What is Intelligent Automation?
Just like artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a cornerstone of digital businesses, intelligent automation is transforming the world of automation. More specifically, Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) is the art of applying AI technology to your everyday processes to bolster productivity, enhance efficiency, and bring your business into the 21st century and beyond.
Robots Help Us Embrace Humanity, Not Lose It
Intelligent automation is different from the general concept of artificial intelligence. IPA integrates multiple AI, machine learning, and automation capabilities to reimagine how business processes work.
In essence, automated business processes help remove repetitive, replicable, and routine tasks from employees’ to-do lists, allowing them to focus on more creative projects. By delegating routine admin tasks to automation, workplaces become environments where innovative thinking is encouraged by everyone, rather than reserved for leaders.
A 2017 McKinsey article notes a financial institution that automated 60-70 percent of its tasks and therefore increased process efficiency by 30 percent. In retail, goods can be ordered and processed for delivery and stock levels can be adjusted without a single soul having to lift a finger.
Another process greatly improved by automation is employee onboarding for the Human Resources department. McKinsey’s research found that, in a manual world, it can take up to four weeks to successfully onboard a new employee before you start seeing results. In an automated one, the cost of onboarding is reduced by 80 percent.
Beyond its exciting potential, however, many businesses are still wondering how IPA can impact the business right now. That’s what we’re going to explore in this post.
IPA is made up of the following six technologies:
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Automate rules-based tasks like document creation, calculations, and checking files for errors.
- Advanced Workflow: Workflows that require no code and are drag-and-drop in nature, capable of automating any business process.
- Document Generation: Beyond the flow of work, automatically create consistent, compliant, up-to-date, digital documents.
- Process Intelligence: Real-time analytics and insights allow you to govern, analyze, and drive the efficiency of your business processes.
- Machine Intelligence: Cognitive agents combine machine learning with natural language generation to make ‘emotional’ decisions and execute tasks based on learned behaviors.
- Mobile Apps and Forms: Remote workers can leverage mobile-ready forms and apps to capture critical data online or offline.
What Might IPA Look Like in Action?
While we can explain away the technology of IPA, it’s worth more when it’s put into practice. That’s when you really start to see the real intelligence of IPA. To help you understand how to integrate IPA with as little disruption as possible, we’ve outlined three of the core technologies—Advanced Workflow, Document Generation, and Mobile Apps & Forms—and how they apply to real-life scenarios. So, you can see, judge, and measure the rewards that IPA can give you on a tangible scale.
Advanced Workflows on the Nintex Platform
Involving no code whatsoever, users can design and build a new workflow in minutes using the Nintex Platform. It will then automatically test and measure its worth to make every part of your business work better. In a workflow context, applying automated intelligence to processes can help you get more from your resources than you ever imagined.
Everyone has their own style of working, which is why our solutions are designed around everyday people, not just IT experts. The technology works for you by letting you design, tweak, and manage your own workflows so you’re never stuck under someone else’s thumb.
Create a workflow right now for free!
Automated Document Generation with Nintex Document Generation
Automating document creation has been eagerly awaited in industries that are centered around documentation. Take insurance and financial firms, for example. Insurance firms are constantly processing claims, contracts, and other insurance documentation where accuracy and speed are paramount.
With Nintex Document Generation we intercept these otherwise manual, tedious, repetitive process with machine learning intelligence and natural language generation. Using the same data and documents you always use, this transformative and intelligent tool will pre-populate forms, create proposals, contracts and even standardize your document generation.
Work From Your Pocket with Nintex Mobile Workflows
Location should be the last thing that comes between you and your work. The modern workforce is increasingly being powered by emerging technology. Currently, 91 percent of companies are using at least one mobile app, and when surveyed, 87 percent of companies expected employees to use personal devices for work.
You can capture data, submit requests, complete tasks, and approve documents even when you’re offline at 30,000 feet in the air. Mobilizing your workforce needn’t be a drastic change to the way you work either. In fact, your processes can be re-designed in real-time, so you’re able to automate issues in processes instantly, to keep your projects moving.
Intelligent Automation for the Nation
If automation enables us, for example, to concentrate on building customer-centric businesses, we all benefit. Nintex has been at the forefront of process automation for years, enabling companies to transform and succeed using automation technology. Now IPA takes this to the next level by using artificial intelligence (AI) to help organizations automate, orchestrate, and optimize their business processes.
Are you ready to be released from the confines of your desk? Going mobile won’t cost you the earth with a Nintex IPA solution. Try any of our products now for free or message us here to talk about your latest IT troubles.
