Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a core digital technology for increasing productivity and efficiency, speeding the completion of work, and increasing its quality and controllability. The use of RPA is evolving to include a broader set of more complex automation capabilities, and by infusing intelligent methods and techniques in processes, RPA can be instrumented for very sophisticated processing.
RPA software acts as a “digital worker” (and so collectively, a “digital workforce”) that performs rote repetitive jobs so humans can concentrate on work that requires their experience and judgement. Usage of RPA began with the automation of discrete tasks within multi-step processes, but today the tools have grown to be highly versatile and can bring advanced digital techniques to bear, such as text and speech translation, blockchain incorporation, sentiment analysis and response, elastic search, and machine learning that enables them to handle increasingly complex requirements. And due to ongoing advancements in hardware capabilities, these digital workers can handle even more resource-intensive and time-consuming tasks and processes. RPA can go beyond automating tactical processes to be a strategic digital workforce capable of performing business-critical tasks that require connecting multiple systems and data stores reliably at scale.
