Robotic and Cognitive Automation

Blog Library

A monthly blog by either Leslie Willcocks or Mary Lacity covering specific areas of Service Automation in detail, often with critical commentary on recent media articles on the topic. A must-read section of the website to keep up to speed with the latest news on RPA, CA & AI.

NEW!

AI and the 'Unprecedented Digital Future'

Leslie P Willcocks
January 2026

“There is an ancient and well-developed narrative supported by historical events concerns the power, transformation, and peril brought by technology. During our second and third eras of computing, this belief fed into a second story emerging of an ‘unprecedented digital future’ induced by computer and digital technologies. Enough evidence, vested interests, and anxiety developed to lend credibility to predictions of even greater advances, together with immense, both positive and adverse consequences ... ”

Automation Anxiety Through Five Eras of Computing

Leslie P Willcocks
September 2025

“...developed this map to help us navigate through what we have identified as five main areas of computing. Each has its own underlying economics.”

Automation Anxiety: What is it and what causes it?

Leslie P Willcocks
July 2025

“Many are expressing anxiety about AI at the moment. But automation anxiety is not a new concept... that debate now goes far beyond concerns about job displacement”

Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading: From RPA To Digital Transformation
Blog No.8 – The Future

Leslie P Willcocks
MAY 2025

“Our commentary on these stats is a little less starry-eyed. Predicting the future about technologies, even to five years, is a really risky business! That does not mean that it cannot be informative ...”

Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading: From RPA To Digital Transformation
Blog No.7 – Centres of Excellence

Leslie P Willcocks
MAR 2025

... “More recently, what we also found in many big companies was that there was this hole, where automation initiatives were not connecting up with the team running the digital transformation initiatives.”

Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading: From RPA To Digital Transformation
Blog No.6 – Digital Transformation

Leslie P Willcocks
JAN 2025

“Digital transformation is one of those terms where so many people have said it for so long. It's a buzz word in danger of losing meaning. What does digital transformation really mean?” ...

Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading: From RPA To Digital Transformation
Blog No.5 – Establishing Digital Leadership

Leslie P Willcocks
Nov 2024

We have been studying this for the last 9 years, and a clear picture has emerged. The top attribute is that they have an executive team that believes that digital technologies can be transformational and of strategic importance to its business as whole. Actually, the evidence is ...

Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading: From RPA To Digital Transformation
Blog No.4 – RPA - Good for stakeholers?

Leslie P Willcocks
Sept 2024

At the start of our research, in 2014, there were few RPA users, and we chose to look at only the most successful. What surprised us was the multiple benefits they were getting—many unplanned for, and completely unexpected-many.

Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading: From RPA To Digital Transformation
Blog No.3 – Automation: Jobs, Skills and RPA

Leslie P Willcocks
Aug 2024

Think in terms of human skills like empathy, teambuilding, leadership, motivation, critical thinking and imagination. We once did this exercise in a hi-tech company and we spent some 40 minutes listing out the skills which humans bring to the workplace that singly—and especially in combination—cannot be inexpensively and easily, if at all, replicated by machines...

Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading: From RPA To Digital Transformation
Blog No.2 – Impact of Automation on the Global Workforce

Leslie P Willcocks
Jun 2024

Across our 750 plus cases and in our surveys, we found certainly around 10–13 percent looking for labour displacement. But, looking at the 2015–2023 period, the majority were automating because they were experiencing year-on-year massive increases and intensification in work, they had skills shortages, productivity problems, and/or they could not meet work processing targets.

Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading: From RPA To Digital Transformation
Blog No.1 – Misunderstandings

Leslie P Willcocks
Mar 2024

Over the next few months, we will provide an introduction to the book, but in a relatively novel way. During the last year I have conducted many interviews with journalists, magazines, online think tanks, and academic journal editors, who have asked for summaries of research, perspectives on emerging issues, and predictions .

Software Development, Global Sourcing and Business Eco-Systems: Five Essentials

Leslie P Willcocks
Nov 2023

The authors provide a two-part account, and indeed there is much to discuss. Part 1 reviews pre-computer information systems development (ISD) methodologies from 1915, through to methodologies created for early computer-based information systems development in the 1980s.

ChatGPT et al: The Ethics of Using Generative AI in Research and Science

Leslie P Willcocks
Sept 2023

The term ‘AI’ is misleading: Despite suggestions to the contra—and some surely impressive achievements in specific areas—we are still far from reaching the benchmark of ‘general human intelligence’

ChatGPT and The AI (‘Artificial Imperfections’) Test

Leslie P Willcocks
March 2023

Unfortunately, as you can experience from the latest manifestation—ChatGPT—AI is so over-hyped with fantasies of power that, with AI’s publicity machine, it’s not just the pigs that are flying.

