Automation in businesses entails optimization. It has cemented its place in the business sector a while back, and now with technological innovation happening at a breath-taking pace, it is taking a step even further. Enter, intelligent automation. Now, intelligent automation is here to replace Rule-Based Automation.

To put it in simple words, RBA is the simplest form of machine intelligence that implements human-made rules for data manipulation. It basically tries to replicate human intelligence. However, RBA is now a thing of the past and has been replaced by Intelligent automation.

Also known as cognitive intelligence, IA makes use of artificial intelligence (AI), business process management (BPM), and Robotic process automation (RPA) to automate manual and repeatable tasks to achieve efficiency. In this article, you will read about why IA is the future of business automation. And to start off on the right track, we’ll be shedding some light on everything you need to know about intelligent automation.

What is Intelligent Automation?

Intelligent automation is a system that leverages machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate replicable and routine tasks with great accuracy. As a result, it reduces the cost of human labor, increases productivity and efficiency, and provides accuracy.

To understand this better, let’s strip all IA to the basics. Consider a traditional RBA augmented with decision-making capabilities. This would result in an evolved, smarted, and automated successor to the RBA. The reason IA replaces a traditional RBA lies with the fact that an RBA is extremely rigid and requires humans to predict all possible scenarios in advance.

This is extremely tedious as the system is not capable of thinking independently and making smart decisions. An Intelligent automation platform possesses the ability to do this and more. It can act independently, interpret data, predict all possible outcomes, and make a decision accordingly.

As easy as it makes your work, the technology behind an intelligent automation platform is a lot more complex. Read on to know more about the three vital pillars of the IA system.

Three vital components of Intelligent Automation

A traditional IA system comprises three key components. The perfect amalgamation and implementation of these three key components will surely put you on a path to complete business transformation. They are as follows:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is the most critical component of intelligent automation. It enables analysis of data and problem solving by making use of computer science and robust datasets. It makes use of ML and deep learning to deliver an almost ‘human-like’ intelligence system capable of analyzing and solving a problem without actual human intervention.

AI uses these components to keep evolving by “learning” every time it is provided with a training dataset. It keeps learning from past experiences, and it gets smarter with every interaction. With time, it develops a massive knowledge base and can anticipate the user or customer requirements.

AI can learn from its past experiences and formulates predictions based on data. In short, AI is the best decision engine of the intelligent automation platform.

Business Process Management (BPM)

Also known as business workflow automation, BPM is an organizational discipline that automates workflows by employing methods to analyze and optimize business strategy and processes. It streamlines the business process by providing them with better agility and consistency, which improves interactions and engagement.

BPM strategies are built on three fundamental pillars. The three C’s, namely collaboration, coordination, and control. BPM isn’t essentially a new concept. Six sigma and lean principles are prime examples of business process management methodology.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

RPA, also known as software robotics, uses automation technology to build, deploy, and manage software robots that take over back-office tasks of humans such as extracting data, filling forms, etc. It uses API (Application Programming Interface) and user interface interaction to perform repetitive tasks, saving resources and ridding human workers from mundane tasks.

It trains AI and ML algorithms to help increase their efficiency. To put things into perspective, AI and ML cover the ‘learning’ and ‘thinking’ bit of the task at hand. After this is done, RPA steps in and ‘executes’ the required task.

Benefits provided by Intelligent Automation

Reduce operational costs by augmenting the workforce

IA automates business systems and processes, making life a lot easier for human workers. But here, accuracy can be questioned. Are intelligent automation platforms really as accurate as a human worker? The answer is no; they are even better! They use data and analyses to deliver 100% accurate results at all times, assuring compliance.

And they do all this without compromising quality or straining the existing workforce. Automating tasks with IA can be equivalent to almost one or more full-time equivalent (FTE). Therefore, these resources can be put to better use and carry out more value-adding tasks somewhere else in the business.

Service continuity and improvement in customer service

Unlike humans, software robots are available 24/7. The most prominent example of this is chatbots. These chatbots are available to help even outside business hours. This leads to greater customer satisfaction, as they don’t have to wait for your customer service team to respond. They provide customers with a richer and positive experience, thereby giving your company a competitive advantage.

Address compliance and regulations with confidence

Industries usually have strict regulations and compliance policies in place, which they have to adhere to strictly. Intelligent automation platforms can leverage their AI to familiarise themselves with the specific regulatory policies in place completely and pave the way towards a more consistent and efficient approach towards compliance.

Interpret big data

Industries collect mounds and mounds of data in a single day. Even if an average human being works at maximum efficiency, it would be a task to siphon through and make sense of all boundless big data. Therefore, intelligent automation platforms are implemented as they can handle this data without breaking a sweat.

Cross-industry compatibility

Robots are not only faster and more reliable but can also be used across different industries and platforms.

Why are businesses turning to intelligent automation?

Intelligent automation is a must-have for industries in today’s day and era. With technology peaking and massive amounts of data being accumulated every minute, it would be impossible for the human workforce to handle mundane day-to-day operations and efficient functioning of the industry as a unit at the same time.

Hence, if enterprises do not want to lose their competitive advantage, they have to turn to intelligent automation platforms. Processes that involve data management, moving the data from one business to another, or presenting it to a client can be easily automated by IA platforms.

If managed by the human workforce, these tasks will be executed at a significantly slower pace and prone to a plethora of errors. Let’s look at a study conducted by Accenture involving 200 federal government executives across both defense and civilian agencies to prove this point. Intelligent automation enables:

• 47% reduction in manual intervention
• 37% acceleration in end-to-end processing
• 36% reduction in errors in improved consistency
• 30% improvement in output generation

Applications of intelligent automation software

Automotive industry

Intelligent automation enables manufacturers to seamlessly predict and adjust production to bring the supply at par with the rise or fall in demand. They can streamline their workflows with excellent efficiency and reduce errors in production, support, etc. Not only that, but intelligent automation platforms can replace a chunk of the human workforce with robots, reducing errors and manufacturing higher quality products for a lower cost.

Life sciences

Intelligent automation can serve as an integral part of drug production. Drug production requires extremely precise calibration of equipment and measurement of the product. Not to say that humans won’t be able to do so, but the process is much faster and error-free with robots. It also involves a tremendous amount of data collection, collation, and analysis.

Financial services

Customer support professionals for financial services have to make a lot of effort in collecting customer data from multiple channels. This can be time-consuming, affect customer journey,  and is an utter waste of the workforce in today’s day and age. An IA tool is completely capable of pulling data from the database and auto-appending data from the channels being used to communicate with your customers.

The future of intelligent automation

Lower cost of operation, better quality, and top-notch customer service are compelling businesses to turn towards intelligent automation. It has spawned a whole new array of possibilities. Companies with intelligent automation platforms have seen a significant improvement in their workflow and have undergone a complete digital transformation for the better.

Not only that, but you don’t even require your own software team to manage your IA system. Therefore, it is inevitable that companies will turn towards intelligent automation for a competitive edge and seamless workflow.

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