Uh So this session is about uh robotic process automation and uh the future of work. So just as a way of introduction, I would love to just uh introduce myself. Uh My name is uh Seran Jamu. I'm the CEO and founder of Computer Connect Education.I'm a digital transformation specialist. Um I also uh facilitate, train and uh do business coaching. I also speak at global conferences like this one. I have experience working in um African uh countries, especially the Southern African countries, namely South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, and also in the East African um uh region of Af uh uh of Africa. We also work in Kenya in 2020. I was honored to be named among the 100 dresses of women, uh role models in tech. Um for which I was uh very chuffed and thrilled. Um And just on a personal note, I am a mother of uh three girls. Uh So basically this is, uh who I am and uh uh I'll now move on to just tell you a little bit about our company. Um This is a company that I founded 13 years ago. We are a South African Digital Transformation company that specializes in robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, uh chatbots, cybersecurity and vulnerability testing. It, hardware and computer equipment distribution. We also develop customized learning management systems and uh elearning content development.

We work with schools as well and uh we help schools with uh coding and robotics um as well as uh for IR leadership development and training. So just as a way of starting this session, I thought I would uh define what RP A is. Um So RP A stands for robotic process automation. It is also sometimes referred to as digital workers or if you like an RP A is simply a software platform or an algorithm that can perform basic tasks across uh the applications just like a human being um can do um and uh these boards or these uh uh these digital workers as we call them can perform repetitive mundane roombas um tasks just like a human being.

What are the common activities that these uh robots uh do? So like I said, anything that is roombas, anything that is uh uh repetitive uh Those are good uh um are tasks to give to bots. So bots would do anything from payroll processing, travel, uh reimbursement, uh employee financial transactions. You can use uh bots to do your recruitment and onboarding of uh new employees. Um The finance departments are, are getting a lot of value from uh using RP A um in their accounts, receivable accounts, payable invoicing. Um You can use bots in processing application forms, managing inventory, creating reports and uh summaries of organization data on boarding of uh vendors.

A button are being used by many organization uh for user password management, uh and resetting of uh uh passwords. Um You can use bots for invoice and quotation processing, sending emails, logging into multiple applications and connecting to various systems. Boards also can be used to copy um information across different files and folders and systems. You can use boards to send um automated uh monthly uh statements and a lot of the banks are actually using boards for mortgage processing as well. So why the hype um around RP A? What are the benefits that come with? Um um investing in RP A as an organization, a lot of uh organizations that have invested in um RP A have um reported reduced human error because um the, the robots are trained to work by the rules. They don't make a mistake. So you take away that uh human element uh uh of uh error margin I bought, provide consistency across all processes. Again, they are working with um with rules that you have set up and um you know, they will provide them consistency across all the, the, the um the channels that you work with boats um reduce operating costs and therefore, uh save companies a lot of money.

They also free up capacity so that employees then can tackle high value work. So instead of uh an employee sitting all day long um entering data or copying data from one system to another that can be left to the board so that maybe that employee then can engage with the customers more and bring the human element to the customer experience of an organization.

Um A lot of companies have uh recorded um improvement in employee morale uh because uh the mo the monotonous uh side of work has been taken away and has been given to the robots. So a lot of uh employees then uh find their work more interesting and more engaging because now they are focusing on tasks that are more meaningful rather than uh just uh you know, the manual repetitive tasks uh that uh they would engage in uh if uh the robot was uh not part of the system.

So how is RP A solving uh the public and the private sector challenges? Um We all know the, the, the problems that are faced by the public sector in particular um as well as the private um uh organizations, you know, issues of uh leg technologies. Um A lot of processes in many organizations are still very manual and often undocumented. Um especially in the public sector. There are a lot of bottlenecks um that come with that. Um the aging population are now require, requiring uh more and more better service uh from a public sector. These are all the challenges that uh the, the, the organizations are faced with and how is RP A coming in to solve those problems? RP A can connect with legacy systems very easily without uh being in invasive. So the implementation of RP A is uh very quick and straightforward. Uh usually within uh 6 to 8 weeks, uh you will have implemented the system and the boats will be in full uh production. Uh RP A is encouraging process optimization. And um when you use RP A as an organization, you also set a stage for future digital transformation through integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning models. Um RP A are actually being used a lot in the public sector to clear backlogs at scale. Um uh And RP A are also being used to improve certain experience, especially when it comes to service delivery and processing of uh request in a timely manner.