Automation Untangled:
Challenges and Lessons

Interview with leslie Willcocks
January 2023

Matt Agnew from Blueprint Software Systems interviews Dr Leslie P Wilcocks

Building Effective Automations
Part 3: 39 Management Action Principles

Leslie P. Willcocks & Mary Lacity
January 2023

The purpose of this third article is to highlight out robust findings on management action principles for automation..

Building Effective Automations
Part 2: 13 Action Principles

Leslie P. Willcocks & Mary Lacity
December 2022

Using software to automate tasks is not a new idea, but interest in service automation has certainly escalated in recent years. In this first article I would like to take you on our journey of study - I will also identify the first 13 management actions that were leading to effective automation deployments.

Building Effective Automations
Part 1: 13 Action Principles

Leslie P. Willcocks & Mary Lacity
November 2022

Future-Ready? You Need a Digital Platform

Dr Leslie P. Willcocks
October 2022

It became clear that, facing today’s environmental dynamism, connectedness and uncertainty, together with rising, increasingly unpredictable competition, these organisations recognised the need to become not just digital but also agile and adaptable—that is, ‘future-ready’. What does this mean?

A Blind Spot: When Digital Transformation and Automation Fail to Meet

Dr Leslie P. Willcocks
September 2022

Much can be made of executive and organisational ‘blind spots’. For example, in her 2007 book Blind Spots, Madeline Van Hecke devotes a chapter to each of ten mental blind spots that afflict even the smartest people:

Take Your Pulse—How Well Are You Doing On Digital Transformation?

Dr Leslie P. Willcocks
September 2022

In this briefing I explain the business payoffs possible from digital transformation, the challenges, and the core capabilities you need to build to compete against the digital leaders in your sector.

Intelligent Automation: Making Progress in Utilities

Dr Leslie P. Willcocks
August 2022

This month I am reporting on joint work done with my colleague John Hindle of Knowledge Capital Partners. So what about utilities, usually seen as one of the more stable sectors in developed economies?

Becoming Strategic with Intelligent Automation Part 3: Management and Emerging Challenges

Mary Lacity and Leslie Willcocks in conversation with Gabe Piccoli, MISQ Executive Editor
July 2022

Over the past two months we have taken highlights from the discussion. This, Part 3, is the final paper focuses on management and emerging challenges.

Becoming Strategic with Intelligent Automation—Part 2: Business value, risks, and jobs

Mary Lacity and Leslie Willcocks in conversation with Gabe Piccoli, MISQ Executive Editor
July 2022

Over three months we take highlights from and update the discussion, with this Part 2 dealing with business value, risks and jobs; Part 3 management and emerging challenges; and last month, in part 1, the trio talked about technology …

Becoming Strategic with Intelligent Automation Part 1: Let’s Talk Technology

Mary Lacity and Leslie Willcocks in conversation with Gabe Piccoli, MISQ Executive Editor
Apr 2022

Over the next three months we take highlights from the discussion. Part 2 will deal with business value, risks and jobs, and Part 3 with management and emerging challenges.

Autonomous Enterprise: A Strategic Imperative

Review By Dr Leslie P Willcocks
Mar 2022

‘AI’ has always been long on rhetoric and striking examples, and short on what is mostly, really, happening in our organisations.

Becoming Strategic with Intelligent Automation in Telecommunications

By Dr Leslie P Willcocks & John Hindle
Feb 2022

While intelligent automation can be operationalised to support companies objectives, we found that it requires four knowledge-related changes to occur.

Intelligent Automation in Banking: The value still being left on the table

By Dr Leslie P Willcocks & John Hindle
Jan 2022

These technologies have massive potential, which is being super under-optimised. In this article John and I look at the opportunity, and a more positive example, in the banking sector.

Progressing Intelligent Automation in The Insurance Sector

By Dr Leslie P Willcocks
Oct 2021

Our research findings are very rich, and are available at KnowledgeCapitalPartners.com. Here I want, with John, to focus on a further sector—insurance—and give illustrative examples of the headway that can be made.

Intelligent Automation: Making Progress in Healthcare

By Dr Leslie P Willcocks
Sep 2021

Our research findings are very rich, and are available at Knowledgecapitalpartners.com. Here I want, with John, to focus on just the one sector and give illustrative examples of the headway that can be made.

The Realities Behind the ‘AI’ Avalanche Part 2: The Material Hiding In The Virtual

By Dr Leslie P Willcocks
Sep 2021

Kate Crawford (2021) Atlas of AI: Power, Politics and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence, Yale University Press, New Haven.

