Necessity is the mother of (late) adoption

Necessity is the mother of invention. It can also be the mother of adoption of a mature technology that people were worried about. I suspect we will see a step change in willingness to adopt Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and AI as we are forced by circumstances to try these tools in work situations where it is safer not to engage people.

Of course, it is also essential to ensure that such fundamental changes to working practices are given adequate planning, risk management and compliance attention before they are made permanent. And businesses as well as governments need to jointly address how to re-skill and re-direct any workers displaced into new areas, which will certainly emerge.