Robotic Process Automation
Robotic Process Automation is gaining traction
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has attracted considerable attention as a way to automate repetitive clerical tasks, by mimicking the way human workers carry them out. Since the introduction of the term (around the year 2000), RPA has evolved from simple screen scraping and desktop automation to the promise of Cognitive RPA. Reports by industry analysis leaders estimate the global spending on RPA software to reach $2.4B in 2022, with annual growth rates over 50%.
While the RoI of these investments is quite apparent, most analysts also stress that automation does not necessarily imply intelligence. In a recent article published by Forbes (“Sorry, but your bots are stupid”), Ron Schmelzer stresses the fact that automation is inherently dumb, and that automated software bots are still dumb. Concluding that “despite much of the marketing hype, what is being sold as intelligent automation is far from intelligent.”
