Intelligent Automation is amongst one of the most futuristic technologies that are taking the world by storm. As evidenced by the pandemic, the logistics and operations can be severely hampered by unexpected events, whether pandemic, climate change leading to severe weather disruptions, geopolitical changes, or even international and domestic trade policy changes. This technology is creating huge waves and is increasing the eventuality of making the most significant impact on the way organizations function since the internet first came into being.

What is Intelligent Automation?

Intelligent Automation is an amalgamation of Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence. It enables swift business process automation and helps in the proliferation of the digital transformation of an organization. It is indeed the harbinger of change and is transforming the way the world functions. When we talk about intelligent Automation, we talk about automated workspaces, technologically evolving and learning robots that use machine learning and neural networks, intelligent hyper predictive software, etc. It will also help address the most buzzed societal challenges in areas from health to climate change.

A person is likely to interact with intelligent Automation in everyday life like Chatbots, IoT devices, healthcare, banking, logistics, etc. All of these use artificial intelligence to provide a superior experience.

The Artificial Intelligence applications swiftly making their way into the consumer realm are voice assistants like Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant, and Microsoft's Cortana. Once considered a minuscule part of the smart speaker, Artificial Intelligence-equipped voice assistants are now potent tools that are acutely being amalgamated across entire ecosystems of channels and devices to provide an almost human-like virtual assistant experience.

According to Deloitte Insights, 58% of surveyed executives report they have initiated their intelligent automation journey. Of these, 38% are piloting (1-10 automation), 12 percent are implementing (11-50 automation), and 8% are automating at scale (51+ Automation).

Operational glitches associated with the pandemic signaled an urgent need to apace intelligent workflow initiatives. Intelligent Automation helps drive ameliorated efficiency and implementation. Eighty percent of the organizations scaling intelligent Automation expect to outperform the competition in profitability within three years.

Organizations that build a robust intelligent automation program combine a broad set of technologies, including robotics, bots, and devices, with Automation capabilities such as machine learning, natural language processing, augmented intelligence, and computer vision and hearing. An amalgamation of appropriate technologies for the task at hand enables intelligent workflow efficiencies but can also help drive increased revenue and profits.

The burgeoning use of Automation, Artificial Intelligence, and other intelligent technologies is changing how humans and machines interact. Almost 80 percent of organizations using intelligent Automation indicate that they will permit intelligent machines to render complex or mission-critical decisions within three years. Leveraging Intelligent Automation across an enterprise and ecosystem can build more adaptable businesses, the ones that can rapidly respond, pivot, scale up or down, and adopt new operating models. It is not necessarily the fittest, fastest, or strongest that will survive future disruptions—but the most adaptable.

Benefits of Intelligent Automation

1. It helps in automating any business process end-to-end.

2. Intelligent Automation saves time and cuts costs by reducing human interaction, increasing processing speed, and regularizing output.

3. It also helps in reducing operational glitches. RPA and Artificial Intelligence can navigate legacy systems and other barriers and help connect the front end and back end.

4. Intelligent Automation helps organize and process complex data. The tools capture, store, amend and retrieve records from unstructured sources, ensuring successful process implementation.

5. It efficiently eliminates errors and exceptions. Over the expanse of time, intelligent bots have learned to decrease exceptions by self-learning and also the process of handling them.

6. It aids and strengthens cybersecurity by implementing checks and balances to analyze networks and data structures, evaluate threats, and manage security threats before external sources manipulate them.

7. The most crucial benefit of Intelligent Automation is compliance. It enables affirmed adherence to requirements by regulatory statutes, industry standards, and prime practices.

8. Intelligent Automation helps achieve enormous customer satisfaction by ensuring agile response time, high accuracy, and consistent results.

Limitations of Intelligent Automation

1. One of the limitations of Intelligent Automation is to establish robust governance.

2. Lack of required infrastructure and technological ecosystem for Intelligent Automation to flourish.

3. Carving out an apt implementation strategy and choosing the right tools can be a hassle too.

4. Revamping the existing system and also retraining employees would be a difficult task for the organizations.

5. Managing risks is one of the most tedious challenges that Intelligent Automation poses.

6. Loss of Jobs is said to be the most denigrating effect of Intelligent Automation. According to McKinsey and Company, Automation will displace a considerable amount of workers. Around 15% of the global workforce or about 400 million workers could be left jobless by Automation in 2016–2030. Even at the slowest pace, only about 10 million people would lose their jobs, close to 0% of the global workforce.

Conclusion

Innovation and Technology will continue to revolutionize the way companies function. As we get geared for the future of business, it's crucial to understand how intelligent Automation can revamp and rejuvenate the organization and its operational capability, including the job functions. With appropriate knowledge and implementation, businesses can integrate intelligent automation systems to help employees work as efficiently and productively as possible. Each Technology has its benefits and limitations. But taking risks is what leads to innovation and creation. Intelligent Automation is a revolution and should be of the best use for the benefit of humankind. That is how a neanderthal became a civilized man.