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For most organizations, Robotic Process Automation, or “RPA,” has become an industry standard and a “first step” into digital transformation.

It also offers an exciting opportunity for business leaders and their teams to dip their toes into the many benefits of automation.

May 19, 2023 by Automation Hero

RPA has helped with this for the past decade, but there are limits to this legacy technology.

To understand these limits, it is crucial to understand how RPA works and how new, more advanced tools are building upon the original promise of RPA. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the world of RPA and how it differs from its evolved version—Intelligent Document Processing (IDP).

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What is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic Process Automation is a technology that employs software robots, or “bots,” to automate routine, “rules-based” business tasks. RPA bots are like a computer program that can copy the actions of a human worker. 

How RPA Software Works

RPA mimics the manual click work and keyboarding performed by human knowledge workers to carry out tasks on its own without needing humans to intervene or manage them.

“RPA bots are like a computer program that can copy the actions of a human worker.” 

RPA involves a series of steps or rules (also called a “script”) to accomplish its more complex screen tasks and requires a Graphical User Interface (GUI) or a developer window to operate. 

The technology runs on top of computer software systems, where users can then record simple mouse movements and keystrokes that perform screen automations without supervision.

RPA Capabilities

RPA is a legacy technology with a broad spectrum of applications. It can automate tasks ranging from simple to more complex. For instance, it can handle tasks like data entry and form filling, which, although simple, are time-consuming when done manually. Since the user records what they do in their day-to-day job, the RPA robot handles all the clicking and mouse movements to complete the task. 

Additionally, RPA can automate some more complex tasks that involve multiple software systems, such as triggering responses in accounting software to automate transactions and migrating or updating data into another database.

Applications of RPA

RPA can automate repetitive, rules-based tasks, regardless of the industry. Some common applications of RPA include:

• Data migration
• Trade execution
• Data validation
• Data updates

Moreover, RPA is industry-agnostic, finding applications in sectors as diverse as finance, healthcare, retail, and more. For example, RPA is great for: 

• Automating routine, rule-based tasks that previously required human intervention including data entry, filling out forms, and automatically moving files and folders to other database systems. 
• Connecting different systems that were not initially designed to interact with each other, enabling automated data transfer and synchronization. 
• Managing complex tasks involving any “swivel chair,” or copy/paste interaction with multiple systems.

These capabilities are scalable and can be adjusted to handle increased workloads, providing companies with more flexibility to manage their operations.

Benefits of RPA

Automation through RPA offers several benefits. One of its primary advantages is increased efficiency. By automating repetitive tasks, RPA reduces the time taken to perform these tasks and helps enhance accuracy by reducing human error. This can lead to significant cost savings as companies can achieve more with fewer resources.

“By automating repetitive tasks, RPA reduces the time taken to perform these tasks and helps enhance accuracy by reducing human error.”

Moreover, RPA is scalable. Bots can be easily replicated to manage an increased workload during peak periods. RPA is also non-invasive. This enables RPA to work on top of existing systems and applications, reducing the need for complex IT projects and minimizing disruptions to existing operations.

The limits of RPA

While Robotic Process Automation offers immense potential, it is not without its limitations. The primary one is that RPA can only handle rules-based, repetitive tasks. It also has limitations with tasks that require judgment, creativity, and complex decision-making. 

For example, RPA would not be suitable for tasks requiring strategic decision-making, handling unstructured, ambiguous information, or those that involve human emotions. RPA is also limited in its ability to learn from experience; the bots can only do what they are programmed to do and do not improve or adapt over time without human intervention.

“RPA can only handle rules-based, repetitive tasks.”

The most important limitation to consider is RPA’s dependency on stable environments and structured processes. Any change in the layout of a document or a webpage , or modifications in the underlying systems it runs on top of, can disrupt an RPA bot’s operation, requiring reconfiguration or redesign. This also extends to process changes; if the steps in a process change, even slightly, the bot will need to be re-programmed. 

“Any change in the layout of a document or a webpage, or modifications in the underlying systems it runs on top of, can disrupt an RPA bot’s operation, requiring reconfiguration or redesign.”

This inherent lack of adaptability can potentially increase maintenance costs and limit the long-term effectiveness of RPA solutions. Additionally, while RPA is useful for reducing manual labor for repetitive tasks, it doesn’t contribute to process optimization. Instead, it can sometimes lead to the automation of inefficient processes without addressing the root cause of the inefficiency.

Finally, with so many documents required for compliance regulations, the need for capturing data accurately and quickly—especially unstructured data—is rapidly growing. Unfortunately, this is the most significant area where traditional RPA falls short.

As a result, businesses are looking at sophisticated data extraction solutions like intelligent document processing (IDP) to “unlock” valuable data in unstructured documents.

How AI and RPA Relate

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and RPA, although separate technologies, can form a powerful duo. While RPA handles routine, repetitive tasks, AI adds a layer of intelligence to the automation process. 

In the early 2000s, RPA was quite literally slapped on top of existing software like a “bandage” to automate user interface clicks. Consequently, the earliest investments in RPA were driven by the need to integrate legacy systems that didn’t have APIs. 

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) and RPA, although separate technologies, can form a powerful duo. While RPA handles routine, repetitive tasks, AI adds a layer of intelligence to the automation process.” 

As an older technology, RPA on its own will struggle to keep up with the needs of today’s business environments. But AI technologies, such as those already built into next-gen intelligent document processing (IDP) solutions, are extremely useful for augmenting RPA’s limited capabilities.  

Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) can be integrated with RPA to create Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) workflows. This combination of AI and RPA allows for the automation of not just simple, rules-based tasks, but also tasks that require understanding, reasoning, and learning.

Differences between RPA and IDP

While RPA and Intelligent Document Processing are both forms of software automation technology, they serve different purposes and have distinct capabilities. RPA is primarily used to automate routine, rules-based tasks. Since RPA users record what they do in their day-to-day job, the RPA robot handles all the clicking and mouse movements to complete the task. As a simple screen automation, it interacts with digital systems in a similar way a human would, performing rote tasks such as data entry, form filling, and triggering responses in other software.

