Financial institutions are planning to boost their budgets for robotic process automation as they look to gain efficiencies amid macroeconomic and COVID-spurred headwinds in 2021.

In a recent survey, 40% of financial institution respondents said they expect to increase spend for RPA within the finance department. The Deloitte Center for Financial Services released a report last week that surveyed 200 senior banking and capital markets executives across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific for its 2021 banking and capital markets outlook survey.

Deloitte pointed out that automation technology can be deployed to streamline processes within banks’ cybersecurity efforts; cybersecurity was identified as the number one area where banks plan to increase budgets for next year. Specifically, automated processes can allow banks to shift resources to more challenging threats and, when automation is combined with user behavior analytics and machine learning, it can further detect potential anomalous behavior on networks.

Beyond cybersecurity, financial institutions are also exploring customer-facing applications of robotics and automation. According to the survey, 39% of banks plan to add an AI-based robot banking assistant at their flagship branches during the next year.

But as banks look to integrate more automated solutions, they will need to ensure there can be a smooth handoff between robot and human, Sherry Comes, managing director at Deloitte’s applied AI group told Bank Innovation. “Making that user experience and that customer engagement as frictionless as possible, and getting people to the human when they want that human — and having that be a warm handoff is absolutely critical — I see a lot of automation in that space,” Comes said.

Even with the promise of improved efficiencies and scalability, some industry executives see RPA as a short-term Band-Aid rather than a long-term solution, while others have said most applications of RPA today don’t fully realize the technology’s potential.

The anticipated boost in RPA comes as banks explore different ways to strengthen operational and financial resilience in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Deloitte, 47% of North American respondents plan to implement technology to enhance efficiency in the next six to 12 months, while 29% will accelerate innovation initiatives during the same time frame. Technologies such as cloud, machine learning and RPA can contribute to significant cost-savings, while also helping to increase speed, improve accuracy and provide scalability, the report noted.