Australian financial services leads its APAC rivals on RPA adoption

A new report surveying the use of robotic process automation (RPA) in the financial services industry within the Asia-Pacific region has revealed Australia as the region’s leader with 78 per cent of organisations found to be using RPA solutions and technologies.

The report, commissioned by Blue Prism surveyed over 800 business leaders from five key markets – Singapore (100), Malaysia (100), Australia (200), Hong Kong (201), and India (201).

The findings revealed that of the 22 per cent of Australian financial services organisations that have not already deployed RPA solutions, 8 per cent are planning to implement such technologies within the next six months, and a further 4 per cent are planning to do so within the next year.

“The Australian financial services industry has led its APAC rivals in terms of RPA and Intelligent Automation adoption rates with a particular focus on increasing the speed and efficiency of their organisations,” said Robert Dewar, Blue Prism’s vice-president for financial services in the APAC.

“Naturally, we’re seeing the industry expand the range of applications from cutting costs to increasing sales and ultimately as a catalyst for driving digital transformation.”

Moreover, the research found that 99 per cent of organisations in Australia felt that RPA has improved overall business operations.

Breaking down the data further revealed that most Australian financial services organisations currently leverage RPA in the finance (88 per cent) and IT (69 per cent) departments, compared to just 29 per cent for sales and marketing.

While respondents said that they expect to continue to invest in finance and IT departments in the next two to three years, sales and marketing is likely to become a focus for 67 per cent.