Demystifying Hyperautomation and Technology Market Dynamics

Business-driven hyperautomation is a disciplined approach that organizations use to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. Hyperautomation involves the orchestrated use of multiple technologies, tools or platforms. Its ubiquity is both a strength and a weakness. It’s a strength as it is applied to myriad business and IT processes in every business and IT function in the organization. Its weakness is that it requires disciplined and orchestrated strategic planning to architect, design and implement and, most of all, rigorous adaptive governance to sustain. Spending on hyperautomation initiatives is projected to be brisk and somewhat recession proof. By 2026, the market for software that enables hyperautomation will reach nearly $1.04 trillion from the 2021 totals that hovered at $591 billion. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 11.9% (see Forecast Analysis: Hyperautomation Enablement Software, Worldwide). Gartner also estimates that for every dollar of software spend, there is $4 to $12 that are spent on IT services. Examples of IT services include strategy, consulting, implementation and systems integration. Moreover, a large amount of this spend on software and services is siloed across an array of business functions. In that regard, Gartner has predicted that by 2024 a diffused (siloed) approach to hyperautomation initiatives will drive up initiative-specific total cost of ownership by fortyfold, making adaptive governance a differentiating factor in financial performance.One of the many reasons for these large numbers and continued growth is that hyperautomation initiatives often have a broad spectrum of business outcomes and a very large and fragmented set of technology markets. In this podcast, our Gartner expert analysts share some trends and predictions regarding hyperautomation. Examples include:API-first world — There is a stealth and clear trajectory to an API-first approach as evidenced by RPA vendors increasingly investing in improving their API connectivity capabilities. Application portfolios are changing with more SaaS being adopted in portfolios, many of which have documented APIs. APIs are easier to secure and more stable to interact with than screen scraping techniques.Reduction in core need for screen scraping — The simplification, abundance and increased functionality of API access will reduce the core need for RPA screen scraping and task automation that initially thrust these product categories to the forefront.RPA vendor evolution — An overwhelming majority of RPA vendors offer automation via both API and UI integration. This means that organizations will scale their automation beyond screen scraping and complement offerings with APIs, robust workflows and process insights to achieve enterprise scale automation. This will set the stage for either convergence or consolidation of existing markets or some newly formed categories.For additional insights and an early glimpse of Gartner’s hyperautomation predictions for 2023 — listen to our podcast.In this podcast, our host Frances Karamouzis is joined by two Gartner expert analysts — Keith Guttridge and Saikat Ray. Both Guttridge and Ray are part of Gartner’s software engineering leaders research teams and speak to many clients working on hyperautomation initiatives. Both analysts are part of the authoring team for Magic Quadrants for Integration Platform as a Service and Robotic Process Automation, among several other publications.