications and systems to the cloud are important priorities. This is in a background of the changing working landscape, concerns with earnings, cautious budgeting and cost reductions, the push from CFOs for rapid results and constraints on talent and specialist skills to achieve fast digitalization and cloud migrations. iPaaS solves all of these asks.”

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Edge Computing Goes Mainstream

Market researchers, GlobalData, predict that edge computing in the Asia Pacific region will reach US$5.8 billion by 2024, representing a CAGR of 21%. Experts predict that, by then, APAC will become the second-largest edge computing market after North America.

Over the past few years, APAC businesses have rapidly digitized, sometime straining cloud networks and data centers. Edge computing was designed to overcome the issues caused by this scenario. By processing and storing data as close as possible to the source, organizations can reduce latency, enhance security and maximize reliability. 

In addition to its various use cases in the business world, edge-computing will play a pivotal role in the development of smart cities. 

The Rise of AI

Though most organizations in the region have yet to adopt AI, according to a survey by Cognizant, 71% view AI as vital to their future and, in many ways, are already set up for success.

As the author of the report put it, “APAC businesses view a holistic approach to data as business-critical. Their holistic approach to data will help APAC companies progress on the AI front. In the post-COVID era, this includes more frequent analysis of trends, evaluating and refreshing existing analytics/models more often, and refreshing databases more regularly. While text and images are the most common form of data at present in APAC, video, high-dimensional and audio data are set to grow fastest over the next three years. AI’s ability to capture different types of data from images will give data management at APAC organisations across industries an edge. In the long run, this will boost returns from their increasing AI maturity.”

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