THE AGE OF INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

WHY DOES INTELLIGENT PROCESS AUTOMATION MATTER IN THIS DIGITAL-FIRST WORLD?

Intelligent process automation is defined as automation powered by AI and encompasses new technologies such as machine learning and computer vision. While

RPA is all about automating repetitive manual tasks, IPA leverages AI to accomplish high-value activities that require judgment and analysis.

Historically, for many businesses, the entry gate to automation has been RPA. For them, the automation journey typically began with software robots automating isolated processes in one particular department where processes were digital – the socalled low-hanging fruit. Then, they progressed towards intelligent automation by integrating AI capabilities.

“However, we now know that enterprises that incorporate automation and AI into the very fabric of their business from the very beginning stand to benefit most from the fast advance of intelligent automation,” says Ashraf El Zarka, VP Middle East& Africa at UiPath. He says the next stage of the automation evolution will see businesses move towards semantic automation. Semantically enabled software robots are not only able to see and read what’s on the screen; they also understand the relationships between and contexts around documents, processes, data, and applications.

“Simply put, they are able to observe an activity and emulate it. By seeing, thinking, doing, but most importantly, understanding, semantic automation will start to move away from rulesbased approaches, widening the scope and impact of automation and reducing necessary development time. In addition, semantic automation will reduce the gap between how software robots currently operate and the capacity to understand processes the way employees would,” he adds.

What is the current state of intelligent automation in the region?

Intelligent Automation solutions are on the rise, says Rahul Bhageeradhan, Global Director - Digital Architecture at Kissflow. Businesses extract large volumes of data on customer behaviour to business trends in the digital-first age. They want to make use of this information in a way that would help them to stay competitive and provide superior customer experience. However, intelligent automation hasn’t yet become mainstream in the same way that Workflow Automation or RPA has in recent years.

Many organisations are experimenting with the technology, and it will take at least a couple of more years for enterprise adoption.

He says that even the largest enterprises are still going through cloud transformation and are catching up.

“Intelligent Automation is at the top of organisations’ strategic agendas aiming to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness for a digital future,” says Kamel Al Tawil, Managing Director Middle East and North Africa, Equinix. “Automation in network and cloud security will make it easier for companies to ensure that more complex network and hybrid multi-cloud environments are secure and aligned with other agile virtual network automation policies.”

Yarob Sakhnini, Vice President, Emerging Markets, EMEA, Juniper Networks, says the value of intelligent automation in the world today is undeniable. “Intelligent automation reduces costs by augmenting the workforce and improves productivity, boosts accuracy through consistent processes and approaches which enhances the quality of work, improves customer experience and addresses compliance and regulations with confidence.”

SEMANTICALLY ENABLED SOFTWARE ROBOTS ARE NOT ONLY ABLE TO SEE AND READ WHAT’S ON THE SCREEN; THEY ALSO UNDERSTAND THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN AND CONTEXTS AROUND DOCUMENTS, PROCESSES, DATA, AND APPLICATIONS.

Why is it important for enterprises to make intelligent automation a strategic priority?

“Intelligent automation is now a strategic priority for the C-suite thanks to its ability to impact and create value for the enterprise by providing support for strategic business objectives. As a result, CIOs are facing the pressure of designing a frictionless digital transformation journey that transforms their organisations to a digital-first and data-centric business,” says El Zarka from UiPath.

According to UiPath, intelligent automation is a net accelerator of IT strategies designed to support business goals thanks to its role in transforming operational processes, enhancing the customer experience, and enabling rapid change in business models. Zooming in on just one of them, customer experience is a differentiator among businesses to support customer retention and loyalty. Here, intelligent automation will help with retaining current customers by improving the speed and quality of response, empowering them by introducing chatbots capable of responding 24/7 to their requests, and enabling an omnichannel experience.

Bhageeradhan from Kissflow says with intelligent process automation, companies can become more customer-focused and responsive. As their operating model becomes digitised and intelligent, it also becomes possible to take more risks with product innovation.

“After all, we live in a digital age where the culture of rapid experimentation is crucial for all businesses. Automation that cuts across organisations, people, and processes help enable that approach. For instance, if a new product has been rapidly launched by the company and metrics reveal that it is widely successful with customers, then the product can be quickly scaled to increase the overall revenue of the company. Similarly, if the same product is unsuccessful in gaining customer adoption, then it can be killed quickly without causing too many losses,” he adds.

Al Tawil from Equinix says building intelligent infrastructure experiences is at the heart of digital transformation. This

Ashraf El Zarka

includes everything from provisioning to asset lifecycle management; employee onboarding and entitlements; incidents, events, and services requests; and technology vulnerability management. Digital infrastructure makes it possible to automate many of these processes and learn from real-time, contextual intelligent insights that help us continually improve experiences.

Will AI-driven automation replace rulesbased systems?

Sakhnini from Juniper says many organisations are exploring ways to leverage existing network and security elements to better protect investments while ensuring business continuity. Enterprises recognise that consolidating computing workloads— including operational technology (OT), communications technology (CT), and information technology (IT)—can offer many benefits, particularly when cloudnative services are integrated into their infrastructure.

El Zarka shares a different perspective: “Where AI has potential to change rules-based systems is in allowing software robots to understand the relationships and context between documents, processes, data and applications. Here, automation can move to a state where software robots can observe an activity and emulate it. And we believe this will irreversibly shape the future of automation.”

To illustrate the concept, he cites the medical referral process as an example. As it stands, with automation, you could teach a robot the 13 specific steps required to process a referral document and schedule the necessary appointments. The robot wouldn’t understand what the referral document was; therefore, the patient’s name, appointment data, referring provider name, and diagnosis code would need to be clearly signposted by the developer in order for the robot to extract the information.

The robot also wouldn’t understand what an electronic medical record was. Therefore, a developer would need to show it how to log into the system, find the scheduler, and select the necessary options needed to book an appointment.

However, if a robot could understand the relationship between the entities and documents there would be no need to provide such detailed instructions. In this case, the robot would know it was looking at a patient information screen, and a developer would only need to encode five steps asking the robot to complete certain tasks. Cutting this process down from 13 detailed directives to five requests would drastically reduce the necessary development time while empowering the robot to better respond to any change or discrepancies in the process.

“The challenges with fully AI-driven automation lie in the data that is provided. If there is a discrepancy in the information or lack of data, this could pose a threat. At the same time, rule-based systems are too rigid. By leveraging AI to expand automation and enhance the range of actions typically correlated with rules-based automation, you can provide benefits that cut costs and increase customer satisfaction. Combining automation and artificial intelligence (AI) is the next logical step. This can help businesses augment decision making, perform work processes, and solve problems,” Bhageeradhan sums up.

Rahul Bhageeradhan

THE CHALLENGES WITH FULLY AI-DRIVEN AUTOMATION LIE IN THE DATA THAT IS PROVIDED. IF THERE IS A DISCREPANCY IN THE INFORMATION OR LACK OF DATA, THIS COULD POSE A THREAT. AT THE SAME TIME, RULEBASED SYSTEMS ARE TOO RIGID.

Yarob Sakhnini