Robotic process automation

Robotic process automation (RPA) is becoming more and more important for daily work tasks at many companies. RPA was part of everyday business operations at 76 per cent of companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland alone in 2021 – and this figure is expected to rise. Forecasts indicate that the global market for RPA will grow to more than US $13 billion by 2030. That would represent an increase of more than US $12 billion in comparison with 2020. The reasons for this are varied: cutting costs, increasing quality or easing the pressure on employees are just some of them. The current shortage of skilled workers is also ensuring that more and more companies are relying on software robots because tasks that are pending still need to be completed – even if there are no people to handle them.

RPA is primarily being used in logistics for administrative tasks, such as reading data sets or forwarding electronic information. ‘Very many manual processes are still in use and there’s therefore enormous potential for automation solutions – and therefore for software robots too,’ says Marie-Louise Heidbrink, explaining the situation in the podcast. She also reveals why RPA is playing a major role in customs clearance and how logistics specialists can import their customers’ electronic data into their own transport management system with great ease and save time in the process, thanks to RPA.

Please note: This episode is currently only available in German. You can find the podcast with German and English subtitles here.