INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

– by Aastha Patel

CSE, Ist year
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WHAT IS INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION?

In simple words, Intelligent Automation (IA), can be defined as the unification of the two most widely-used technologies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), to bring about the digital transformation and extend the automation process in the business industry.

In case you are wondering what automation is, it is the application of technology to maximize the efficiency of a process with minimum human intervention. It relies on the prescriptive instructions and the structured data inputs given by the humans. This traditional automation has been utilized by companies for a long time.

WHAT ARE THE TECHNOLOGIES USED BY INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION?

Business Process Management (BPM) 

It ensures the efficient coordination of the people, system, and data. Its main objective is to provide a solid operational process for the business tasks that requires decision making, data generation, data exchanging, calculations, and storage from the beginning to the end.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 

The primary work of the RPA includes taking over repetitive tasks that have no exceptions, thereby reducing the human workload. This fast technology mainly replaces humans doing the simple work in business processes and that’s what makes it a robot. Due to this, people get more free time to focus on higher thinking skills and improve customer services.

Artificial intelligence (AI) 

I am sure most of you are aware of this technology. This has enabled us to create systems and machines that can think and self-learn just like us. It embraces many concepts like Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Big Data, Deep Learning, etc. Machines can now decipher patterns, analyze data, perform predictive analysis, and can implement decision making from previous experiences. This is how our Netflix and Youtube recommendations work.

RPA can only handle back-end business functions, while Intelligent Automation can handle the complex front-end tasks too. Adding Intelligence and BPM to the RPA, can increase the automating of complex business tasks and contribute to the incredible workflow, thereby improving the productivity of the company. 

THE WORKING OF INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

IA assists in the entire journey of automation, right from discovery to automation tasks to its optimization including all the front-end and back-end business complexities. 

Initially, it observes the work carried out by the people, analyzes and identifies the optimal workflow, and then proposes a path for automation of the business process using AI technology. 

Next, the AI tools are applied to the unstructured data including audio, video, and chat information to analyze the patterns in the data, reduce the repetitive tasks and make accurate predictions about productivity gains in the future.

Let’s take an example of emails and invoices to understand Intelligent Automation. The RPA is used for retrieving and downloading the files. On the other hand, AI is used to “read” the documents, extract the required information, and accordingly work upon it. The key advantages of using AI along with RPA, are accurate results and faster output with minimum human intervention.

In a nutshell, IA has expanded our abilities in Automation for the business process. 

BENEFITS OF INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

• Organizing Complex Data – IA stores, analyzes, manipulates, and retrieves the data from inputs and sources and runs appropriate processes on them.
• Eliminating Errors – IA improves the accuracy of the complex tasks and with time reduces the exceptional errors caused by self-learning.
• Reducing Operational Obstacles – It can operate on unstructured data, optimizes the human-digital workforce, and boosts up the productivity by giving consistent results.
• Increasing Cybersecurity – Manages to address the potential threats to the security by analyzing the network of data.
• Liberate Employees – It eliminates the repetitive tasks and hence the human concentration is shifted to thinking of innovative and creative tasks.

APPLICATIONS OF INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

More than 80% of business firms are already using this technology. Due to this, they have observed a significant increase in their ROI (Return On Investment).

FINANCIAL SERVICES

The digital workers can handle almost all the tasks from transfers to payment processes. It can also help the customers in office reconciliation in the back-end and customer-experience in the front-end. 

HEALTHCARE SERVICES

Implementation of check-ups for surgery, record retention, post-surgery administration are some of the things that the IA is capable of, hence significantly reducing the manual processes and overhead costs.

TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES

The IA offers great telecom services such as maintenance, installation, minimizing the downtime, and brings about customer satisfaction.

IA has succeeded in making our ideal Business Management a reality. The hybrid decisions of the human and the automation with intelligence have given a new definition to the digital transformation. It has proposed real solutions for our complex processes while simultaneously reducing our time, energy, and costs.

Thanks for reading, and will feel appreciated if followed by questions.

Keep reading, Keep learning.