International

Recently Armand Angeli, Président du groupe CSP/RPA/AI de la DFCG and Président du groupe International de la DFCG, initiated an international CFO round table discussing all aspects of automation. The round table addresses shared challenges for CFO’s, and the need for reliable information on automation, based on the experience of peers.

A major US airport authority that owns and operates several airports will be deploying the ROSA180 (Responsive Observation Security Agent) by Robotic Assistance Devices (RAD), a subsidiary of Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions. The name of the client is not disclosed by RAD.

By 2025, cyber attackers will have weaponised operational technology (OT) environments to successfully harm or kill humans, according to Gartner.  Attacks on OT – hardware and software that monitors or controls equipment, assets and processes – have become more common. They have also evolved from immediate process disruption such as shutting down a plant, to compromising the integrity of industrial environments with intent to create physical harm. Other recent events like the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack have highlighted the need to have properly segmented networks for IT and OT.

You most likely have seen that Youtube video where we are taught some leadership lessons around starting a movement. The lessons are clear. Don’t give up if you have a rock solid story. This dancing guy had some failures as well in making people more enthusiastic about his passion: dancing in a particular way. But his focus and joy, and even being a bit of a geek about it, did the trick.

ABB will acquire ASTI Mobile Robotics Group (ASTI), a global autonomous mobile robot (AMR) manufacturer. The acquisition, a key part of ABB’s external growth strategy, was signed on July 19 and is expected to close in mid-summer 2021. Both parties agreed not to disclose any details regarding the purchase price.

Surpassing the biological limitations of the brain and using one’s mind to interact with and control external electronic devices may sound like the distant cyborg future, but it could come sooner than we think. Researchers warn of the potential social, ethical, and legal consequences of technologies interacting heavily with human brains. 

Democratization of IT and citizen developers are a hot topic, especially in RPA and low code. Although the trend is not new, we now see a rapid take up, in a ‘perfect combination of people, process and technology’. This leads to a situation which in the end is beneficially for both the business and IT.

Insurance can profit hugely from automation like RPA. But to do so, a few conditions must be met. It is important to align automation initiatives with business strategy and goals, while at the same time keeping projects within reasonable limits. And, most importantly, execution has to follow the same principles as change programs. People are at the centre of enabling and unlocking the benefits of this technology. They need to embrace the ‘what’ and ‘why’ to make automation programs go beyond task automation to enterprise-wide automation.

Business is becoming increasingly dynamic and complex. Technologies and working methods are currently available to support the decision-making process and deal with the new challenges. In particular, process and data mining is a highly effective tool for CFOs.

Although automation and robotisation are emerging in Human Resources (HR), the conversation that took place during CIOnet’s webinar on the future of work was mostly about people. ‘Automation in HR is about harnessing talent without losing  the people-focused dimension,’ one of the panellists said. But what that will look like differs from company to company. ‘That is also what makes our profession so interesting.’