Embracing Intelligent Automation: A Step Change Towards Smarter Operations [ARTICLE]

Intelligent Automation (IA) is changing the way business is done in almost every industry.

IA is a relatively new concept, but the technology is rapidly progressing, and these systems can now anticipate and amalgamate large amounts of information, drive decisions and automate entire processes or workflows- learning and adapting as they go. IA is already helping companies exceed conventional performance trade-offs to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency and quality.

When we say that IA is real and is here, we mean it- there are real life examples of how organizations are using various facets of Intelligent Automation to drive business goals and improve customer experience. Banks are using:

• Recommendation engines
• Automated AML checks
• Behavioral analytics & profiling for real-time fraud detection
• Insightful trading
• Gmail successfully filters 99.9% of spam through the use of machine learning algorithms

Applications like Netflix and Spotify recommend music and movies based on the interests you have expressed and judgments you have made in the past. WellPoint is using the system that can understand physicians’ unstructured English treatment recommendations and match them to WellPoint’s medical policies and clinical guidelines to present consistent, evidence-based responses for clinical staff to review.

IA is bound to touch our lives. So, let’s not fear it. Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are best when complimenting humans. AI cannot fully function without human intervention. It is a complementary action wherein all the predictions and analytics can be automated but the final judgement or decision has to be made with human assistance.

The fact is that, if you have not yet started your automation journey its high time you embrace it. We will have to embrace RPA, AI and ML in our lives in order to grow.

The automation journey, starts with the basic RPA. While some may call it dumb automation, the fact is that RPA does repetetive tasks faster and cheaper, be it for a technologist or a C-level decision maker. A smart and robust RPA implementation is a pre-requisite for a successful IA journey and once organizations have successfully implemented it over a period, they should then leverage the variety in ML algorithms, NLP and NLG to build cognitive automation and conversational user interfaces. The goal of this journey- and to become truly digital- should be to reach the true state of Artificial Intelligence- a state where intelligent machines work and react like humans start making efficient and quick decisions for your business.

The key enabler and the success of IA lies in the training mechanism of the ML algorithm which drives efficiency and accuracy of the model. ML as a technology can be leveraged to design a gamut of algorithms, each applicable to certain set of business use cases. If we observe across industries, there is huge data available which calls for humungous actions for filtering it. The major task lies in identifying what is relevant for me, and only that data is required. In the current scenario, what you thought is relevant earlier may not be relevant now. And thus, we need to go deep inside to derive predictions. These predictions serve as enablers for large strategic business decisions. The real power of ML will be unleashed when we leverage it to pave the way for Big Data Analytics, Deep Learning and AI applications.

Please note that a qualitative and quantitative analysis of your business and customer data is essential in the evaluation and selection of the best-fit ML model.

Aligning with the industry examples that we described earlier, Hexaware is not far behind and has been helping customers to embrace IA.

For a global bank that is also a top 5 trade finance provider in the world we demonstrated how intelligent automation can help automate 70% of makers operations and 50% automation of checkers operations to drive 40% reduction in cost of ownership. Our technology enabled digital innovation in Trade Finance impacted the customer experience that helped create relationships with greater value for both parties. Above all it enabled the banks to respond to customers’ needs and demands with greater transparency and traceability of processes; better risk mitigation; the granting of credit at the precise instant in which the need arises within the supply chain; and management of the legal and regulatory requirements. All this is compatible with more rapid processing of transactions at a lower cost and with a differentiated risk assessment.

As an organization, Hexaware is helping customers embrace automation and has a motto to automate everything. This motto stems from a comprehensive top-down view, starting from customer experience, moving onto underlying business processes and their applications and ending with the infrastructure that empowers them. The automation solution that we offer is infused with productivity improvement along with fully automated infrastructure and operations management; ultimately resulting in lowered costs, minimal human intervention and dramatically improved end-user experience.