Technology has radically transformed the way we do business. From reducing waste to refining analytics, each new stride has had profound and positive consequences for organizations. As the pace of digital innovation accelerates, new emerging technologies promise even greater benefits—building the need for intelligent automation in UiPath.
One of these relatively new trends is called intelligent automation (IA). In this article, we explore what IA is, its key benefits, and some real-world business applications.
If IA sounds like the right move for your organization, check out ProTech’s comprehensive intelligent automation UiPath courses. Whether you’re implementing IA from scratch or looking to take your automation to the next level, we’ve got something for you.
What Is Intelligent Automation (IA)?
Intelligent automation (also known as “intelligent process automation”, “hyper-automation”, or “cognitive automation”) marks a major turning point in the way business is conducted. It represents an intersection between several cutting-edge branches of software programming, including:
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
- Business Process Management (BPM)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Computer Vision
- Cloud platforms and workflows
Despite this sophisticated range of technologies, the goal of IA is actually quite simple: Re-humanize work by automating end-to-end computer processes. But what exactly does this mean for workers?
Contrary to the belief that machines will usurp the workforce, IA is actually designed to empower employees. With proper implementation, IA enables workers to devote more time and energy into meaningful work instead of toiling away at tedious tasks. This is true across a range of industries, including banking, financial services, healthcare, insurance, and more.
What’s the Difference Between IA and RPA?
On the surface, intelligent automation just sounds like a fancy term for robotic process automation. But there are key differences. In fact, when used in combination, RPA and IA give organizations a tremendous strategic and tactical advantage over the competition.
Think of robotic process automation as the metaphorical hands of your operation. RPA is a technology that excels at performing structured, repetitive, rule-based tasks. In other words, the kind of time-consuming and error-prone work that employees dread.
IA, on the other hand, can handle unstructured data and “learn” through technologies like ML, NLP, and computer vision. This allows IA to adapt over time, incrementally optimizing end-to-end processes and workflows. To stretch our analogy further, IA is the brains behind your operation.
Whether your organization operates in financial services, healthcare, insurance, public sector, or another industry, IA and RPA make a powerful duo.
2 Major Benefits of Intelligent Automation
In this section, we look at two proven ways that IA can optimize business performance and discuss the downstream benefits to your organization.
1.Boost Employee Engagement, Productivity, and Revenue
Recent Gallup data suggests that a whopping 85% of employees are disengaged with their work. In economic terms, this translates to nearly $7 trillion in lost productivity. But what’s driving this tremendous indifference?
Gallup concludes that workers aren’t lacking in intelligence or ability. Rather, what they lack is a sense of meaning. Instead of playing to their strengths, employees feel like much of their time is eaten up by menial tasks; instead of contributing to real business objectives, their energy is sapped by tedious administrative chores.
IA can restore an employee’s sense of purpose by automating tedious processes and workflows. This frees up more time for your workforce to engage in creative problem-solving. Ultimately, improving employee engagement is one of the most effective ways to drive productivity, ingenuity, and revenue.
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2.Improve Customer Satisfaction and Retention
Customer feedback is essential to running a successful business. Listening to your clients will not only improve their experience, it’ll help your organization uncover and refine areas in need of improvement.
Unfortunately, over 95% of dissatisfied customers provide no feedback whatsoever. Meanwhile, 91% of them will simply take their business elsewhere after a negative experience. With no constructive criticism at your disposal, how can you be expected to improve? Luckily, the answer is more obvious than you think.
Barring any problems with your product/service offering, the issue almost certainly has to do with customer service delivery: Inefficiencies, errors, and slow response times unfailingly lead to frustrated customers ready to jump ship.
These issues are all symptoms of manual processes and workflows. IA can resolve this by quickly and accurately executing these types of tasks. In fact, according to some estimates, IA has the power to increase customer satisfaction by 50% while equally decreasing contact center workloads. That’s a win-win.
Two Examples of Intelligent Automation in Action
The benefits of IA are undeniable, but you may still be wondering what kind of business applications are best suited to it. Below, we offer two real-world applications to illustrate its versatile use cases across a range of industries.
1.IA in the Healthcare Sector
Even before COVID-19, the healthcare sector was under enormous strain. According to a survey by the American Medical Association (AMA), doctor burnout reached an all-time high of 63% in the wake of the pandemic.
Besides resolving the labor shortage, is there anything that can be done right now to alleviate the pressure on physicians? Part of the solution lies in intelligent automation.
IA can be used to offload peripheral activities that eat into time spent with patients. In fact, a study by UiPath demonstrated that IA has the potential to save 10 million lives a year by offloading auxiliary tasks from doctors.
Even more promising, IA is now being used to assist with disease diagnosis. Thanks to increasingly sophisticated computer vision, IA can reliably assist doctors in diagnosing certain medical conditions such as skin diseases and burns.
2.IA in the Insurance Industry
Experts know that insurance companies must walk a fine line between profitability and customer experience. Like an equal arm scale, one of these always seems to go down as the other goes up.
But IA has the power to improve both of these seemingly contradictory goals. How? Below, we list 10 ways that IA is equally good for your bottom line as it is for your clients. IA can help to:
- Detect fraud;
- Optimize portfolios;
- Improve efficiency among staff and equipment;
- Decrease contact center overhead;
- Automate previously outsourced services in-house;
- Reduce errors and inefficiencies in administrative tasks;
- Improve scalability;
- Foster innovation;
- Protect customer data from leakage or breaches;
- Automate regulatory compliance.
Get UiPath Intelligent Automation Courses to Drive Your Business, With ProTech
As we’ve seen, intelligent automation offers many benefits. It can foster human ingenuity, eliminate errors, streamline workflows, and boost revenue. In every sense of the word, IA is a disruptive technology with a bright future.
Looking to take your organization to new heights? Whether your business is focused on financial services, healthcare, insurance, or the public sector, IA has become an indispensable tool in your operational toolbox. That’s where we come in.
For over 30 years, ProTech has been leading the way in IT training and certification. Our user-friendly and flexible courses are designed to give you a competitive edge in your industry—from beginner to expert. Get a full refund if you’re not 100% satisfied with the results. Contact us to learn more about our UiPath intelligent automation courses today.