Automation Anywhere appoints its first Chief Information Officer

Automation Anywhere, one of the leading companies in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has named Yousuf Khan as the company’s first Chief Information Officer. 

This is not the first time Khan has been appointed as the first CIO. he was the CIO of Pure Storage where he joined as the company's first CIO and was part of the leadership team that led the company through its IPO and international growth. Before Pure Storage, he was part of the leadership team of Qualys, where he also served as the company's first CIO, leading all IT including business applications, product integration, sales operations and security. 

Speaking on the appointment of its first CIO, Clyde Hosein, Chief Financial Officer, Automation Anywhere said, “Yousuf is a creative and innovative leader and his skills complement the talents of our IT leadership team as we build the systems and processes to support our vision of the Digital Workforce and building a robust enterprise business.”

Hosein believes that Khan’s industry knowledge, leadership and vision will play a fundamental role at Automation Anywhere as they continue to work towards their goal of helping organizations use automation to unchain human potential. 

As the first CIO of rapidly growing RPA player, Automation Anywhere, Khan will be responsible for leading and overseeing the vision, strategy and operations of its  IT department globally. He will also provide strategic IT leadership and direction for all business units and functions, delivering technology solutions that power innovation and operational excellence throughout the organization. 

A few months back, in November 2019, Automation Anywhere raised $290 Mn in Series B funding round led by Salesforce Ventures with additional funding from existing investors, including Softbank Investment Advisers and Goldman Sachs. Back then the California based RPA firm shared its plan to further advance the company’s focus on improving human-to-bot collaboration through attended automation, resulting in enhanced customer experiences and increased employee productivity. 

"Never before has there been such a transformative shift in the way we work, with artificially intelligent software bots changing how people, processes and technology interact for productivity gains," Mihir Shukla, CEO and co-founder, Automation Anywhere has then shared. 

Automation Anywhere, in last one year has taken many moves to enhance its capabilities and foster its growth. For instance, in August 2019, it had announced that it will invest $100 Mn in India to expand its existing base in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Vadodara. Additionally, new offices were to be set up in Delhi, Hyderabad, and Pune. Then, recently, in early November, it also acqui-hired the process of Cathyos Labs, a product engineering startup that would enable the organization’s product innovation and expansion. 

RPA is increasingly being adopted by enterprises – large and small. As per a Zinnov research and analysis, enterprises spent more than $2.3 Bn on RPA in FY19, with this number to grow exponentially by 35-40 percent and touch upwards of $11 Bn over the next five years. A plethora of bot marketplaces are coming in to play and making RPA deployment easier. 

Some of the leaders in the RPA space include Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Blue Prism. Each of these players have increasingly started investing in advancing their solutions in a span of one year. How these Work Tech players together revolutionize the world of work with AI powered tools and solutions is something to look forward to. It would also be interesting to see who among them all captures the largest market share.