IDP, on the other hand, takes automation a giant leap further. IDP reads, interprets, extracts, and processes data from unstructured sources such as photos, emails, PDFs, invoices, and other semi-structured document types. IDP leverages advanced technologies such as AI, ML, and OCR to understand, categorize, and process this data. 

“RPA is primarily used to automate routine, rules-based tasks…IDP, on the other hand, takes automation a giant leap further.”

RPA can be difficult to update in an ever-changing business environment and is often seen as a “brittle” and unreliable technology relative to the pace of modern business. Savvy organizations take an understanding of RPA and build upon it with newer, more adaptable tools like Automation Hero’s IDP platform.

In essence, IDP can handle complex, unstructured data and capture all of the potential value from it, thereby making IDP more flexible and scalable than traditional RPA. IDP doesn’t just automate tasks; it brings a level of intelligence to the process, enabling it to understand documents at the semantic level.

Read our other article to learn more about the differences between software automation and AI. 

RPA and hyper-automation

When organizations upgrade their current RPA with AI-driven automation, such as intelligent document processing, they can unlock data stuck in unstructured documents that goes well beyond the limits of traditional RPA.

Hyper-automation represents the future of automation. This involves the application of advanced technologies that use AI, ML, and NLP, in conjunction with RPA to automate complex tasks. 

“Hyper-automation represents the future of automation.”

Hyper-automation goes beyond simply automating tasks and aims to create an orchestration of interconnected technologies working together to automate end-to-end business operations with above-human accuracy. This level of automation not only increases efficiency but also enables businesses to adapt quickly to changing business needs and market conditions.

Why is IDP better than RPA?

It’s important to consider that while RPA is a powerful tool, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution and often fails to grow or adapt as a business’s needs change. 

In many cases, Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) will offer a more comprehensive solution, especially when dealing with unstructured data and complex processes. Understanding the capabilities and limitations of RPA vs IDP is key to making an informed decision about which technology is the best fit for your organization’s unique needs.

How RPA Factors Into the Future

As an outdated technology, Robotic Process Automation software is still a useful tool with the potential to streamline business operations across industries. By mimicking human interactions with digital systems, it can automate repetitive, rule-based tasks, leading to significant improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and productivity. 

Unfortunately, this outdated approach is limited to only automating simple screen-related tasks. Script-based approaches like RPA have real-world limitations that pervade the industry today, which is why agile enterprises will need modern AI to drive their business processes in the future.

“Script-based approaches like RPA have real-world limitations that pervade the industry today, which is why agile enterprises will need modern AI to drive their business processes in the future.”

The implementation of RPA involves identifying suitable processes for automation, defining the automation workflow, configuring the RPA bot, integrating it with existing systems, and ongoing monitoring and maintenance. While the initial setup may require a certain level of expertise, the return on investment can be significant, especially when you add AI-driven automation with next-gen intelligent document processing to overcome the traditional challenges of RPA. 

Some IDP solutions include automation features to manage the output into a workflow, while other IDP vendors only focus on the intelligent data extraction step. With these more limited IDP products, automation engineers and designers must take the output elsewhere and manage it themselves. 

Automation Hero offers an end-to-end full-service hyper-automation IDP platform that plays nicely with your existing automation software—with benefits that include cost savings, time savings, error reduction, and the ability to free up human resources for more strategic tasks.

Join the hyper-automation revolution with Automation Hero

To learn more about how IDP can fit into your organization, contact our team at Automation Hero. Our expertise in AI-driven hyper-automation and intelligent document processing platform means we can customize the right automation solution to fit your needs, your budget, and your strategic plans. Click here to schedule a demo of Automation Hero today.

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• Get a personalized demo — schedule a demo, and our Heroes will get in touch!

Financial institutions of all shapes and sizes must perform KYC and due diligence checks. Both help verify the identity of new clients and any risks involved with doing business with them.

However, this can involve a long, tedious exchange of documents. So, how can that exchange be shorter and less time-consuming? The answer often depends on how savvy a finance company has been at using automation.

May 15, 2023 by Craig Woolard

Applying for a loan is one of the most complicated processes borrowers will experience. It’s not exactly a walk in the park for lenders, either. Many banks are stuck in traditional, manual processes. Employees spend hours on laborious, repetitive computer tasks.

Let’s look at a common example—the car loan application: 

1. A potential client applies for a car loan. First, a bank associate enters the client’s data into a database and assesses the risk of taking out the loan. 
2. If approved, the customer sends the vehicle details to the bank. 
3. Next, the money is processed and wired to the dealership. 
4. Finally, the customer provides proof of insurance and registration, which is again manually entered into the bank’s database. 

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This is just one example of an inefficient process. Most banks offer several different loans that are handled manually across various departments. 

Maintaining a database requires hundreds of steps that are painfully manual. These tasks usually involve going back and forth between different systems (or “chair-swiveling”). The extra steps delay the loan application process and severely impact the client’s experience. This is where automation can play a major role.

Technology that can eliminate manual copying and pasting between applications is a significant value proposition for legacy lenders. An automated loan processing system does away with chair-swiveling, data entry, manual document reviews, and many other tedious steps in the workflow. With automation, KYC, CDD checks, and customer onboarding processes are on the fast track.

In this post, we will cover what loan processing automation is and how legacy lenders can automate and optimize loan processing with artificial intelligence (AI). We will detail use cases for intelligent document processing (IDP) in the loan application process, where it can be applied, and why this technology is changing how traditional banks operate. 

At the end of the post, you will understand IDP and how it can cut down on loan processing times in your own financial institution.

What is automated loan processing?

Automated loan processing refers to software and technology that can streamline the lending process, from the initial application to the final loan approval. 

With minimal human intervention, an automated loan processing system can automate many manual tasks involved in processing a loan, including data entry, credit checks, underwriting, and document validation.

Implementing a loan automation system into a banking institution’s underwriting process reduces the time and resources required to process loans. Overall, automation improves accuracy and efficiency throughout the entire loan processing workflow.

Who benefits from loan lending process automation?

