IBM has sometimes struggled to convey a cohesive go-to-market message for its IT Automation suite. But this year's Think conference addressed this issue effectively.

First they came for factory jobs. Then they showed up in service industries. Now, machines are making inroads into the kind of white-collar office work once thought to be the exclusive preserve of ...

The major benefits of back-end automation are efficiency and cost reduction. Electronic record keeping and automated work processes reduce time spent on unnecessary tasks or steps.

The broader impact of office automation is less clear. Some research suggests that large amounts of office work are ripe for automation that will have a broad impact on jobs, but so far RPA tends ...