According to an independent survey conducted by IDC and commissioned by UiPath, a prominent enterprise automation software company, over half of the surveyed organisations (54%) are already using enterprise automation technologies to implement sustainability initiatives. The study polled 800 global executives and revealed that 24% of organizations plan to adopt automation technologies in the coming two years to aid their sustainability efforts. The IDC survey found that organizations with established intelligent automation practices are more advanced in their sustainability efforts, as automation platforms and practices can help address many of the cost and complexity challenges that make progress difficult.
The survey also identified the top drivers for sustainability initiatives as operational efficiencies and cost savings (40%) and enhanced brand value and trust (33%). The most important sustainability program priorities included IT efficiency, responsible sourcing, overall energy efficiency, and employee well-being, health, and safety. However, the organizational challenges faced by 35% of respondents included dispersed/siloed resources, difficulty identifying appropriate KPIs, and a lack of operational technology.
According to the survey, automation offers substantial benefits to sustainability initiatives by driving agility and ensuring quality of information and measurement. It also helps organizations extract data from human-readable documents and source data quickly, improving process improvement (45%) and enabling workers to do more meaningful work and increase employee satisfaction (51%). Overall, the survey highlights the importance of automation for unlocking the potential of sustainability initiatives across the organization and for overcoming technical barriers to achieving sustainability goals.