When you are looking to integrate automation into your business, it’s critical that you understand what you’re hoping to accomplish with the new processes. That clarity will help inform the type of automation that will work best for your organization.

 

In this article, we’ll cover the differences between robotic process automation and intelligent automation. We’ll share the pros and cons of both to help you decide which is best for your organization.

 

Robotic Process Automation

 

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a type of business process automation that uses technology to reduce the amount of manual tasks that a business needs to complete in a given day.

 

Instead of an employee completing these manual, repetitive tasks, a robot can complete the work instead. It’s recommended for programs or jobs where there are a lot of rule-driven tasks that don’t require a lot of additional thinking or decision-making.

 

Sample operations that are good for RPA include:

 

Data entry

 

Workflow processes

 

Administrative tasks (moving files, extracting data, etc.)

 

Many of these repetitive tasks are business-critical, but there’s a more efficient way to complete them. The technology is programmed to follow a set of rules to complete a task. It can recognize what’s on the screen, complete simple keystrokes and mouse movements, and mirror actions as defined.

 

Pros

 

There are many benefits of using RPA in your day-to-day work. They include the following:

 

Accuracy: You remove the margin for human error when you automate your data entry tasks, improving its accuracy exponentially.

 

Increase Productivity: Because bots operate continually, you can significantly increase task productivity. This is critical for companies that handle high volumes of tasks.

 

Improve Employee Value: Your employees are smart and capable, and when you take away manual, repetitive tasks, you free up their capacity to add meaningful value to the company. They will be happier and find their work more enjoyable, increasing job satisfaction.

 

Reduce Costs: You can increase your profitability when you’re able to reduce the amount of manual work you have to do.

 

RPA helps complete repetitive tasks more quickly and accurately than human employees.

 

Cons

 

There are some downsides to using RPA in the workplace that you also want to consider.

 

Cost: There is a cost to implement and maintain the software, and this can be prohibitive to some companies that have smaller budgets.

 

Inflexibility: RPA will complete tasks exactly as they are outlined. It will not think or remain agile if there are issues. It is highly structured.

 

Task Limitation: RPA can only complete simple tasks with clear and structured rules. It cannot handle complex tasks, so you may still need to use a human employee to finish the task if needed.

 

RPA is a simple automated solution that cannot handle more complex requirements.

 

Intelligent Automation

 

Intelligent automation (IA) combines the best features of RPA and artificial intelligence (AI) into a single software solution. It can intuitively respond to real-time situations using a mixture of automation processes.

 

IA is intended to help businesses understand how to automate processes to most effectively improve their workflow. It can include process mining, intelligent document processing, predictive analytics, and more.

 

Many may be familiar with predictive analytics, but what is process mining and intelligent document processing? And, more importantly, why do you need them in your workflow?

 

Process Mining: Using data pulled from information systems to learn, track, and enhance business processes

 

Intelligent Document Processing: Quickly and efficiently capture and extract data from documents and integrate it directly into business systems.

 

Predictive Analytics: Using data and trends to make projections and forecasts of what’s to come

 

IA can help you make data-driven decision making, freeing your employees up to add even more value to the business. You can easily see what processes are working and where time and money are being wasted.

 

Pros

 

IPA is a very powerful automation solution, and there are many benefits to using it.

 

Complex Tasks: IA can help complete tasks that require some form of decision-making. It can make decisions based on data and adjust operations accordingly.

 

Efficiency: IA combines AI and machine learning to help drive efficiencies in your processes and get smarter over time. You can do more with less.

 

Improve Customer Experience: It helps you resolve issues faster by providing the necessary data quickly and efficiently, even automating common issues.

 

Cons

 

While IA has many benefits, there are also some things you should watch out for.

 

Governance: Because IA learns, you have to invest resources to ensure it does not get corrupted. It requires oversight in addition to maintenance.

 

Cost: Like RPA, there is a cost associated with implementing IA, as well as maintaining it over time. This could be separate from the overall governance of the software.

 

Resistance: Many employees may resist IA because they feel technology is taking their jobs, making it harder to implement.

 

As long as you have resources available to help manage IA in your organization, including caring for current employees, you can overcome these drawbacks.

 

So, Which Is Better?

 

It’s hard to tell which is better. If you are limited by costs or looking for simple automation, you may want to invest in RPA. If you think you will need to do more complex automated tasks, then it will be better to start with IA. You get all the benefits of RPA combined with AI and other automation.

 

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which is better for your organization.