Since the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution, humans have feared machines taking over their jobs.
One can argue that mechanization erased some jobs, but it shifted the nature of work rather than eliminating it, pushing workers to pursue new skills to better their lots in life.
Two centuries later, workers now worry about computers and robots making their jobs irrelevant.
True, robotic machines on factory floors perform some tasks with greater speed and accuracy than their human counterparts.
Yet we humans are still here, performing ever-higher-value functions the machines cannot. The outcome is, again, more innovative, higher-quality products and more satisfied customers and employees.
Despite its name, robotic process automation doesn’t require physical robots trudging through corporate hallways. It’s the robotic performance of repetitive tasks with well-defined input and outputs - not unlike the coded instruction for factory machines - that gives RPA its name. RPA “bots” are rule-based software that’s valuable for automating tasks like scanning an invoice and transferring its data into the accounts payable system.
However, whole business processes are far more complex than a series of static functions strung together. As the COO of a company that provides automated solutions driven by artificial intelligence (AI), I’ve learned that true business process automation requires more than bots. It needs AI technology working with those bots to not only perform repetitive manual tasks but also to mimic the way humans think, analyze and decide the appropriate next course of action.
Deploying an RPA bot is analogous to using a hammer. It’s great for driving nails, but when confronted with a screw or another fastener, it cannot perform as expected. A bot that tries to do its job regardless of its inputs can cause damage (digitally speaking), possibly shutting down the workflow that relies upon it.
We can use RPA to automate finite processes where it makes sense, but then a higher level of intelligence must take over. Business processes require intelligence that is always assessing, learning, and optimizing the actions and the outcomes to make ever-better decisions. In today’s enterprise, that intelligence is typically human, but that is changing.
Leveraging AI (alongside RPA bots) enables far more flexible work processes and decision-making based on a deep understanding of all the data available. Unlike static, hard-coded RPA bots, AI is adaptive, algorithm-based technology. It mimics human thinking and intelligence, extracts and analyzes vast amounts of data, and learns (or can be taught) how to handle exceptions without intervention. AI models can continuously improve their accuracy and efficiency.
That doesn’t mean RPA bots will disappear. RPA is a relatively low-risk entry point into the world of process automation, performing repetitive tasks where the parameters rarely change and human involvement is infrequent. However, when the business itself changes at lightning speed, even “static” tasks can change overnight. Your bot programmers better stand ready, or you’ll find yourself doing that task manually again.
Embedding AI in process automation addresses three business needs that are important in the long-term but which bots simply cannot provide.
RPA can help a business on its path to automation by eliminating tedious, repetitive tasks without the need for human intervention. Just show the bots what to do, and they require little intervention - as long as the data inputs match the expected parameters. Unfortunately, as the adage claims, change is the only constant, and that means frantically updating bots’ code to keep up. And even at their best, bots can only automate finite tasks within a business process, not the whole process from end to end.
To realize the true promise of process automation, we should use RPA where it makes sense to do so, but leverage AI-based technology for everything else. AI is far more adaptive to change because it is constantly learning and optimizing. But don’t worry - while AI offers organizations increased adaptability, scalability, and an ever-extending scope of application, it’s not likely to replace good ol’ human workers any time soon.
About the Author
Our U.S. Chief Operation Officer, Steve Smith, is a member of the Forbes Business Council where this article was originally published.
Steve Smith. Steve manages the entire North American, South American, and Latin American operations for Esker, and is a member of our Board of Directors.
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