The Realities Behind the ‘AI’ Avalanche Part 1: If it’s Artificial it’s Not Intelligent

By Dr Leslie P Willcocks
Aug 2021

A Review of:
Broussard, M. (2018) Artificial Unintelligence: How computers misunderstand the world, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Smith, G. (2018) The AI Delusion. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Intelligent Automation in Five Sectors – What Are We Finding So Far?

By Dr Leslie P Willcocks
June 2021

Our research findings are very rich—and it’s still work in progress. But I would like to report on some headlines here, since we believe there are important implications for senior executives in any sector.

Managing Beyond The Technological Quick Fix
Part 2: The Politics Track

By Leslie P Willcocks
May 2021

The politics of technological change is, of course, a massive area, and in this article I am choosing to treat it only at the organisational level, and from a management perspective.

Automation and Going Digital
Part 2: Is RPA Yesterday’s Technology?

By Leslie P Willcocks
May 2021

Organisations have had a lot of problems moving this kind of use to the next stage, because they tend to treat RPA as a low level tool, despite the multiple benefits we have been seeing from its application.

Managing Beyond The Technological Quick Fix
Part 1: Do Not Forget The Politics, They Will Not Forget You

By Leslie P Willcocks
Apr 2021

Many executives, if not in their plans, then in their actual behaviour, tend to fight shy of the inescapable corollary: digital transformation requires major organisational change. There are ways—difficult, time-consuming ways—of dealing with such change, but denial is not one of them.

Automation and Going Digital
Part 1: Is The Present Really Being Overwhelmed By The Future?

By Leslie P Willcocks
Apr 2021

The rhetoric on automation and digital transformation is very much about the future pushing out the present, but the present seems to be a lot more resistant than the rhetoricians would have us believe.

Robotic Process Automation and after at Mars

By Leslie P Willcocks & John Hindle
Mar 2021

The case gives insights into how automation was adopted, the business case, challenges, success factors and the business value delivered. We get a glimpse of the future direction with automation, and the executives and researchers discuss the lessons and insights derived from the case.

The Key To Digital Transformation: Change Management

By Leslie P Willcocks Feb 2021

Major projects mean big change and such strategic moves need not just change management underpinning the project, but also require the organisation itself to change, to some degree or other. How to achieve this?

A Digital Catch 22: After the crisis, who’s betting on Digital Transformation?

By Leslie P Willcocks Jan 2021

Today’s organisations are facing a Digital Catch-22. On the one hand, digital transformation is difficult and costly, and short-term investment may be needed elsewhere to where it is really hurting. On the other hand, today’s organisations cannot afford not to become tomorrow’s digital businesses. Let’s find some evidence for this proposition.

Progressing the Strategic Automation Agenda: The Case of an NHS Trust

By Leslie P Willcocks & John Hindle Nov 2020

This month we are taking an in-depth look at how East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust (ESNEFT)—one of the largest NHS trusts in the United Kingdom—have deployed Blue Prism and Thoughtonomy technologies (recalling that Blue Prism acquired Thoughtonomy in July 2019).

SMAC/BRAIDA:There’s More To Digital Than Automation

By Leslie P Willcocks
Nov 2020

The general view has been that the 2020–2021 pandemic has been already accelerating the adoption of automation...

So what are the major emerging digital technologies that will impact business everywhere? My rough guide begins with ...

Progressing The Strategic Automation Agenda: Lessons From Nielsen

By Leslie P Willcocks & John Hindle Oct 2020

We talked to two, senior executives at Nielsen—Deborah Fassi, SVP Transformation & Automation, Media and Retail Measurement, and Oleg Royz, Vice President – Global Digital Transformation / RPA. This is mainly in their own words, and we provide, at the end, an analysis of Nielsen’s progress.

Systemic Risk and Business: Dealing With The New Uncertainty

By Leslie P Willcocks Sept 2020

One truth that has been made manifest is that businesses have been, slightly blindly, operating in an interconnected, integrated, complex, dynamic world for some time. These tendencies are accelerating, and are creating, radical uncertainty and systemic risk.

How businesses will recover and use technology:
A comparison with previous crises

By Leslie P Willcocks August 2020

One essential task of management is to look after the short-term in ways that not only protect, but even enhance medium and long-term prospects. For businesses, the COVID-19 crisis presents massive challenges to fulfilling this quest.

RPA - Past, Present and Future

Interview of Professor Leslie Willcocks by Professor Christian Langmann of Munich University of Applied Sciences

The interview was published in: Rethinking Finance magazine (www.rethinking-finance.com), June 2020

Automation and Digitalization: What Happens Next?

