Robotic Process Automation is beneficial across all activity sectors

RPA solutions can automate repetitive tasks across all activity sectors and in a wide range of organizational areas, such as recruiting, candidate selection, HR administration, accounting, billing, customer service, technical support, marketing, and sales. 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is transforming the way companies operate by letting them rapidly adapt and respond to market changes while creating internal processes that are more efficient, transparent, and better controlled than if they were performed by humans, due to the possibility of human error.

The last few decades have seen a steady increase in productivity. Thanks to digital transformation and RPA in particular, it now takes less time and money to perform more complex tasks, as RPA tools automate both simple and repetitive tasks by using bots, as well as the most complex processes by using other technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning.

One of the biggest benefits of RPA tools is their simplicity. Bots interact directly with systems and applications to streamline processes and reduce workload for humans. 

Automating a process using RPA consists of segmenting the process into basic tasks, defining the business rules, and using low-code or no-code software to create scripts that execute the process without any human intervention.

RPA solutions generally fall into two categories: assisted and unassisted. Assisted RPA robots run locally on a workstation and perform front-end activities, allowing the operator to monitor and guide the automation process. On the other hand, unassisted RPA robots execute processes fully automatically without requiring any human intervention and can be activated by specific events or programmed execution.

What is more, RPA solutions can automate repetitive tasks across all activity sectors and in a wide range of organizational areas, such as recruiting, candidate selection, HR administration, accounting, invoicing/billing, customer service, technical support, marketing, and sales. 

RPA is a crucial tool in the banking sector, enabling employees to do more and freeing up valuable time to focus on decision-making and strategic planning. This sector is also using RPA to automate customer service tasks, such as account inquiries, account updates, and account closures, to increase the accuracy and speed of data entry, to create and manage workflows in combination with task management software, to support the automation of back-office functions such as treasury and billing, and to improve customer relationships by automating responses to asked questions, call forwarding, and email management.

Healthcare is another example of where RPA is being adapted to meet a variety of needs. In the case of a hospital, it is possible to automate patient data entry, analyze medical records, manage prescriptions and refills, and much more. Automating processes in this sector helps to reduce errors, increase the efficiency of medical care, and reduce costs.

The RPA software market is highly competitive with numerous vendors constantly offering RPA software solutions and services. It is a fast-growing segment of the market, with growth of 31% in 2021, well above the global software market average. The RPA software market currently has more than 60 vendors and has seen several mergers and acquisitions in the past year. In the near future, robots will be able to learn through the combination of RPA with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Big Data, which will allow them to solve problems as they arise, and solve them in a better and more efficient way, regardless of the industry.

Article published on COMPUTERWORLD on September 13, 2022. Click here to read the article in its original source (in Portuguese).