Customers 

Loan automation doesn’t just help financial institutions. In addition to improving the efficiency of the loan processing workflow, this technology provides borrowers with a more convenient loan application experience. Faster access to funds is what it’s all about for customers. Less friction in the onboarding process enhances the customer journey and improves customer satisfaction. 

Financial institutions

Successfully processing each application involves extracting hundreds of data points and analyzing all of them to assess financial risk. With the proliferation of online lenders like Rocket Loans and other fintech startups, consumers expect near-instantaneous application approvals. But according to research by Ellie Mae—legacy lenders average 52 days to process a mortgage manually—from the date the application is submitted to the date the loan is disbursed. 

Banking employees

The main goal of loan automation is to streamline the lending process, making it faster, more accurate, and more efficient for both lenders and borrowers. The technology behind automation can also help employees.

Loan officers handle many documents with data about a borrower’s income. Additionally, underwriters can review 20–30 data points per document. These all involve pay stubs, tax documents, bank statements, and even open-source content available on social media for a complete picture of all associated risks. Loan automation eliminates all of this manual work, allowing bank employees to focus on higher-value work that generates more revenue. 

Applying for a mortgage is one of the most complicated and frustrating processes homeowners will ever go through. It’s not exactly a cakewalk for lenders, either. So why not make the journey less painful for both parties? In the next section, let’s discover what makes loan automation possible and how it can offer above-human accuracy.

What makes automated loan processing possible?

Advancements in technology—such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), optical character recognition (OCR), and data analysis—all make it possible for lenders to process loan applications and other financial services faster and more accurately than humans. 

Combining these technologies drives most of the automation solutions currently on the market. For example, OCR leads the way, which can read any document just like a human underwriter would. However, when augmented with AI, OCR can extract information into usable data and even learn to process it far more efficiently and accurately than humans. 

OCR is often used with several other automation solutions, such as robotic process automation (RPA), which automates repetitive actions humans perform on computers. Combined with AI, this enables intelligent document processing (IDP) capabilities, which mimic how humans understand information and make decisions. 

Additionally, the availability of cloud-based software solutions and Application Programming Interfaces (API) enables lenders to integrate their loan processing systems with other digital platforms and services, such as online banking and mobile apps, creating a more seamless and efficient lending experience for borrowers.

What are the limits of existing loan automation solutions?

Some older, legacy automation technologies—such as RPA—rely on simple “point-and-click” screen automations that replicate the manual click-work and keyboarding of human underwriters. 

By mimicking repetitive human-performed tasks, legacy RPA “bot” technology removes some of the rote busywork and human error in underwriting. However, RPA breaks easily and is difficult to update whenever modern, evolving workflow processes change.

Underwriting, KYC, CDD checks, and customer onboarding are all complex processes that  require a thorough review of large amounts of incoming data from unstructured documents. The loan application process is a major area where traditional RPA falls short and requires significant human intervention. Watch this demo to learn more about where RPA falls short.

Traditional RPA bots run on top of existing IT systems as a complementary solution. Since legacy RPA uses a “rules-based” template, it struggles to capture critical data from documents that do not follow a fixed layout. RPA, a legacy technology, has a reputation in the banking world for being “fragile,” inflexible, and difficult to maintain—driving much of the disillusionment about RPA as a “brittle” and unreliable technology. 

Why loan processing automation needs modern AI

In traditional banking institutions, providing 24-hour support, responding to customer emails, approving applications, and organizing paperwork are all crucial to winning and retaining customers.

Fintech apps are changing the lending industry by offering faster, more accessible, and more responsive front-end processes. Unfortunately, legacy lenders who are stuck in legacy document workflows prone to manual errors and RPA weak points really struggle to keep up with these technological advancements. 

This gives a competitive edge to newer fintech startups. However, lenders that can digitally transform their loan application processes will be able to provide a seamless and frictionless lending experience. Therefore, what traditional lenders need more than ever is a modern AI-driven automation technology that brings financial services like the loan process into the digital era.

In traditional banking institutions, providing 24-hour support, responding to customer emails, approving applications, and organizing paperwork is crucial to winning and retaining customers. Automated loan processing systems—with next-gen AI/cognitive document understanding—will close the gaps. 

With intelligent document processing, legacy lenders are back in the driver’s seat.   

How intelligent document processing (IDP) closes the gaps

Next-wave loan automation platforms like Automation Hero streamline data extraction with above-human accuracy. For example, Automation Hero’s patent-pending context-aware optical character recognition (OCR) “reads” every kind of document (including images), extracts data, and formats it for processing by users or RPA bots. 

Full-service intelligent document processing (IDP) platforms like Automation Hero’s Hero Platform_ can fully automate the entire loan application workflow—from document input to data output—with significantly higher accuracy than human underwriters.

Regardless of the structure or layout of information, Hero Platform_ extracts essential data from documents, including PDFs, emails, Word documents, scanned contracts, digital forms, and more. This lends the platform to several use cases in an automated loan processing system: 

• Pre-approvals
• Appraisals
• Underwriting
• Closing
• Cross-selling and upselling
• Credit analysis 
• Portfolio risk management

Benefits of modern automated loan processing systems

Higher-quality banking data

With so many manual tasks for underwriters to perform, there’s a risk of bad data quality entering your system. Bad data quality introduces risks in areas where high accuracy is needed. By removing manual steps in data entry and loan application reviews, the potential for human error is reduced, if not completely eliminated. Mistakes due to human error are expensive to fix. A modern loan processing system that uses industry-leading IDP streamlines loan processing times with above-human accuracy and significantly reduces the work of underwriting.

Faster customer onboarding

Opening an account can take up to 90 days. Long application delays are frustrating, and banks are under constant pressure to deliver services faster than the Fintech competition. The rise of digital loans, like the digital mortgage, and faster competition will leave legacy lenders behind. Modern loan automation solutions leveraging intelligent document processing can streamline customer onboarding and enhance the customer experience.

Shorter application processes

Loan officers handle many documents with critical information about a borrower’s income. This involves pay stubs, tax documents, bank statements, and even open-source content available on social media for a complete picture of all associated risks. In a modern loan automation system equipped with IDP, banking processes stuck under a mountain of unstructured documents—such as those essential to underwriting—can be streamlined with just one click.

