Intelligent Automation and myths around it!
The very first time when someone asked me this question, “What do you think about IA”?
My immediate reaction was “do you mean IA or AI? What I thought was by mistake he said IA. But when I discovered about it, I realized, being a QA engineer I should be knowing anything and everything happening in the space of IA (Intelligent Automation). This is a combination of two words, “INTELLIGENT” and “AUTOMATION”.
Let’s try to understand one by one. But before that let’s go one step behind and understand RPA and its role in automation. RPA is the short form of “Robotics Process Automation” which helps us automate the mundane, repetitive tasks like report generation, invoice processing and data entry. While it plays a vital role in automating activities that require multiple repetitions of the same sequence, its most significant shortfall is that it doesn’t “learn” from its tasks. That is where “Intelligence” comes into picture. “Artificial Intelligence” adds the “cognitive” aspect to automation, allowing users to extend the horizons of business process automation. It does this by combining the task execution of RPA with the machine learning and analytics capabilities of cognitive technologies, like computer vision and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
This unique combination allows users to automate more dynamic, end-to-end processes involving structured or unstructured data.
But being talk of the town, it is destined to be surrounded with myths. Below are some common myths around “Intelligent Automation”.
MYTH 1: It will eliminate jobs
Well, it’s true that many tasks which were previously performed by humans like contact centers are now automated with technologies like RPA, but artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to rely on humans because AI still needs training. In short, jobs are being re-defined and not being replaced. Robots can never be “set and forget”. They need to be managed operationally and maintained technically.
MYTH 2: It may not work across all the industries.
While it is true that industries like finance have accelerated at a faster pace than other economic sectors, but that does not conclude that other sectors cannot benefit from this technology. Every industry has scope to enhance customer engagement and automate back-office tasks.
MYTH 3: We can do this without involving IT.
This can happen in few instances but if you look at the holistic view than without IT we cannot go far. Whether in providing access for the bots via user IDs, governance, or assisting with major glitches as underlying systems change, you are going to need people in IT.
I am sure there would be multiple other small or big myths around it which were not covered in the above discussion. Please let me know your views and if you can think of any other myth.
