Robotic process automation or RPA is already in place in many businesses around the world. The results of it have been most promising. It has saved businesses a lot of money and made things more efficient. However, it’s important to remember that RPA is tech that’s still very much in its nascent stages, and it has a long way to go.
While there are no guarantees as to what the future of RPA would look like, there are some trends that are certainly emerging. In the long run, these trends may shape up to be the future. Read on to know what they are and how they may improve on the present state of RPA.
Solving complex work – RPA will go beyond basic tasks
The business climate right now is ripe for RPA to be implemented for the automation of basic tasks. However, the ability of RPA to go beyond the basic tasks is a bit limited. But it’s fair to say that it won’t stay that way with the continuous developments and refinements in the field of Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and deductive and predictive analytics. Over time, RPA will certainly be able to take on more complex tasks and solve them efficiently through the enhancement of organizational decision-making and the augmentation of human capabilities such as:
- The ability to learn, i.e. to acquire information along with the contextual rules for correct utilization and processing of the acquired information.
- The ability to reason, i.e. reaching conclusions by using a combination of context and rules.
- The ability to self-correct, i.e. learning from experience.
Different companies have different names for it. For instance, Gartner calls it hyperautomation, while Ernst & Young and Forrester call it intelligent automation. Well, whatever you call it, the fact is that the range of automatable processes through RPA is only set to grow. Right now, hyperautomation or intelligent automation is already capable of the following:
- Voice recognition
- Image identification and optical character recognition (OCR)
- Handwriting identification
- Change format detection
- Extracting entities and intent
- Text analysis
- Classification
- Sentiment analysis
- Categorization
RPA integration with these cognitive tools will also be possible, which will broaden the horizons of RPA tech even further.
RPA in reducing operational costs
According to a prediction by Gartner, companies leveraging RPA combined with intelligence are set to experience a 30 per cent reduction in operational costs by 2024. Intelligent automation’s advancements will surely play a key role in facilitating the evolution of RPA tech. However, the core RPA technology is set to stay and become even bigger in the automation and integration of a greater number of business processes for driving lasting organizational value.
Attended automation for customer support and compliance
The functions of bots are also set to be extended through attended automation or desktop automation. This technology involves an attended automation robot, which is a digital assistant residing on desktop PCs. The robot provides guidance to employees for delivering more quality in terms of customer experience and also automates repetitive tasks on desktop PCs with greater accuracy and efficiency.
Apart from populating forms, attended bots can provide compliance guidance as well, which can help customer support executives in solving customers’ queries faster. Attended automation tech is set to serve as a bridge connecting front-office and back-office tasks, allowing for the end-to-end automation of complex processes.
RPA increases efficiency but Intelligent Automation is the future
The future of RPA looks bright, to say the least. However, it’s one where RPA can’t survive alone, as it has reached its threshold in terms of what it can and can’t do. While the tech has made numerous tasks more efficient than before, it still can’t perform complex tasks. However, with hyperautomation or intelligent automation well on its way, it’s going to be fascinating how RPA tech integrates into future systems.
Implementing this cutting-edge technology is certainly not easy. We have a team specialised in RPA currently working on several complex RPA projects. Want to see it in action? Book a free consultation here.