Enhanced KYC compliance

Banks can’t know their customers if the data they have on them is stuck inside inaccessible documents. IDP unlocks essential data locked away in documents and mitigates the risks of customer onboarding. Hero Platform_’s IDP is particularly adept at comparing data points from multiple sources and analyzing them with above-human accuracy. Meet regulatory standards for KYC compliance, mitigate the associated risks with customer due diligence (CDD) checks, and fast-track every onboarding step throughout the customer journey.

Find new revenue opportunities

With IDP, lenders can gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling them to deliver better services to customers that are tailored to meet their specific needs. For example, acquiring a new customer costs a bank $7,700. In addition, IDP helps bankers find new revenue streams from existing customers by offering cross-selling recommendations tailored to their specific needs. Ultimately, this can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, which are critical in a highly competitive industry.

Automate common customer requests

IDP accelerates contactless banking by understanding the intent of email messages. Automation Hero’s intent classification automatically triages emails and tailors a perfect response for a first-class customer service experience. 

For example, is the email a change of address request, proof of employment update, submission of ID verification materials, or a complaint? Hero Platform_ can detect intent in email messages. Using the extracted data, Hero Platform_ can look up information in another system, verify it, and automatically send replies to common inquiries—saving underwriters time and effort.

Join the digital loan processing revolution with Automation Hero

When RCBC decided to scale the use of AI, it knew the only way to increase its competitiveness was to optimize its customer onboarding experience. Learn how we helped one of the most trusted commercial banks in the Philippines increase its underwriting production 3x faster by reducing loan processing time from 25 days to just eight days using IDP. 

• Speak with an expert — tell us about your specific use case.
• Get a personalized demo — schedule a demo, and our Heroes will get in touch!
• Access our Ebook — Learn how OCR and advanced AI can save legacy lenders.

The vast amounts of information and data flowing through businesses today represent a golden age of opportunity.

That opportunity, however, only comes to those who put their data to work. From predictive analytics to business process optimization, leveraging data sets in actionable ways is the key to a business not just surviving, but thriving.

Apr 28, 2023 by Automation Hero

Yet the same data that presents so many opportunities can also be a burden. Having so much information to comb through and put to work can make it challenging to efficiently process, manage, and extract meaningful insights. Fortunately, with the advent of intelligent document processing (IDP), businesses now have a powerful tool that can help them streamline their document management and data extraction processes.

In this post, we will cover what IDP is and, crucially, what it is not.

We will detail use cases of IDP, where it can be applied, and why this technology is changing the way businesses operate. At the end of the post, you will have a complete understanding of IDP as well as a vision for how intelligent document processing can benefit your own organization.

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What is intelligent document processing?

Intelligent Document Processing is “a type of business workflow automation that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to read documents the same way that humans do.”

IDP can work with various types of documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, financial statements, medical records, and more. The technology can extract information from unstructured data sources such as scanned documents, PDFs, and images, which are traditionally difficult to process using conventional methods.

IDP can be used in conjunction with Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which automates repetitive tasks, to create an end-to-end automation solution for businesses. When IDP and RPA work together, entire business processes can be optimized from start to finish, reducing the need for manual intervention and allowing employees to focus on more strategic tasks.

What IDP is not

It’s important to clarify what IDP is not to dispel any misconceptions about its capabilities.

Firstly, IDP is not the same as Optical Character Recognition (OCR) or document scanning. OCR technology scans images of text or writing into files that can then be edited. OCR can certainly help businesses digitize their paper records, but it cannot understand the context of the document or extract meaningful insights from it. To be clear, OCR is one of the tactical steps that make up IDP. Furthermore, just as not all IDP solutions on the market are the same, not all OCR solutions on the market are the same.

Find the right OCR solution for you in our OCR Buyer’s Guide.

IDP is also not document scanning. Document scanning can be very useful for a business, but in and of itself, it does not extract business intelligence. Furthermore, document scanning does not create workflows or automate processes the way IDP does. While document scanning can make it easier to access and share documents, it does not enable businesses to extract insights from the data within the document.

It’s also worth noting that IDP is not limited to a specific industry or use case. While it is commonly used for tasks such as invoice processing or contract management, it can be applied to any industry or business process that involves large volumes of unstructured data. This includes areas such as healthcare, legal, and financial services, among others.

In summary, while OCR and document scanning can be helpful for digitizing documents, they cannot provide the same level of insight as IDP. IDP is not limited to a specific industry or use case and has the ability to extract meaningful insights from unstructured data.

How does IDP work?

IDP uses a combination of computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML) algorithms to analyze and extract data from unstructured documents. It is a complex and multi-step process that involves the following stages. 

1. Data extraction: The first step in the IDP process is data extraction. This involves scanning documents and extracting relevant data points using OCR technology. OCR converts scanned images into machine-readable text, which can then be used to identify and extract relevant information.
2. Data validation: After the data has been extracted, it needs to be verified and validated to confirm that it is accurate and correct. This involves comparing the extracted data to check for inconsistencies and errors. Errors and inaccuracies are marked for review so they can be corrected and fed back into the automation.
3. Data classification: Once the data has been extracted and validated, it is classified based on its type and relevance. For example, if the document is a receipt from a business expense, the relevant data points may include the receipt number, date, vendor name or location, and total amount. Since the layout of information in receipts is unstructured and totally dependent on the merchant, IDP software can be trained to recognize different types of documents as “receipts” and classify them accordingly.
4. Data enrichment: After the data has passed through each of these steps, it can be further enriched by adding additional information from external sources. This could include adding data from other documents or databases, performing calculations, or conducting sentiment analysis.
5. Data export: Finally, the enriched data can be exported to other systems or applications, such as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system or a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Overall, the goal of IDP is to automate the entire document processing workflow, from document ingestion to data export. By automating these tasks, businesses can save time and money while reducing the risk of errors and improving data accuracy.

Where can IDP be applied?

