In 2020, Gartner reportedOpens a new window that 80% of executives expect to increase spending on digital business initiatives in 2022. In fact, spending on cognitive and AI systems will reach $77.6 billion in 2022, according to a report by IDCOpens a new window . Findings from both reports testify that the pace of cognitive automation and RPA is accelerating business processes more than ever before. As a result CIOs are seeking AI-related technologies to invest in their organizations. However, the roadmap to these automation technologies is unclear.
Research shows that fewer than 40% of RPA projects have not lived up to the expectations in terms of implementation time, cost, and analytics. PwC case studies show that conducting an RPA pilot project often takes 4-6 months instead of the expected 4-6 weeks. So for CIOs, even though automation spells heavy investments, it also brings in a lot of confusion. It therefore begs the question – How can CIOs choose between RPA and cognitive automation? Here’s a peek at the important factors CIOs and business leaders need to consider before deciding between the two technologies:
See More: Is Intelligent Automation an Alternative to RPA? Experts Weigh In
Is RPA a Cognitive Technology?
According to experts, cognitive automation falls under the second category of tasks where systems can learn and make decisions independently or with support from humans. Thus, RPA encompasses cognitive automation. However, RPA is often defined narrowly as deterministic automation. According to Sateesh Seetharamiah, CEO of Edge products at EdgeVerve Systems Limited (An Infosys Company), if we take this definition, then the difference between deterministic and cognitive automation is the ability of the system (the bots) to learn from different sources, acquire knowledge and make decisions.
“RPA on its own is not cognitive automation. RPA is a technology that uses software robots to replace human interactions with digital systems—for example, onboarding new employees, processing procurement orders and payments, and tracking shipments,” Amit Saxena, GM and VP of Automation Engine, ServiceNow told Spiceworks.
Supporting this belief, experts factor in that by combining RPA with AI and ML, cognitive automation can automate processes that rely on unstructured data and automate more complex tasks. “This makes it possible for analysts, business users, and subject matter experts to engage with automated workflows, not just traditional RPA developers,” Seetharamiah added.
“The short answer is no, RPA is not a cognitive technology. RPA is a simple technology that completes repetitive, rule-based actions from structured digital data inputs. RPA automates processes and tasks by mimicking action through scripting and following rules. In contrast, cognitive automation leverages learning, reasoning, and self-correction.”
– Theo PiletskiOpens a new window , Vice President, Business & Strategy Consulting, EPAM Systems, Inc.
Most experts remark that cognitive automation allows users to analyze and extract data from unstructured sources (images, PDFs, emails, written forms). “Cognitive automation will always have a “think” component: copy-think-edit-paste, look-think-type, search-think-match. It can process unstructured data, such as documents, images, and emails, then use that data to drive higher levels of automation via machine learning,” Piletski told Spiceworks.
“Both RPA and cognitive automation enable organizations to free employees from tedium and focus on the work that truly matters. While cognitive automation offers a greater potential to scale automation throughout the enterprise, RPA provides the basic foundation for automation as a whole. The two go hand in hand,” Saxena told Spiceworks.
See More: How Robotic Process Automation Will Change the Future of the Workplace
What’s the Scope of Application for RPA and Cognitive Automation?
When it comes to the scope of RPA and cognitive automation, experts say that cognitive or intelligent automation will be the game changer for all enterprises. While deterministic automation addresses specific challenges in the financial world, cognitive automation goes far beyond emulating complex processes that need judgment or decision-making capability, Seetharamiah informed. So how cognitive automation can shape the tech outcomes for different industries?
- For the financial industry: It can address how a machine can improve fraud management by learning from extensive customer data-driven insights.
- For the retail industry: It can retrieve emails, extract information from customers, and update internal systems based on newly placed orders, modifications, or queries. This can lead to more accurate reimbursements and a reduction in manual efforts.
- For the telecom industry: It could create new personalized customer experiences, improve customer response time and offer customers the right plan at the right time.
- For the healthcare industry: It can fundamentally transform the patient experience by enabling proactive care and enhancing the drug development pipeline by accelerating the process of drug discovery, ultimately unlocking massive revenues for businesses in the sector.
- For the industrial services industry: Process mining is used to automate everyday tasks, such as using a bot to track down the location of a delayed shipment. Cognitive automation can then help organizations coordinate the activities of many such bots to automatically manage a shipment from processing the order to flagging its arrival at the warehouse.
Whether it be RPA or cognitive automation, several experts reassure that every industry stands to gain from automation. According to Saxena, the goal is to automate tedious manual tasks, increase productivity, and free employees to focus on more meaningful, strategic work. “RPA and cognitive automation help organizations across industries to drive agility, reduce complexity everywhere, and accelerate value of technology investments across their business,” he added.
“Having delivered measurable automation results across 400+ large-scale enterprises across multiple industries, we can say with conviction that cognitive automation is a key pillar of digital transformation and a critical enabler for growth and innovation,”
– Sateesh SeetharamiahOpens a new window , CEO Edge products, EdgeVerve Systems Limited (An Infosys Company)
Additionally, both technologies help serve as a growth-stimulating, deflationary force, powering new business models, and accelerating productivity and innovation, while reducing costs. Cognitive automation is responsible for monitoring users’ daily workflows. It identifies processes that would be perfect candidates for automation then deploys the automation on its own, Saxena explained.
See More: UiPath CPO on Why RPA Projects Fail and How To Drive Efficiency
How To Choose Between RPA and Cognitive Automation for Your Business
Seetharamiah added that the real choice is between deterministic and cognitive. “Go for cognitive automation, if a given task needs to make decisions that require learning and data analytics, for example, the next best action in the case of the customer service agent,” he told Spiceworks.
Another way to answer this is to ask if the current manual process has people making decisions that require collaboration with each other, if yes, then go for cognitive automation. Rest all can fall into the deterministic bucket, Seetharamiah confided.
Experts believe that complex processes will have a combination of tasks with some deterministic value and others cognitive. While deterministic can be seen as low-hanging fruits, the real value lies in cognitive automation.
“Organizations need to reduce complexity everywhere, fast. They need to connect disparate processes and systems. In this environment, business leaders should prioritize cognitive automation – to maximize productivity, accelerate time to value, and drive wider business impact by automating complex and end-to-end business processes while connecting systems across the organization.”
– Amit SaxenaOpens a new window , GM and VP of Automation Engine, ServiceNow
Additionally, while robotic process automation provides effective solutions for simpler automations, it is limited on its own to meet the needs of today’s fast-paced world. “RPA handles task automations such as copy and paste, moving and opening documents, and transferring data, very effectively. It also allows organizations to set up a good foundation for automation. However, to succeed, organizations need to be able to effectively scale complex automations spanning cross-functional teams,” Saxena added.
Finally, the world’s future is painted with macro challenges from supply chain disruption and inflation to a looming recession. These factors will be driving urgency in technology investment. With cognitive automation, organizations of all types can rapidly scale their automation capabilities and layer automation on top of already automated processes, so they can thrive in a new economy.
In which technology is your enterprise spending the IT budgets, robotic process automation or cognitive automation? Comment below or let us know on Opens a new window LinkedInOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window or TwitterOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!