In the last several years, we have all witnessed the impact of new and emerging technologies which have completely revolutionized our lives and the way we work. With the rise of robotic process automation and artificial intelligence technologies, the automation of repeatable business tasks is on the rise. Among businesses from all types of industries, the concept of intelligent automation is becoming an exciting trend. Negative views suggest that automation is a way to replace humans with machines. Yet, in reality, the purpose of automation is to work alongside humans and empower them to work more efficiently both for higher-value tasks and for low-value and repetitive tasks.
No matter which industry your business is in, or the size of your company, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence can transform your business operations and help you achieve significant, tangible results. Business processes can often mean the difference between a successful company and an unsuccessful one. It is vital for businesses to ensure that all their processes are efficient. Read below how artificial intelligence and robotic process automation can empower and future-proof your business.
RPA is a revolution in business automation
So, what is robotic process automation and how it is used by businesses? Starting with defining the concept of robotic process automation, it is an application of technology that aims to automate business processes. It represents a preconfigured software that is able to mimic human actions. Using business rules and predefined activity choreography, it completes the autonomous execution of a combination of processes, activities, transactions, and tasks. It does not necessarily require physical robots as the software robots tend to mimic human actions by working with applications in the very same way that a person would do. Using rpa tools, a company can configure software to capture and interpret applications for various business tasks such as manipulating data, triggering responses, and communicating with other digital systems. RPA is a revolution in business automation as its scenarios can range from something extremely simple such as generating automatic responses to emails to deploying thousands of bots. Therefore, the efficiency and rapidness of the business processes increase considerably which empowers companies to aim better results and higher incomes.
The difference between AI and RPA
Although both emerging technologies are extremely beneficial for businesses, they are often wrongly believed to represent the same thing. However, robotic process automation is a software robot that mimics human actions, whereas AI is the stimulation of human intelligence by machines. The main difference between those two is represented by the way they are used by businesses. RPA is governed by the rules and business logic of the companies and their main goal is to automate and optimize business processes. On the other hand, AI is a form of technology that can replace human workflow as it is the area of machine learning that can operate as humans. Combining both robotic process automation and artificial intelligence, businesses can ensure the creation of a fully autonomous process.
Minimize operation and maintenance expenses
Implementing robotic process automation and artificial intelligence can help businesses significantly decrease their costs while increasing their profit. The main way that those emerging technologies can minimize business costs is by reducing errors and operational costs. They drastically increase accuracy through the fact that over time it builds more accuracy and perfection in analysis and cutting off deleterious items and errors which may appear in the business processes. Also, due to the faster processing time, they handle a large volume of routine work at high speed. As they ensure faster and smoother functioning of business processes, companies can ease out workflow which helps them reduce costs while ensuring maximum accuracy. Those revolutionary technologies also empower the employees. Employees no longer have to perform boring and repetitive tasks which have low-value. They are empowered to engage in more creative, challenging, interesting, and high-value activities that keep their motivation up.
Consistent quality control
Despite the negative views suggesting that robots will replace human employees, those technologies do nothing more than to empower businesses and their employees. For example, in manufacturing businesses, robots have become an essential part of building products. Yet, there is still a very real and present human element that supervises them. humans are a very creative force which is driven by ideas and visions. The repetitive tasks of checking systems and products to ensure high-quality may be boring and even demanding tasks. Therefore, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence step in to ensure more consistent quality control. Sensors and other smart devices help businesses eliminate low-quality products. However, RPA and AI systems have a bigger impact on the efficiency of a business. They provide continuous quality control over the entire business processes eliminating manual examining processes.
What can RPA and AI do for businesses?
To understand how businesses can benefit from using robotic process automation and artificial intelligence, we have to get familiarized with all the types of tasks they can perform. Software robots can be deployed to automate tasks including data entry, run and download reports, prepare a template, reconcile data, read and reply to emails, and get user inputs. Automating all those business processes which can be time-consuming and boring for human workflow, companies achieve several benefits.
- Software robots can reduce manpower as they cost a lot less than the salary of an employee which has to be paid every month.
- By executing business tasks instantaneously, they increase productivity and the speed of completing all business processes that ensure the success of a company.
- Employees are also empowered by RPA and AI as they no longer have to struggle with repetitive and mundane tasks.
- Better accuracy is also achieved with the help of software robots as they reduce and eliminate human error.
Robots are increasingly becoming more intelligent and versatile. Artificial intelligence and robotic process automation are empowering businesses from all types of industries to future-proof their success. It is the time for companies to digitally transform their operations from being manpower-intensive to being technology-centric.
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OCBC, one of the biggest banks in Singapore, uses RPA and AI for loan-repricing. It has intelligent bots checking clients’ eligibility for loans and suggesting repricing options that suit their needs best.
The bank’s virtual workforce can process each application in just a minute, while the employees, who used to manually check clients’ data and compile personalized lists of suggested packages, needed about 40 minutes to do the same job.