By: Esteban Peña
Rpa Engineer
INTRODUCTION
RPA is a technology that allows bots’ creation by observing digital human actions 1 and through the identification and interaction of technological processes. For this, software has been developed to cover more environments to automate, using tools such as selectors detection or images to achieve a reliable interaction. The next step of RPA is for the bot to identify and perform process tasks by itself; this step is IPA (Intelligence Process Automation), in short, an Intelligent Bot.
The role of AI in IPA is to extend the bot’s capacities, using technologies that allow reaching new levels of productivity2; for example, better execution times and a further understanding of automated processes.
RPA is reaching a new era in which greater complexity and high profitability are possible.
WHAT IS IPA?
IPA is the use of AI disciplines that gives the bot an emerging set of new technologies that mix the redesign of fundamental processes with robotic process automation3; such tools allow, in the first instance, the consolidation of a process where the bot will be able to react in cases outside of those previously programmed, resulting in a mutualistic relationship in which the RPA is considered as the body that executes the process, and AI is the brain that deals with the different situations that arise.
CAPABILITIES
IPA advances are directed towards three main objectives: interaction with the environment (Computer Vision), an extension of automation possibilities (Process Mining), and document recognition (Intelligent Document Processing).
COMPUTER VISION
Computer Vision allows the bot to identify interfaces more efficiently and accurately; it eliminates the dependence on selectors to maintain familiar workflows for RPA programmers 4 through a more reliable identification of the applications it works with. Computer vision also provides tolerance to changes that increase the number of automatable processes; it also decreases the probability of errors when identifying an element in an interface.
PROCESS MINING
With process mining, it is possible to analyze the flow of information using AI to identify automation opportunities throughout the company2 scientifically, thus facilitating the process of requirements gathering, having as an additional value the improvement and more excellent reliability that To-Be will have when performing automation.
At the same time, it provides the opportunity to evaluate the automation opportunity beyond the biases that Business Analysts may have.
INTELLIGENT DOCUMENT PROCESSING
IDP uses AI tools such as RPA, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP), to extract, validate and process this data5, thereby increasing the value provided by the bot, providing information systems that not only serve to reduce work hours but also enable faster and more effective decision making.
EXPECTATIONS
Given the advances in AI and the more significant impact of digital artifacts in daily life, it is expected that the automatable digital processes will increase, and in the future, most of the robots will be lesser or greater extent influenced. Robots’ functions will be manipulated, altered, or expanded using the knowledge that this discipline can provide, and in return, with the increased field of what can be automated. More stylized methods will appear not only for the treatment of the data used, but also by interacting with applications in different machines.
CONCLUSIONS
1. IPA is a branch of RPA that influences beyond development, having essential and exciting participation in each of the processes carried out in a project, from analyzing how automatable a process can be to its testing.
2. In the same way as RPA can be benefited by using AI in IPA, several AI fields can be improved by using such technology, as it can provide support and insight to AI tools in real-time.
REFERENCES
- What is RPA: https://www.automationanywhere.com/la/rpa/robotic-process-automation
- Automate more processes by bringing AI into RPA: https://www.uipath.com/product/ai-rpa-capabilities
- Intelligent process automation: The engine at the core of the next-generation operating model: sipotra.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Intelligent-process-automation-The-engine-at-the-core-of-the-next-generation-operating-model.pdf
- Automate on dynamic interfaces and virtual desktops: https://www.uipath.com/es/product/platform/ai-computer-vision-for-rpa
- Intelligent Automation: How Combining RPA and AI Can Digitally Transform Your Organization: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/intelligent-automation-how-combining-rpa-and-ai-can-digitally-transform-your-organization
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