IDP has numerous applications across various industries, enabling organizations to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and improve the accuracy of their document processing workflows. While IDP is popular and can be used in many industries, three places where it is most prevalent are the finance, healthcare, and legal sectors.

Finance & Banking

In the finance sector, IDP can automate the processing of invoices, receipts, and other financial documents. This can result in faster processing times, reduced costs, and improved accuracy. IDP can also enable these financial services organizations to gain insights from their financial data, informing decisions made based on data instead of guesswork.

Insurance 

In the insurance sector, IDP can help process claims more efficiently and accurately. Insurance companies deal with a large volume of paper-based documents, such as claim forms, policies, and contracts. IDP can be used to extract important information from these documents, such as policy numbers, claim amounts, and customer details, which can be used to automate the claims processing workflow. This can result in faster turnaround times, reduced errors, and improved customer satisfaction. Additionally, IDP can help insurance companies identify potential fraud cases by comparing data from different sources and flagging any inconsistencies.

Manufacturing

For manufacturers, IDP can help automate the processing of invoices, purchase orders, and other financial documents. This can help streamline the supply chain process and improve the accuracy of financial data. Additionally, IDP can be used to digitize paper-based manufacturing records, such as production logs and quality control reports. This can help manufacturers track their operations more efficiently, identify bottlenecks in the production process, and improve overall productivity.

Shipping & Logistics

Many times, people don’t think about the role IDP can play in less-visible industries like shipping. Automation Hero works with businesses in the shipping sector to help automate the processing of bills of lading, customs forms, and other shipping documents. This can help shipping companies reduce errors and delays in the processing of shipments, resulting in faster delivery times and improved customer satisfaction. 

Additionally, IDP can be used to extract data from shipping documents, such as shipment weights and dimensions, which can be used to optimize shipping routes and reduce transportation costs. IDP can also help shipping companies comply with regulatory requirements, such as customs regulations and international trade laws, by ensuring that all necessary documentation is complete and accurate.

Healthcare & HR

In the healthcare industry, IDP can handle processing medical records, cataloging prescriptions, and submitting insurance claims. This improves the accuracy and pace of processing claims, which can result in faster payments and improved patient satisfaction. Additionally, IDP can help reduce errors and fraud in the processing of medical records, improving the overall quality of care. 

Legal & Governance

In the legal industry, IDP can be used to automate the processing of contracts and legal documents, resulting in faster turnaround times and reduced costs. It can also help ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of errors and penalties. 

Benefits of IDP

The benefits of IDP are numerous and include not just improved productivity but also reduced costs. With IDP, businesses can automate time-consuming and error-prone manual tasks, freeing up employees to spend their time, energy, and intellect on strategic initiatives and more meaninfgul tasks. 

Consider the following benefits of leveraging intelligent document processing technology.

Improved data accuracy

One of the main benefits of IDP is improved data accuracy. By automating data extraction and validation, IDP eliminates the risk of manual data entry errors, ensuring that data is accurate and reliable.

Increased Efficiency

IDP streamlines the automated document processing workflow, enabling organizations to process documents faster and with less manual intervention. This reduces the time and resources required for document processing, freeing employees to focus on more strategic tasks.

Reduced Costs

By automating document processing tasks, IDP can reduce the cost of manual labor and the risk of errors, resulting in cost savings for organizations.

Improved Compliance

IDP can help organizations comply with industry regulations and standards by ensuring that documents are processed accurately and in a timely manner.

Enhanced customer experience

IDP can help organizations improve the customer experience by enabling faster and more accurate processing of customer documents, such as loan applications or insurance claims. IDP can also be integrated with customer relationship management (CRM) systems or an email server to automate common customer requests and sort incoming emails based on intent classification.

Increased data insights

IDP can provide organizations with valuable data insights hidden in their documents. This can help organizations make more informed business decisions and identify areas for process improvement.

Scalability

IDP is scalable, meaning that it can be used to process large volumes of documents without requiring additional manual labor or resources.

Why invest in IDP?

Investing in IDP can bring significant benefits to businesses of all sizes. When used correctly, the return on an investment in IDP can be a boon for a business, regardless of size.

One benefit is improved data accuracy. IDP automates the extraction and validation of data from documents, reducing the risk of manual data entry errors and ensuring reliable data. This can lead to better decision-making and an overall improvement in data quality.

Another benefit is increased productivity. IDP automates manual document processing tasks, freeing up employees to focus on more valuable tasks. This can result in cost savings, increased efficiency, and better allocation of resources.

IDP can also reduce costs associated with document processing, such as labor costs, by automating manual tasks. This can provide organizations with a significant return on investment, freeing up those resources to focus on more strategic initiatives.

Improved compliance is another benefit of IDP. By ensuring accurate and timely document processing, IDP can help organizations meet regulatory requirements and avoid fines or other penalties.

IDP can also give organizations a competitive advantage by enabling faster, more efficient, and more accurate document processing. This can lead to improved customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue growth.

Lastly, IDP can provide valuable data insights by extracting and analyzing data from documents. This can help organizations make informed business decisions, identify areas for process improvement, and gain a deeper understanding of customer needs.

Expand your business potential with IDP

By investing in IDP, businesses can stay competitive, improve compliance, and automate time-consuming and error-prone manual tasks.

By automating manual document processing tasks, IDP enables businesses to focus on more valuable tasks, leading to cost savings, increased efficiency, and a better allocation of resources. Furthermore, IDP can provide valuable data insights by extracting and analyzing data from documents, helping organizations make informed business decisions.

Automation Hero is a leading provider of IDP technology, using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to automate the processing of unstructured documents. Our platform enables businesses to streamline document processing workflows and gain a competitive edge by improving efficiency and accuracy. 

Unlock the business intelligence in documents with AI-driven IDP today

In a world where automated document processing is an essential part of business operations, Automation Hero’s IDP technology can revolutionize the way organizations manage their documents. By leveraging the power of AI and machine learning, Automation Hero is helping businesses improve their efficiency and productivity while minimizing the risk of manual errors. For more information on how Automation Hero can transform your document processing workflows, contact us HERE.