Interview by Silicon UK -
Leslie P Willcocks

In late April 2020 Silicon UK contacted me with a range of questions on automation and digitalization. They published my answers in abbreviated form, so here is the full commentary …

COVID-19 Digital and Business Recovery: Getting Ready for the New Abnormal

By Leslie P Willcocks June 2020

Leslie Willcocks discusses his ‘future scenarios’ research that will appear in his forthcoming book, Global Business Strategy in Context, due for publication towards the end of 2020.

Working From Home: Five Essentials

By Leslie P Willcocks May 2020

After much confusion, clarity! Working from home, and now self-isolation, brings the chance to simplify my life. In some ways, as an academic, I am lucky because I have been doing this on and off for many years.

Misleading Metaphors Fuel The ‘AI’ Delusion

By Leslie P Willcocks May 2020

With ‘AI’ (‘Artificial Intelligence’, and please note the inverted commas) I often feel dizzy enough to channel Alice In Wonderland: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” Yes, indeed.

Homeworking, Systemic Risk and Technology

April 2020

Part 2 of an interview with Professor Leslie Willcocks, London School of Economics and Political Science by Peter Warren, Future Intelligence, April 2020.

Homeworking and Technology: For and Against

April 2020

Part 1 of an interview with Professor Leslie Willcocks, London School of Economics and Political Science by Peter Warren, Future Intelligence, April 2020

Remote Working: Here to Stay?

By Leslie P Willcocks
April 2020

Before the coronavirus pandemic the evidence on remote working was that as long as the job is suitable for performing from home, most people are more productive... Has that changed?

Automation Prospects in the Year of Coronavirus

By Leslie P Willcocks
April 2020

Full answers from 2 summarised magazine interviews

Robotic Process Automation: The Art of The Imaginable

By Leslie P Willcocks, John HIndle and Mary Lacity
March 2020

Our three cases illustrate some of the opportunities already being grasped by some organisations.

On Robotic Process Automation: Past and Prospects

By Leslie P Willcocks
March 2020

Interview extract - Leslie Willcocks talking to Dr Christian Langman

Slow Train Coming: Business Automation In Investment Banking

By Leslie P Willcocks & Andrew Craig|
Feb 2020

If you believe the hype, the potential is massive. But developments are surprisingly slow.

‘Robot’ Mania: For Good Or Ill?

By Leslie Willcocks |
Jan 2020

Are Robots getting a bad name?. Definition or modern culture, who's to blame?

RPA - The State of Play Today Part Three

By Leslie Willcocks |
July 2019

More On The Market. A Three-Part Conversation With Professor Leslie Willcocks, co-author of ‘Becoming Strategic With Robotic Process Automation'

RPA - The State of Play Today Part Two

By Leslie Willcocks |
July 2019

What's Happening in the Market. A Three-Part Conversation With Professor Leslie Willcocks, co-author of ‘Becoming Strategic With Robotic Process Automation'

RPA - The State of Play Today - Part One

By Leslie Willcocks |
July 2019

A Three-Part Conversation With Professor Leslie Willcocks, co-author of ‘Becoming Strategic With Robotic Process Automation'

Automation, AI and Comparative Advantage: What We Can Learn From South Korea

By Leslie Willcocks |
March 2019

South Korea is at a key moment in it's development, and, as a global would-be AI leader, should be studied.

Is Your RPA Deployment REALLY Strategic?

By Leslie Willcocks|
January 2019

If you want to optimize business value from your RPA investments, you need to replace seven of your actions, with a quite different philosophy. Here’s what the effective, smart companies do…

How Do Clients Source and Contract for Automation

By Leslie Willcocks and Mary Lacity|
November 2018

...and What Do They Do With the FTE Savings?

Client Deployments and Business Value

By Leslie Willcocks and Mary Lacity|
September 2018

We asked clients to indicate the adoption stages for RPA, CA, and blockchain in their organisations.

Automating Global Financial Shared Services: A Case In Point

By Leslie Willcocks, Gero Gunkel and Mary Lacity|
July 2018

We describe Royal DSM’s successful implementation of RPA, using Redwood Software

Zurich Insurance: Cognitive Is Up and Running

By Leslie Willcocks, Gero Gunkel and Mary Lacity |
10 May, 2018

Key technology trends were explored in the revision of Zurich`s Technology & Operations strategy

An Unlikey Success? RPA at innogySE

Leslie P Willcocks & Mary C Lacity |
3 April, 2018

One case we examined looked an unlikely candidate for RPA.

How AI will impact the financial jobs market

Jon Ward |
29 March, 2018

“AI will create a shift in the skillsets which are in demand.”
Originally posted at – https://www.wealthwizardsplatform.com/blog/how-ai-will-impact-the-financial-jobs-market/