Why is Intelligent Automation Important?

Hyperautomation and Intelligent Automation (IA) are buzz phrases in the realm of today’s business imperatives, and for good reason. They have been contributing richly to the boom in the use of AI-driven automation tools in the business and IT terrains! Leading enterprises have started harnessing the strengths of such automation tools for driving long-term success. It is something you should be aware of, in order to make sure your enterprise meets market requirements optimally. Be it healthcare, manufacturing or finance, welcoming intelligent automation into your business or enterprise can usher in benefits that not only impact the bottom line but also have a great effect on customer experience.

Many times, hyperautomation utilizes optical character recognition (OCR), natural language processing (NLP) and intelligent document processing (IDP) to enable superior automation using data from multiple sources. You may be familiar with some or all these components. Now if your question is: ‘What does Intelligent automation (IA) entail?’, do read on. In this blog, let’s explore the value of Intelligent automation (IA) as well as the factors that set it apart from Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Happy reading!

What is Intelligent Automation (IA)?

You can think of Intelligent Automation (IA) as an offshoot of AI and a sophisticated, evolved version of automation in general. Also called intelligent process automation, in essence, it’s a power-packed blend of technologies like machine learning, natural language processing, intelligent document processing, and structured data interaction.

What IA does is, it reaches beyond rudimentary, rule-based work, and unlocks fresh possibilities for sustained growth, as it’s composed of robotic process automation (RPA – that you must have read about in our recent blog), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and business process management (BPM).

What are the Differences between Intelligent Automation, RPA, and AI?

If you’ve been slightly mystified by these terms being used interchangeably, I hope the explanation that follows gives you some clarity:

IA v/s RPA: It’s quite easy when you perceive automation as a continuum. RPA evolved into IA and in turn, IA evolved into hyperautomation. The primary purpose of IA or Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) is to help organizations automate processes that involve structured as well as unstructured data. Traditional RPA can help you with only structured data. Not just that, IPA automates tasks more efficiently than RPA. It’s true that with RPA, repetitive work can be assigned to bots, but it’s necessary to keep in mind that analysts do need to retrain RPA bots.

IA v/s AI: Let’s face it, the words ‘automation and AI’ bring to mind autonomous machines taking people’s places. So, here’s the clear difference: IA considers humans to be at the center of the system and decision-making. On the other hand, AI places technology at the center.

Being an offshoot, IA is definitely AI-driven. Programmed with built-in logic, it also steadily learns ‘on the job’ (as it is used) much like humans would, as they are trained. What’s perhaps its most brilliantly useful feature is that – the more that IA is used, the more intelligent it gets!

Well, now that you are familiar with the distinct differences between IA and its related tech terms, let me shed some light on certain key advantages and examples of IA.

Key Benefits and Examples of Intelligent Automation

IA can drive an enterprise towards becoming an enhanced version of itself in the ways shown below:

Also, here are some examples of intelligent process automation services and solutions that can add great value to the operations of enterprises:

• Customer relationship management – Does your enterprise cater to a massive number of customers? IA analyses and integrates customers’ contact details, past purchases, interaction history and product preferences so that the concerned staff get to know the customers they’re serving better. Interestingly, intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs – that are human-like versions of traditional chatbots) can build a sizeable vocabulary and answer enquiries precisely! This use case would manifest as patient engagement in the healthcare sector. Take for instance, the treatment and diagnostic suggestions thanks to the document classification and text analytics enabled by IA.
• Automated inventory management –Optimizing your inventory control systems with the help of intelligent automation can boost bottom-line ROI. IA technology can leverage data to recognize purchasing patterns and predict replenishment accurately. Not just that, customers’ shopping and shipping expectations can be easily met through a referencing of data across databases and warehouses.
• Price comparison – If your enterprise gets involved in large purchases, the expedition of online research for making decisions about pricing can be quite tiresome. So, it’s understandable why a lot of companies are implementing IPA to make informed decisions. A thoughtfully crafted IPA solution draws up comparisons of prices quoted by multiple vendors, and product features too.
• Payroll transactions and invoice processing –Enterprises facing issues due to delayed and incorrect payments could bid adieu to these problems by employing IPA. IPA software robots handily automate data entries and communication of decisions to be made by finance teams during the payroll and invoice processing, taking the pace of work up and bringing the number of errors down.

Suffice it to say, IA indeed has several interesting industry applications!

I hope this blog gave you some insights into why exactly IA matters to enterprises like yours in this era of digital transformation. In a nutshell, it certainly has the potential to help your automation dreams materialize. Along with it, hyper intelligent automation (or hyperautomation, like I mentioned at the beginning of the blog) automates all that’s possible in a business, harnessing the magic of Intelligent Process Automation. A statement by Gartner clearly reflects the surge in adoption of hyperautomation across several industries: “…By 2025 more than 20% of all products and produce will first be touched by a human at the time of purchase.” An intriguing possibility, wouldn’t you say?

Write to us at Nitor Infotech with your comments or suggestions about intelligent automation trends!