In our previous article, we introduced the concept of RPA (Robotic Process Automation). Here we will try to address some of the assumptions that arise when considering whether RPA makes sense for a company irrespective of its size or the industry.
Will RPA replace the humans in the workforce?
While RPA leans toward replacing the tedious repetitive tasks which are human error prone, it does not entirely replace the human workforce which is the life of the company. RPA is intended to improve the efficiency and productivity of people working in a company. No system, whether it’s AI or RPA, is intelligent enough to replace the rational mind of a human being and in essence human beings are indispensable.
RPA processes or robots can make mistakes
You are spot on! YES, RPA processes or robots can make mistakes, IF there is a flaw in their design. These robots will follow their instructions to the T and are not capable of correcting the flaw in their instructions. Hence testing RPA robots is extremely critical and crucial, it cannot be stressed any further.
APIs can be used instead of RPAs for automation
You are again right! I guess it’s a good day to buy a lottery ticket. Now back to the Assumption, there’s a huge caveat here. You can avoid RPA completely and build your automation using APIs, but why would you do that? It proves to be extremely cost ineffective and error prone. The major benefit of using RPA is to make the processes cost effective and not error-prone. RPA is designed to replicate human behavior at a large scale.
RPA works only in certain industries
As long as you are not in the niche area of making handmade samurai swords, it’s safe to say RPA will be useful for your industry. Every industry has tasks which human beings do that are repetitive in nature and prone to error. These are the areas that RPA targets to alleviate.
Here are some examples of tasks that RPA can address:
– Claims processing in the Insurance industry. Well, based on my experience in the insurance industry, I can say there are many tasks that are prime for RPA.
– Detecting fraud in banks and the payment processing industry.
– Detecting insider attacks in Salesforce CRM applications across any industry.
– Order management and processing, and logistics in retail and ecommerce.
RPA is costly
There, there! RPA is meant to be cost effective and would not be taken kindly if it was burning a hole in the proverbial pocket. RPA does have an initial implementation cost, however it is not as significant as BPM software or the famous API solution. Additionally it results in cost reduction in the processes and saves human hours thereby reducing expenditure in other areas.
Well, I hope I have provided some food for thought here for RPA and automation inside your organization, in line with UIPath vision to enable every customer to deliver ‘a robot for every person’ in the organization. As always, I value your feedback and am available to help your organization.