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After discussing the automation potential with CEOs and CFOs, we reached a simple conclusion: modern AI will revolutionize the way finance processes are automated. Read more to discover how the needs of modern financial process automation can be met in 2023 and beyond.

Apr 24, 2023 by Craig Woolard

It’s hard to argue with the success of automation in finance operations. 

In an Oxford Economics survey, 73% of finance and banking leaders agreed that automation improved efficiency and gave executive staff more bandwidth to focus on higher-value strategic tasks. And yet, almost 90% of the CEOs surveyed said they needed a more agile approach to analyzing financial and performance data.

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It seems that traditional automation vendors fail to understand the real-world needs of their customers. 

At Automation Hero, we have evaluated hundreds of business problems with finance and banking customers worldwide. After discussing the automation potential with CEOs and CFOs, we reached a simple conclusion: modern AI will revolutionize the way finance processes are automated.

What is modern finance automation?

Finance automation uses software and technology to streamline repetitive tasks in essential financial business processes. The main goal of automation is to eliminate errors and inefficiencies so that employees can spend more time on strategic tasks. 

A combination of technologies can drive the modern automation of manual work involved in financial workflows. Artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), intelligent document processing (IDP), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) all help eliminate much of the tedious work performed by members of finance teams and other departments. 

Of course, this doesn’t mean humans are left out of the process. As with any finance automation software, it’s critical to understand what you can and should automate first. 

Understanding what can be automated

According to a McKinsey Global Institute report on the future of finance automation, current automation technologies can fully streamline nearly half of an organization’s financial activities. 

The research also pointed out the daily work activities that are the easiest to automate, including: 

• General accounting tasks

• Payroll

• Accounts payable

• Accounts receivable

• Tax Solutions

• Reporting and analysis

• Risk Management and auditing

• Fraud Prevention

The research in the McKinsey report estimates that “about a third of the opportunity in finance can be captured using basic task-automation technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA).” 

The remainder of the opportunity requires more advanced cognitive automation technologies, such as intelligent document processing (IDP), that tap into powerful machine-learning algorithms and natural-language capabilities. 

What are the limits of legacy automation software?

By the mid-2010s, much of the “busy work” involved in automated financial systems had been taken over by RPA bots. For example, RPA bots attempted to handle data entry, price matching, and purchase order processing. But they were often unable to manage the entire workflow. RPA breaks easily and is difficult to update whenever modern, evolving work processes change.

RPA runs on top of existing IT systems as a complementary automation solution; however, as a legacy “rules-based” technology, RPA has earned a reputation in the banking world for being “fragile” and inflexible to maintain. 

For example, invoice processing, underwriting, ESG reporting, and customer service are all major areas where traditional RPA falls short and requires significant human intervention.

Today, legacy RPA can still handle some of the rote busywork involved with simple accounting tasks. However, RPA struggles with complex financial processes such as those involving:

• Risk management
• Fraud prevention
• KYC/AML/ESG compliance
• Customer support
• Underwriting
• Reporting analysis

These financial services are just too complex for traditional “rules-based” approaches. 

Providing customer support, responding to emails, approving applications, and organizing paperwork significantly impact customer satisfaction — especially as front-end processes become more accessible and faster, thanks to the competition from more responsive fintech apps. 

Watch this demo to learn more about invoice process automation and where RPA falls short.

Why financial services need modern AI

For nearly a decade, it’s been clear that RPA is no longer enough. How, then, can the rest of the grueling manual work be automated? 

Today’s competitive landscape requires finance automation software with next-gen AI/cognitive intelligence to extract data from documents with above-human accuracy. 

For example, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) reporting is a complex reporting process that involves converting structured and semi-structured data from various sources into detailed compliance reports. 

Intelligent document processing (IDP) is one example of modern artificial intelligence in the automation workflow that can handle these unstructured documents like a tenured finance expert. 

IDP uses AI, machine learning, and Computer Vision to “read” financial documents with above-human accuracy, extract critical data points for complex financial reporting tasks, and more. 

For example, in invoice processing, a modern AI approach like IDP doesn’t mind if the layout of incoming invoices changes. This is because an AI-powered workflow driven by IDP actually “learns” the structures of each invoice — just like a human would — and processes them no matter which vendor sends the invoice.

What is the best finance automation software?

Every organization has decision-makers with the authority to approve or deny payments. Procurement managers, accounting departments, CFOs, and VPs are often involved in this complicated workflow.

This makes automation even more complex for large enterprises looking to streamline their financial activities efficiently. That’s why modern financial process automation needs more than AI. It needs to enable critical decision-makers to be in the automation loop. 

When understanding what finance automation might look like beyond 2023, closing the gap between your people and your automation is essential. 

Automation Hero’s IDP platform offers end-to-end financial document intelligence. It sorts financial documents into categories and extracts the essential data. Hero Platform_’s full-service IDP technology connects with existing applications and databases to make the data immediately available to those who need it. 

1. What are the key benefits of finance automation?

The benefits of financial process automation are undeniable. With the advances in modern artificial intelligence, there is now more opportunity than ever for organizations to undergo a full digital transformation. The benefits include:

2. More time to focus on strategic work

Modern automation with intelligent document processing takes care of the technical “busywork.” With IDP, finance teams are freed to focus on higher-level strategic tasks. IDP allows leaders to build stronger relationships with clients, partners, and employees. It also ensures proper supervision of accounting and frees up more time for employees to focus on strategic work. 

Want more productive, happier teams? Then, check out our blog on the benefits of automation for employees to learn more.

3. Reduce human error

Manual data entry can lead to human errors that are expensive to fix. The transaction itself is the basis of every professional relationship. Journal entry discrepancies and missed bill payments cause significant disruptions to the transaction. Digitizing processes through automation eliminates human error and ensures consistent, reliable workflows. 

4. Improve data quality

It’s no secret that speed and productivity increase whenever manual processes and human touchpoints are cut back or removed. However, the effect on accuracy and data quality is also significantly improved with automation. Bad data tarnishes your company’s reputation. Accurate and consistent information helps teams communicate better and enhances decision-making. Reliable data benefits everyone involved.

