Robotic process automation represents the digital continuation of an industrial revolution which began in the 1970s: the steady advancement of automation, allowing engineers to accomplish tasks which once required direct human guidance. In the case of RPA, the automation refers to digital processes, such as the sharing of information between systems and the processing of financial data. This is a cutting-edge field, in which innovative new developments are appearing on a regular basis, but many of its most important advancements have long since been taken for granted. Online shopping is one example of an everyday activity, all over the world, which would not be possible without robotic process automation streamlining the financial transactions and the secure connections between remotely located networks and databases.
Here are five examples of how RPA is changing the world today, right under our noses:
Digital Technology and Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting in information technology is notoriously painstaking. Through advancements in software automation and artificial intelligence, the process can be made much easier. The most tedious and time-consuming aspects of common problems can be solved quickly, by automated processes, freeing up human professionals to tackle work on a level to which our abilities with automation have yet to catch up. This has the side benefit of keeping human IT workers more interested, as their jobs are suddenly far less repetitive.
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Web Analytics
Web analytics is crucial to online data processing, marketing, and advertising. These multi-billion-dollar industries depend upon the ability to analyze huge amounts of behavioral data, in order to predict the wants and needs of a steadily growing base of online consumers. Automated web analytics software allows for consumer behavior to be predicted in advance with amazing accuracy, allowing a wide range of digital product and service providers to exceed their customers’ expectations.
Simple Automation
Despite the name, simple automation reflects a level of “knowledge work” which used to take up a great deal of an information technology worker’s time. A significant amount of IT work involves tasks which take a lot of time to complete due to the number of otherwise straightforward steps involved. This takes up the time of highly paid human professionals. The use of sophisticated artificial intelligence software to automate these steps according to a simple system of comprehensible rules allows said professionals to apply their skills to less tedious, more challenging work. The professionals are pushed to increase their skill sets, and money is saved in the long run.
Help Desk Software
Modern artificial intelligence software is complicated enough to appear deeply intuitive, particularly with regard to relatively simple technical problems. An automated system can serve as a preliminary user interface between consumers and otherwise overtaxed customer support personnel. Today’s AI software can analyze symptoms like a medical professional analyzing a patient, address the most likely common causes of a malfunction, and suggested related issues in short order if the initial diagnosis turns out to be inaccurate.
Personal Digital Assistants
Software like SIRI, or the advanced functionality of the Amazon Fire, depends upon advanced forms of digital automation in several ways. The ability of modern computer software to recognize and process the human voice is far deeper and more accurate than anything we might remember from years past; this is a crucial element of the modern AI interface. Software which learns our habits, to the point where it can predict our behavior to a certain extent, also makes day-to-day tasks which are part of a person’s routine much easier to accomplish — and such attributes are necessary for the increasingly common personal digital assistant.
Despite lingering fears about automation in general, robotic process automation is a necessary step forward in the ability to meet the needs of both businesses and consumers. It saves money, supports the skilled worker, frees up time previously occupied by monotonous and tedious tasks, and allows helps the digital world to run that much more smoothly.
