The future of work is here, and it’s not just defined by the rise of flexible working schedules, and cloud-based software. AI, and intelligent automation, have become increasingly commonplace in virtually every industry – enhancing productivity, efficiency, and creativity at scale.
The market for intelligent process automation alone is accelerating towards a value of $67.73 billion by 2034, and new AI algorithms are giving companies ways to automate more than ever before. Companies like Microsoft are even embedding intelligent automation capabilities into a new generation of “autonomous agents”, set to revolutionize how humans and AI work together.
In the future, intelligent automation has the power to help companies in every sector slash costs, improve customer and employee experiences, and enhance decision making tasks.
So, what exactly is intelligent automation, how does it work, and how are numerous sectors leveraging “IA”, today? Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Intelligent Automation?
Intelligent automation (IA) combines automation technologies with artificial intelligence algorithms to allow computer systems and tasks to complete tasks usually assigned to human beings.
Most companies are already familiar with the concept of “automation”. Robotic process automation software allows users to give machines “rules” and workflows to follow that allow them to complete basic tasks, like sending a notification to a colleague when you update a task’s status on a project management tool. Adding AI into the mix makes these systems more adaptive and intelligent.
Using AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and other algorithms, “IA” allows businesses to automate more complex tasks. For instance, while a traditional RPA solution can “copy and paste” data between systems, an intelligent automation tool can analyze that data, determine where to place it based on pre-set rules, and even learn and improve over time.
Companies across industries, from automotive giants to healthcare providers, are cashing in on IA to slash costs, boost efficiency, and deliver better customer experiences. But, implementing intelligent automation into workflows effectively doesn’t mean just “replacing” people with bots. The key to success is finding ways to free up human talent for work that really matters.
How Does Intelligent Automation Work?
On a broad scale, intelligent automation brings together multiple different technologies, starting with artificial intelligence, business process management, and robotic process automation tools. Artificial intelligence, or AI, allows systems to analyze and understand data and instructions.
Combined with machine learning, AI ensures computer systems and bots don’t just understand what they need to do and complete tasks efficiently – they learn and improve over time. As these tools are fed more information, they begin to recognize patterns and trends, and develop new “skills” that allow them to solve more complex problems.
Business Process Automation (BPA), or workflow automation technologies automate the workflows that AI systems complete. They give companies the tools they need to determine what they want their AI systems to do, and train them on specific tasks. Finally, robotic process automation uses software bots, enhanced with AI to complete tasks on behalf of a business. For instance, they can extract data from a system, fill out forms, or handle customer service requests.
Advanced Technologies in Intelligent Automation
All true “intelligent automation” platforms combine AI, machine learning, BPA, and robotic process automation. However, some, more advanced tools are beginning to implement additional technologies too, such as:
- Natural Language Processing (NLP): With NLP, automated systems can interpret and understand human language. This means companies can feed language-based data, like emails, texts, and social media posts into an intelligent system, and ask it to take action based on that information. NLP also ensures automated tools designed for specific use cases, like customer service, can interact naturally with users.
- Generative AI: With generative AI algorithms and large language models, intelligent automation tools can “create” content when completing tasks. For instance, they could design a project plan for a team, complete with all the information employees might need to complete tasks, then share it with staff members.
- Computer vision: With computer vision, software can identify people, places, and items in images. This helps to automate tasks like image extraction, identification, and classification. Computer vision technology can help companies build IA systems suitable for things like manufacturing process control, autonomous driving, and medical imaging.
The Benefits of Intelligent Automation for Businesses
Intelligent automation tools provide numerous benefits to businesses across industries. They’re not just fantastic at boosting productivity and efficiency. These tools can improve accuracy in the workplace and enhance customer experiences.
On a broad scale, the biggest benefits of intelligent automation include:
Enhanced Productivity
Perhaps the most significant benefit of IA is that it can take the “grunt” out of work. . By automating repetitive tasks, businesses can let employees focus on creative, strategic, and problem-solving efforts. According to a study from Forrester, 57% of companies even believe that intelligent automation can turbocharge innovation.
Intelligent automation helps companies and their teams to accomplish more, in a shorter space of time, by delegating mundane tasks to bots and machines.
Reduced Operational Costs
Time is money, and IA saves both. In 2020, Deloitte and Blue Prism published a study finding that IA can reduce business process costs by 25-40% on average. Aside from potentially reducing a company’s need to hire additional employees to handle the grunt work we mentioned above, IA helps businesses to enhance resource allocation.