5. Increase operational efficiency

Our financial process automation solution offers an easy-to-use human-in-the-loop interface that enables multi-party reviews and approvals. Automation Hero’s Hero Platform_ turns randomized audits, compliance procedures, and QA processes into streamlined collaborations. Integrating your existing databases and financial tools into the automation workflow enables deeper collaboration between departments and the decision-makers in your organization

6. Enhance decision-making

Some automated financial systems can connect with existing applications and databases to make the data readily available. For example, complex AP processes require collaboration between different departments and systems. Our platform’s API enables this seamless integration with third-party services, such as bookkeeping software, payment systems, and email providers. With our platform, you can confidently make decisions, update ledgers, remit payments, and notify vendors that an invoice is under review — all from one place. 

How to set up finance automation?

There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for automating financial services. However, understanding what can be automated when developing an implementation strategy that will meet your organization’s goals is critical.

Automation Hero is the only end-to-end platform that deploys automation and document AI processes as highly scalable and reliable micro-services. There’s no need to “rip and replace” with Automation Hero’s IDP. Hero Platform_ integrates with and upgrades existing ERP, SAP, DMS, EDI, and AP systems. For example, supercharge an ERP system with intelligent document understanding or augment your current RPA with AI capabilities. 

You can immediately start using Automation Hero’s built-in intelligent document processing to build an automated infrastructure that speeds up the workflow at every step. In addition, our API will serve as an intelligence “fabric” that allows you to connect all your micro-services with other automation and internal data systems.

Unlock the intelligence in your financial documents with AI-driven automation today

• Speak with an expert — tell us about your specific use case.

• Get a personalized demo — schedule a demo, and our Heroes will get in touch!

Can automation improve job satisfaction, employee engagement, and productivity? 78% of employees surveyed believe automation can help them focus on the more interesting and rewarding aspects of their jobs. Read below to learn the benefits of automation technology for employees.

Apr 06, 2023 by Craig Woolard

It’s no secret that software automation benefits businesses. Using software to automate workflows benefits nearly every sector. That’s a fact. A lot of attention is paid to the fact that employee productivity increases, errors and costs decline, and employees have more time to work on higher-value tasks. 

This is excellent news for corporations and businesses. But what about the employees themselves? What should they think of automation technologies, including robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent document processing (IDP)?

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Can automation increase employee satisfaction?

Yes. Automation has the potential to make employees happier and feel more satisfied. According to recent “Automation in the Workplace” reports, 69% of information workers said automation could help reduce time wasted on manual, repetitive tasks that decrease employee happiness and satisfaction. For example, 59% of the respondents estimated up to six or more hours per week could be saved if the repetitive aspects of their job were automated. 

Employees working on “menial tasks” reported they were “wasting time;” however, those same employees also reported eagerness to put that time to better use. 72% of respondents also said they could use the time saved to focus on more meaningful, “higher-value work.”

In comparison, 78% said automation could help them focus on the more interesting and rewarding aspects of their jobs. However, it also depends on how you implement and manage the automation. More on this later.

What are the costs of not choosing automation?

Businesses that choose not to automate are likely to feel some pain. Before we dive into all the benefits of automation for employees, let’s quickly examine the opportunity costs to consider when organizations do not implement an automation strategy.

Here are some critical opportunity costs and risks to consider:

1. Increased workload: Without automation, employees may have to manually perform repetitive and time-consuming tasks, leading to increased workload, stress, and burnout. 

2. Reduced efficiency: Manual processes are slower and more prone to errors, which leads to longer delays, decreased productivity levels, and lower customer satisfaction. This is especially true for remote workers who may handle manual processes that are harder to manage from a distance.

3. Limited growth: Without automation, less efficient companies will struggle to keep up with their competitors who are using innovative technology to improve their business processes.

4. Higher costs: Manual processes can be more expensive to maintain in terms of time, labor, and resources, cutting into an organization’s profitability.

5. Risks to data quality: Whenever employees are not engaged with their work due to manual tasks, there’s a risk of bad data quality entering your system. Bad data quality introduces risks in areas where high accuracy is needed.

6. Employee dissatisfaction: Bottlenecks and inefficiencies within any company may cause employees to feel frustrated and demotivated. Productivity could suffer if employees do not have the tools and resources to work efficiently and effectively.

7. Attracting and retaining talent: When top performers become disillusioned with their work experience, they may seek opportunities for more meaningful work with the tools and resources they need. Companies should consider implementing software automation to attract and retain top-performing talent.

What are the risks of employee burnout?

While there is controversy over the causes of employee burnout, the consequences and risks are real. 

Burned-out employees who are less happy and unproductive can lead to risks with significant costs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, enterprises lose over $500 billion annually solely to low productivity levels. 

Companies know the risks of disaffected employees. Keeping employees satisfied with their work reduces the risks.

How do companies deal with this problem?

Contrary to popular belief, working too much does not lead to employee burnout. 

Recently, employee burnout statistics revealed that it’s how people experience their workload that significantly impacts burnout, not the hours worked. This should come as good news to leaders concerned about productivity. However, the reality is this: employees who are engaged with their work may work longer hours, but they are also far less likely to experience burnout. 

If your team performs repetitive and mundane tasks, it’s time to consider automation. 

5 Benefits of software automation for employees

One area of software automation that has gained significant attention is a new type of AI-supported business workflow automation called intelligent document processing (IDP). 

IDP is a next-gen automation technology that evolved from the need to surpass the limits of traditional rules-based approaches. Instead, IDP uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to read documents like humans.

IDP can read, extract, categorize, and organize data streams (usually from unstructured documents) and convert them into immediately accessible structured data formats that different departments or employees can use.  

The prime function of intelligent document processing is to distill every organization’s treasure trove of unstructured data into valuable, usable structured data. IDP can collect data from every document and provide data teams with the vehicle to analyze it. 

