Technology is changing at a rapid pace, affecting enterprises across the globe. CIOs no longer see workflow platforms as a tool for eliminating repetitive tasks, it has become an essential digital transformation component.
So, will workflow automation still be king in 2025?
Going by the statistics, yes. Its significance will increase more than ever and we’ll see more companies adopting this solution throughout 2024.
It boosts productivity, increases performance, and reduces operating costs. According to recent workflow automation statistics, adopting lights-out operations delivers a strong return on investment and enables businesses to enhance service delivery to their end-users.
46%[1] of respondents who have implemented workflow automation successfully in larger companies have leaders who understand the total cost of ownership for automation efforts. But to get the most out of workflow automation, a business must know its needs and get the right software—an approach that aligns with current business process automation trends.
94% companies perform repetitive, time-consuming tasks. Automation has improved jobs for 90% of knowledge workers and productivity for 66% of them.
Automation and digitalization go hand in hand as these two combined, create new tech possibilities for your organization, better management of work, and streamline processes from start to end.
83% of IT leaders believe workflow automation is necessary for digital transformation. 48%[2] of organizations are currently installing automation solutions to automate manual tasks.
68% of employees[3] have too much work to handle daily, which is why companies are adopting business process automation. If automation isn’t used to handle large volumes of work, these workers can reach a breaking point.
36% of organizations[4] are already using business process management software to automate workflows. 50%[5] of business leaders plan to automate more repetitive tasks within their organizations.
The Industrial Automation Services Market is expected to grow from $147.06 Billion in 2019 to $264.69 Billion[6] by 2026.
There’s a 14% increase[7] yearly in the number of automated jobs and junior workers are the most affected. 69%[8] of all managerial work will be automated by 2024. Automation is likely to affect more men than women. By 2023, 28%[9] of currently employed men and 24% of women could lose their jobs. 38% of jobs[10] in the US, 35% in Germany, 30% in the UK, and 21% in Japan may be affected.
73%[11] of respondents in a PwC survey said they believe technology can never replace the human mind, while 37% were worried about automation putting their jobs at risk. Automation may force 40 to 160 million women[12] to switch jobs.
A McKinsey survey showed respondents are 3 times likelier to have at least 80%[13] of their customer interactions in digital form. 60%[14] of customer service professionals give automated recommendations for the next best action. 37%[15] of IT customer service departments have higher automation ROI than any other department.
86% of employees[16] believe automation will help them do their work more efficiently, while 65%[17] believe technology will improve their future job prospects. 51% of businesses[18] implement automation initiatives to boost efficiency.
73% of IT leaders[19] credit automation for helping employees save 10-50% of the time they previously spent on manual tasks. 85%[20] of managers believe automating some tasks will give them and their employees extra time to focus on goals that matter to the company.
75%[21] of organizations use marketing automation software. Scheduling social media posts is the most popular digital marketing element. 83% of marketers automate social media posting, 75% email marketing, 58% social media advertising, and 36% social media engagement.
Over 80% of managers are speeding up workflow automation and encouraging employees to work remotely. 74% of employees[22] are ready to learn new skills or retrain to remain employable. They believe it’s their responsibility to upskill rather than rely on employers.
McKinsey surveyed in 2020 and discovered that 66% of businesses[23] have automated business processes in more than one business function. In 2018, only 57% of businesses had automated several business functions.
24%[24] of companies use low-code process automation systems, while 29%[25] plan to start soon. These platforms help companies streamline workflows, make better use of their data, and save time and money.
90%[26] of automation projects fail because of technical issues, 37% because of implementation costs, and 25%[27] because of no overall vision or strategy. The 3rd biggest challenge[28] to implementing automation is resistance to change.
While up to 800 million jobs[29] could be displaced by automation by 2030, automation will also offset the losses. It will spur economic growth, boost productivity, and minimize losses.
Right from hiring new talents, training, appraisal, meeting the local labor law, and an endless list of other tedious processes, HR management plays a vital role in every organization. Manually managing and processing a whole chunk of employees’ data is practically impossible. With hr automation trends gaining momentum, automation is essential to manage these processes effectively and support the full employee life cycle
Financial and accounting processes are arguably the most excruciating as they involve numbers and cash flow. Managing the never-ending stream of data via Excel and mail can be an extra burden and stressful. With the growing finance automation trend, organizations can eliminate clunky procedures, streamline accounting tasks, and ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible.
“Can IT processes even be automated?” is a frequently asked question among growing organizations. Not many IT processes can be automated, but a few mundane ones can be streamlined effectively. With emerging it automation trends, these routine tasks can be handled efficiently, allowing IT professionals to focus more on business-critical, strategic work.
Your marketing and sales professionals’ time is too valuable to be spent on menial, time-consuming, non-productive tasks. With the rise of the marketing automation trend, automating many steps between sales and marketing gives your team more time to focus on strategy and lead nurturing, ultimately leading to higher conversions and stronger brand value.
Every business can benefit from workflow automation. Research shows that 80% of organizations[63] will adopt intelligent automation by 2025. This means that every company that wants to remain relevant and future-proof is automating its workflows. Some use low-code systems while others use no-code systems.
Workflow automation streamlines entire processes and assists a large number of companies to meet product demand, boosting efficiency, and implementing new business models. Automation is believed to enhance productivity in the long run, up to 2030, and it is likely to reduce the economic growth gap in the world’s 20 largest nations.
More than 80%[64] of organizations already plan to increase their investment in automation solutions. To reap the full benefits of automation, get a robust work platform like Kissflow, a low-code/no-code platform that aligns business and IT together to transform and simplify your business processes.
Whether it is automating processes, digitizing your operations, managing requests, or building custom applications, with Kissflow you can do it all within a unified platform. By applying the low-code/no-code paradigm, Kissflow opens up development to everyone in the organization and dramatically accelerates digital transformation, while also offering robust tools like approval workflow software to ensure your processes are managed smoothly and efficiently.
Solve your workflow challenges with Kissflow and optimize your team's productivity.
Latest statistics on workflow automation show 60% of organizations achieving ROI within 12 months of implementation, average productivity increases of 25-30% in automated processes, error reduction rates of 40-75% compared to manual processing, employee satisfaction improvements of 15-35% when freed from routine tasks, and adoption rates accelerating across all industries with 65% of organizations expanding their automation initiatives.
Workflow automation improves productivity by eliminating manual handoffs that cause delays, standardizing execution for consistent outcomes, reducing errors from manual data entry, providing real-time visibility into process status, automating notifications and reminders to keep work moving, handling routine decisions through business rules, and freeing knowledge workers from repetitive tasks for higher-value activities.
Industries leading in workflow automation adoption include financial services (loan processing, claims handling), healthcare (patient scheduling, insurance verification), manufacturing (quality assurance, maintenance workflows), legal services (contract management, case processing), and government agencies (permit applications, citizen service requests). Document-intensive processes across all sectors are prime candidates for automation.
Common challenges in workflow automation include integration difficulties with legacy systems, resistance to change from employees comfortable with existing processes, data quality issues undermining automation effectiveness, difficulty capturing exception handling for edge cases, inadequate testing before deployment, underestimating the complexity of business rules, and failing to redesign processes before automating them.
Businesses measure workflow automation success through quantitative metrics (cycle time reduction, error rate decreases, processing volume increases, resource utilization improvements, cost savings) and qualitative indicators (employee satisfaction, customer experience improvements, compliance enhancement, innovation capacity). Leading organizations establish baseline measurements before implementation and track improvements over time.