It ensures business leaders can distribute high-value tasks to human workers, while the bots take care of the rest. With IA, companies can scale operations efficiently without hiring additional staff, increasing risk, compromising quality, or straining their existing workforce.
Greater Accuracy and Efficiency
Ultimately, automated platforms can perform tasks faster and more efficiently than human beings can, and they can do it without making mistakes caused by exhaustion or overwhelm. Intelligent tools don’t get tired or bored or distracted by other tasks. They work consistently towards a specific target, improving output and accuracy.
This is particularly important in highly regulated industries, where a simple mistake could lead to significant fines, customer issues, and reputation damage. Whether it’s processing claims in insurance or streamlining drug trials in pharma, the results of IA are consistent and auditable.
Improved Employee and Customer Experiences
When tasks are completed efficiently, quickly, and accurately, everyone is happy. Customers get a better experience when businesses implement intelligent automation. Companies can create high-quality products faster, respond rapidly to service requests, and even personalize interactions at speed.
Employees, on the other hand, get a better workplace experience because they have more time to focus on the rewarding aspects of their role rather than wasting hours on exhausting and boring work nobody really wants to do.
The Use Cases for Intelligent Automation
Intelligent automation (IA) is a game-changer for countless industries, streamlining back-office workflows, improving productivity, and transforming customer experiences. On a broad scale, the biggest use cases for all companies right now include:
Enhancing Business Processes
Business process automation reduces repetitive work and streamlines workflows throughout organizations. Adding artificial intelligence into the mix allows companies to automate and enhance a wider range of processes. For instance, companies can use intelligent automation tools to streamline supply chain management, and enterprise resource allocation.
Some organizations even use IA tools to assist with recruiting and HR tasks. When businesses search for talent, IA software can sift through thousands of resumes, analyze candidate applications using NLP, and create a shortlist of candidates based on skills and qualifications.
After hiring a team member, companies can use IA to streamline things like time-off request processes, benefits and payroll administration, and workforce planning. For example, companies could use an intelligent workforce management tool to automatically assign schedules to workers based on the goals they need to achieve in a specific week.
Optimizing Customer Service
Countless types of AI systems, including intelligent automation solutions, are revolutionizing customer service. Already, many companies use forms of intelligent automation, like chatbots and intelligent IVR systems to help customers enjoy more streamlined experiences.
Intelligent automation tools can go beyond simply answering queries too. They can guide customers through troubleshooting processes, help them complete tasks like placing an order, or give them access to resources like documents and videos. IA tools can even help route customers to the right support agent, and provide staff with contextual data about a customer to improve interactions.
Intelligent automation tools can even analyze historical customer data to find patterns and trends, helping businesses to find new ways to boost customer loyalty. Plus, these tools can help with customer outreach and sales too, automatically generating promotions and product recommendations to send to specific customers.
Planning, Forecasting, and Manging Maintenance
Intelligent automation helps organizations identify inefficiencies, track repetitive tasks, and optimize operations. The right tools can drive ongoing growth by analyzing huge volumes of data and surfacing suggestions that help businesses to overcome roadblocks and common problems.
They can also help businesses prepare more effectively for upcoming trends and customer patterns. For instance, IA tools could analyze a company’s historical data and market trends and help them determine how demand for certain products may change over time. This ensures companies can adjust their inventories and even their workforce schedules proactively.
In addition, intelligent automation can help ensure that business machinery and tools continue to run effectively over time. IoT sensors in equipment can help IA tools monitor output and working conditions, informing businesses in advance when maintenance or repairs might be necessary.
This helps companies take a more informed approach to running their businesses, managing day-to-day tasks, and staying one step ahead of the competition.
Intelligent Automation in Use: Applications by Industry
We’ve already covered some of the broad use cases for intelligent automation technologies. But, if you’re looking for deeper insights into how these solutions can benefit a company in your sector, here’s an insight into how companies are using IA across industries.
Automotive: Driving Precision and Efficiency
For companies in the automotive sector, success often depends on exceptional efficiency, and precision. Intelligent automation helps automotive brands to enhance their agility, and make more intelligent, data-driven decisions. Manufacturers already use IA to forecast production needs by analyzing real-time market demand and supply chain fluctuations.