In this section, we will explore five benefits of IDP automation software for employees:

1. IDP boosts productivity and employee morale

One of the most significant benefits of IDP is productivity improvement. Employees can spend substantial amounts of time just manually processing and analyzing documents. The capability to extract raw information from any document significantly cuts down on the workload of manual data entry tasks. Since these processes can be automated with IDP, employees can work more efficiently and spend more time on higher-value tasks that generate revenue and more meaningful work that adds real value to the business.

2. IDP improves data quality, trust, and teamwork

Any time manual processes and human touchpoints are cut back or removed, it doesn’t just increase speed and productivity; it helps with accuracy and instills trust. Let’s face it: human errors are common in document processing. IDP protects against these errors, so there’s less chance of costly mistakes or lost hours due to audits that went wrong. Some IDP solutions offer an easy-to-use HitL interface that enables multi-party reviews and approvals — turning randomized audits, compliance procedures, and quality assurance processes into streamlined collaborations between people and departments.

3. Faster turnarounds enrich the employee experience

With manual document processing, employees may need to wait for other departments to process business-critical documents before proceeding. IDP can streamline this process, allowing employees to receive documents and data in near real-time and make faster, more informed decisions. Automation Hero’s IDP platform uses a classification AI model that detects intent in incoming emails and intelligently sorts them. Using the extracted data, Hero Platform_ can look up information in another system, verify it, and automatically send replies to common inquiries or route them to the correct department. — saving employees time and effort.

4. Automation makes employees better at their jobs

When employees are more engaged with their work, productivity skyrockets. Still, many processes require decision-makers to be in the loop. Some automation solutions offer a human-in-the-loop skill-builder that’s easy to manage and interact with. You can free critical decision-makers to take the enterprise to new heights with an intelligent automation platform that offers HitL automation workflows. Automation Hero’s no-code environment provides a unique “human-in-the-loop” component that’s easy to set up.

5. Reduced workload alleviates employee burnout

Finally, IDP can improve job satisfaction. Manual, repetitive tasks add little value to the organization and do not contribute to the sense of purpose employees crave from their work. Employees who spend significant time on manual document processing can experience frustration and burnout. Automating this process allows employees to focus on more fulfilling and challenging tasks, which ultimately helps improve job satisfaction.

How you can help employees embrace automation

Since automation software automates many repetitive tasks that lead to burnout, this will come as good news for business leaders looking to increase productivity, job satisfaction, and employee engagement.

Here are five ways automation software can help you achieve your automation goals:

1. Start by getting rid of the mundane stuff

Start by identifying and eliminating the mundane, easily automated busywork. This is a crucial step for increasing employee satisfaction and decreasing turnover. 

2. Ask employees to look for automation opportunities

Your people are your greatest asset. They have institutional knowledge about your business that can help you identify critical processes that need automation. Getting your team on board is the best way to involve them from the beginning. When engaged, your team will become “automation evangelists” as soon as they understand the potential.

3. Make automation a no-code process

Make change a positive experience for your employees. Learning how to use automation software is a skill. Upskilling is a lifelong journey and a goal many millennial employees value. When you give employees the tools to succeed, they will get excited about the opportunity to learn and grow. Therefore, choosing an automation platform that offers a no-code environment for your team is essential to kickstart the process without friction.

4. Keep employees in the loop

If you want to leverage automation software to improve operations but still need to handle exceptions and maintain oversight of the process, do you give up on automation? No. You keep humans “in the loop.” Automation Hero offers a human-in-the-loop skill builder for that extra layer of security. Be the Hero. Correct errors before they occur and close the gap between people and your automation.

5. Help employees understand the benefits of automation

Be a positive change agent within your org. Software automation is a powerful tool with the potential to alleviate employee burnout and enable a higher sense of purpose. Share this blog with your employees and help them understand the powerful benefits of automation software. You’ll need their help along the way!  

Start improving the employee experience with Automation Hero

When Allianz Italy decided to scale the use of AI, they quickly discovered that the best path to reach this goal was to keep business experts involved in the process. Learn how we helped Allianz create synergies between humans and artificial intelligence to reduce total claim processing time by 80% — cutting down manual tasks from 10 minutes to just two minutes per claim. 

• Watch the webinar — Allianz: Keep the Human in the Automation loop
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• Get a personalized demo — schedule a demo, and our Heroes will get in touch!

Mar 28, 2023 by Cynthia Almonte

The dawn of ChatGPT: How it impacts your business documents

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s large language model (LLM), is a game-changer in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language programming (NLP). This cutting-edge platform can revolutionize the way we write book reports, essays, and other documents. But how will it affect day-to-day business processes? Can it truly move the needle inside enterprise organizations?

Few product updates have broken through the way OpenAI’s ChatGPT has. It’s more than marketing; it’s a profound leap forward, a fundamental step into a new level of AI awareness. ChatGPT will foster a new level of AI — shaping everyday lives as we’ve never seen before. Book reports and college essays will never be the same again.

But what about day-to-day business processes? Will this move the needle inside enterprise organizations?

What business wants from AI and what it needs AI to deliver

In the weeks since its release, many people have wondered how quickly large language models (LLM), like ChatGPT, will begin to change everyday business processes. The promise for enterprise business is nuanced with business problems across complexity levels, teams, and languages. And let’s face it; many people keep thinking — will ChatGPT make my job different or unnecessary?

At Automation Hero, we have evaluated and discussed business problems and AI with enterprise customers worldwide. Based on our experience evaluating automation potential across many enterprise business processes, we have a simple conclusion about the impact of AI. For individuals, AI won’t replace you, but a competitor using AI will move faster and can outpace your company. For companies, both threats and opportunities supported by AI will quickly evolve. ChatGPT has lit a fire. 

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But what does ChatGTP mean for Intelligent Document Processing (IDP)? Will ChatGPT accelerate AI into a greater understanding of business documents? Since we deal with multinational enterprises daily, Automation Hero’s AI team knows firsthand how many remain stuck under a mountain of data-packed documents. These critical business processes typically require teams to manually rekey or scan and correct the data before they can truly reach their automation goals.  And while the language understanding presented by ChatGPT are impressive, they fail to understand business documents at the semantic level. That’s where the models developed by Automation Hero come in. