German Firms Expand Use Of Intelligent Automation After Pandemic Shakes Up Ways Of Doing Business

ISG Provider Lens report finds enterprises boosting investments in intelligent document processing, process mining and conversational AI amid fast IT rebound across Europe

German enterprises are increasing their use of intelligent automation, partly in response to disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, as the country joins in a European technology and business services boom, according to a new research report published by Information Services Group (ISG) a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

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The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Intelligent Automation – Solutions and Services report for Germany finds growing adoption of a wide range of automation technologies, especially process discovery and mining, in which Germany is a world leader, and intelligent document processing. As in other markets, the pandemic has put large-scale digital transformations on hold but accelerated deployments of automation and other capabilities that bring immediate benefits.

“Service providers are playing a central role in German digital initiatives,” said Chip Wagner, CEO, ISG Automation. “German companies increasingly want providers to deliver already developed and integrated solutions as backbones for digital transformation.”

Intelligent automation spans a range of solutions and services that can perform increasingly complex tasks using AI, machine learning, computer vision, voice recognition, natural-language processing and other capabilities. In Germany and other markets, organizations are applying these solutions to a growing number of business challenges, according to ISG.

Intelligent document processing has emerged as a critical tool for German enterprises adapting to new business realities introduced by the pandemic, the report says. Many businesses in Germany still use paper for documents such as invoices, claims and contracts, some with handwritten content. To reduce the cost of business, operate more flexibly and allow more employees to work remotely, companies are investing in new, more advanced document processing solutions. Providers are adding AI, natural-language processing and machine learning features to improve the speed and accuracy of these solutions.

German companies are also expanding their use of process discovery and mining, which have been successfully developed as commercial products in the country, ISG says. While process mining is still largely used for traditional applications such as conformance proofing and compliance checks, it is now being deployed in other scenarios, including as an accelerator for ERP migrations.

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The use of conversational AI is steadily growing in Germany for use cases such as contact center chatbots, virtual agents and voice assistants, according to the report. Conversational augmented intelligence, combining voice and text, is emerging in many healthcare applications. With the addition of AI, machine learning and natural-language understanding and processing, these solutions can now work with more complex conversations. Low-code/no-code development environments are democratizing conversational AI development, turning business users into citizen developers and enabling faster and more flexible deployments.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Intelligent Automation – Solutions and Services report for Germany evaluates the capabilities of 84 providers across five quadrants: Intelligent Business Automation, Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps), Conversational AI, Intelligent Document Processing, and Process Discovery and Mining.

The report names IBM as a Leader in three quadrants and Accenture, Atos and Capgemini as Leaders in two quadrants each. It names ABBYY, Almato, Amelia, Artificial Solutions, Arvato, Automation Anywhere, Axians, Celonis, CGI, Cognigy, DATAGROUP, DXC Technology, Google, ITyX, Kofax, Microsoft, NTT DATA, Rossum, SAP Signavio, Software AG, TCS, UiPath and Wipro as Leaders in one quadrant each.

In addition, ABBYY Timeline, Genpact, Infosys and Sinch Chatlayer are named as Rising Stars—companies with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in one quadrant each.

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