In production lines, IA enhances quality control through computer vision systems, which detect product defects with remarkable accuracy. Some companies are even experimenting with collaborative robots that feature IA capacities. For instance, Volkswagen’s engine plant in Germany uses collaborative bots to support human workers.
Life Sciences: Enhancing Innovation
Life sciences are leveraging intelligent automation to streamline drug development, manage compliance, and enhance research capabilities. IA streamlines the analysis of clinical trial data, reducing the time it takes to develop new treatments. The production of COVID-19 vaccines demonstrated the power of IA to accelerate drug discovery, with vaccine development timelines reduced from years to months.
Beyond research, intelligent document processing tools compile and analyze vast quantities of research documents, reducing the manual effort required. Regulatory compliance is another area where IA excels, automating checks to ensure adherence to stringent standards.
Healthcare: Improving Patient Care
In healthcare, intelligent automation transforms operations ranging from patient management to diagnostics. Hospitals use IA systems to process medical records and deliver actionable insights to clinicians, improving decision-making speed and accuracy.
Remote diagnostic tools powered by AI and natural language processing enable telehealth providers to offer quicker, more accurate diagnoses. This is especially critical in reducing patient wait times and improving outcomes. Organizations like the Mayo Clinic have embraced IA to analyze patient data and assist in treatment planning, resulting in more personalized care and faster response times.
Insurance: Optimizing Claims and Compliance
The insurance industry, traditionally reliant on manual processes, benefits heavily from intelligent automation. Insurance teams can use IA to simplify paperwork processing tasks, such as managing claims and appraisals. They can also improve their approach to risk assessment, using intelligent tools to analyze historical data and calculate premiums accurately.
Intelligent automation can also help insurance companies detect and minimize fraud. IA monitors transaction patterns in real-time, flagging anomalies that could indicate fraudulent activity. Allianz is a great example of a company that uses GenAI and IA tools to tackle fraud and improve customer experiences.
Retail: Personalizing Shopping Experiences
Retailers are using intelligent automation to enhance customer engagement, streamline logistics, and create personalized shopping experiences. Companies can use dynamic pricing models powered by IA to analyze market trends, competitor prices, and customer demand to adjust prices in real-time. With predictive analytics, they can optimize inventory levels, ensuring that shelves are stocked with the right products while minimizing waste.
Retailers can also use IA tools to enhance personalized experiences. Intelligent bots, designed to automate customer interactions, can recommend products to customers based on browsing behavior, current trends, and purchasing history. Retailers can even use IA to help manage inventory, and optimize delivery routes for products.
The Future of Intelligent Automation
Innovations in the AI landscape have been coming thick and fast lately. Developers and vendors seem to be discovering new use cases for intelligent automation and producing new tools almost weekly. We’re even seeing new trends begin to emerge as technology evolves.
As we mentioned above, one obvious example is the rise of autonomous agent solutions in the business landscape. Companies like Microsoft already give companies the tools to create comprehensive generative AI bots that can complete entire workflows, just like a standard staff member. This is starting to drive a new era of “hyper-automation,” allowing companies to streamline more processes than ever before and augment teams.
However, with all of this opportunity comes a few challenges. Just like all AI technology, intelligent automation systems are subject to numerous potential issues. First, there’s the ethical side of things to consider—particularly when it comes to determining how much companies should rely on bots and use them to replace human team members.
Then, there’s the issue of building, fine-tuning, and maintaining intelligent solutions that minimize data privacy and security risks. Like all AI tools, intelligent automation apps need access to data to operate effectively. If companies aren’t taking the right approach to ensure sensitive data is handled correctly, the repercussions could be massive.
Intelligent automation isn’t going anywhere. It’s likely to become a more significant part of the modern workplace in the years ahead. But firms will need to ensure they’re following the right practices, to reduce their exposure to risks.
Business Automation: Now Smarter Than Ever
Intelligent automation isn’t just a passing trend; it’s one of the key technologies shaping the future of work. With IA technologies, businesses can reduce costs, establish more consistency and accuracy in workflows, improve customer and employee experiences, and make better decisions for growth.
As AI algorithms and systems become increasingly advanced, the potential for intelligent automation will only grow. Some tools, like autonomous bots powered by AI and intelligent automation technologies, could even reshape the “teams” of the future.
While there are challenges, intelligent automation could revolutionize how every business and team operates, making companies more agile, efficient, and capable.