Um You know, people can uh organizations can uh develop bots that interact with uh uh the public and they can ask those bots any question and they can be able to um receive feedback on the spot. Uh The other uh challenges uh that RP A is solving is that it's ensuring retention of knowledge um uh by documenting critical processes. So we all know that uh when employees leave or when um you know uh people who've been working on um a process for a long time retire, they go with the knowledge. Um But with RP A, because everything is uh documented, you are able to retain that knowledge as an organization. RP A, like I said, frees up employees from um and tasks and shifts focus um to strategic work. It also improves uh the employer brand because now if uh you have invested in RP A and organized as an organization, you are able to attract top talent with the relevant uh digital skills. RP A is helping a lot in improving accuracy and ensuring compliancy by uh leveraging digital robots with a with an audit trail.

So because um when bots are created, there's an uh there's uh uh you know, reports that are also generated based on all the different activities that the boards have been able to do. So as an organization, you can actually be able to check uh in terms of uh accuracy and uh data compliance RP A are enabling governments all over the world to actually deliver better service to their citizens. Um are using the same resources or even less resources because uh you know, you've got these digital workers that are working 24 7, they are at the job 24 7, they never get tired, they never take a break. Uh So they're able to produce high productivity compared to um normal human beings. So then the question is how is this impacting um the, the future of work? So I found a very interesting uh um a very interesting um cat that uh Deloitte has actually put together. So because of the use of uh machines in our workplace, the future of the workplace, uh which I argue the future is now because a lot of people now working alongside the bots, OK? A lot of people are using uh attended and unattended uh boards to actually do their everyday work. So the forces of change at play is technology. So obviously, the use of uh robots, sensors, data and artificial intelligence are bringing in a new landscape, demographics.

Uh you know, uh people are living longer. There's a growth in uh um the younger population in terms of uh um how many people are coming into the workforce? There's a greater diversity. Um Also the customer of today is very empowered. Um uh So they are looking for better services. And uh so what does this mean for organizations, what it means is that organizations will need to reengineer the way they work. Uh They will need to reengineer uh by reshaping every job uh by using um the technology transforming of the workforce and uh the growth of uh alternative arrangements. Um We're seeing it more and more that uh people are not just stick with one company with the use of uh the robots Artificial Intelligence. It has uh brought in uh autonomous people can actually freelance and they can work for many different companies for specific specialized uh skills or, or services that uh the company offers. And what are the implications of um of the use of uh machines or ro robotics in our everyday life um in the workplace um at a personal level.

So we understand that uh most of the work uh that is repetitive, that is rule based is being taken over by robots. So then what it means is that uh the people that have been doing work that is repetitive and group based, they will need to rescue themselves. So in the future, there will be a greater need for us as a people to acquire new skills rapidly at a very accelerated rate because as technology changes, our skill sets as well become redundant and the need to acquire new skills um will be uh on demand uh in the future. Uh You know, the predictions are that uh going solo and people working in collaboration will be the dichotomy. So because uh a lot of companies will not be needing um uh heavy human workforce because the digital workers are doing a lot of the work. Um It means people then will be actually contracting with the companies. Um and and not be on a company on a full time basis. So this will give rise to a new uh um landscape of people working independently or as contractors, but also collaborating with other people that are in the same industry to be able to offer uh a full suit solution or a solution that um that uh you know, meets the needs of the organization.

Uh The implication for organizations is that they need to redesign the work for technology and learning. Organizations need to take on the responsibility to start equipping people with new skills so that people can be able to function in the new space that we find ourselves.

Um Organizations also have to rethink their, their organization models. Uh They'll have to implement new models of um organization structure, leadership, culture and uh reward systems as well. And what would be the implication for the public um uh sector or the, the governments, uh uh you know, the governments will need to work on uh new policies. When it comes to education, they will need to reimagine um the kind of education that they're giving their citizens is it uh the education that enables people to function in the 21st century alongside these machines that are being created. Um And also uh they will need to reassess um uh legal and regulatory policies if you have a lot of people working as contractors, what does that mean for, for individuals, how protected is the this workforce that is not committed to an individual company, but they're working solo and independently, but offering services, how protected are they?

So there'll be a lot of rethinking that we need to come into play as we step into the future of uh of, of, of work. Um as a result of uh the impact that uh RP A has been able to, to, to bring. But above all, my challenge to every workforce is that uh we need to embrace RP A. Um because um robotic process automation is here to stay, it's the future it's here. People are using bots. Uh You know, whether it's in finance, whether it's in law. Um uh Many other practices are using software robots to do a lot of uh the work that human beings have always done. So it's up to us as human beings to embrace this technology so that it works for us. But more importantly, people need to reskill themselves to get a new skill set um that will enable them to function properly. So basically, this is um this is uh the impact that A P is having. And uh like I said, the future is here. Thank you so much.