RPA – What is it and what’s the hype?
Robotic process automation (RPA) is one of the most effective & established tools for businesses that are looking to maximize efficiency and reduce operational costs. With RPA, we can use artificial intelligence-enabled technology to automate repeatable, high-volume workflow tasks, free up valuable human effort and use them for more challenging work.
The term “robotic process automation” was first coined in 2000. While RPA is a relatively new term, the foundational technologies it’s built upon have been around for years. By leveraging screen scraping software, workflow automation software, and AI, which will make it possible to replicate human interactions with digital systems with prebuilt decision-making skills.
The economic impact of RPA is also predicted to be huge. According to recent research conducted by a consulting firm, RPA will have a total economic impact of $6.7 trillion by 2025. The study also states RPA will have a bigger impact than many other up and surging industries, including 3-D printing and autonomous vehicles, and may only trail with mobile Internet for phones and tablets.
How do organizations benefit from RPA?
RPA programs can accomplish a host of “simple” tasks, such as collating structured and semi-structured data, filling out forms, and logging onto applications. This leads to increased productivity and lowers costs. Enterprises become much more efficient by eliminating human error, as employees are freed from such tasks, they can shift focus to more complex challenges, such as working one-to-one with customers.
The Pros of RPA are evident:
- Increased productivity
- Increased employee satisfaction and retention
- Simplified customer service
- Lower business costs
- Opportunities for reskilling your workforce
RPA is here to stay and evolve as organizations have started embarking on a digital transformation journey. Furthermore, the reasons for the strong growth of RPA include
- Evolution #1: The ability to automate digital tasks has evolved from simple button clicks to more complex macros.
- Evolution #2: Processes are waiting to be automated. Automated workflows can take care of multi-level activity trees, automatically assigning and executing activities to keep the process moving forward
- Evolution #3: Tasks that used to require human input and intervention can now be automated, from analyzing complex data sets to planning for future variables and even detecting fraud. All thanks to AI and its close relative, machine learning
Over the next five years, RPA along with AI&ML is expected to grow by more than 40% annually. We are not far now from the age of cognitive RPA. Through autonomous language processing, data mining, analytics, and machine learning, this generation of RPA will be able to leverage both structured and unstructured data to automate even the most complex digital processes. And mind you, we are just starting.
We will capture more on future trends in technologies during my next topic!!!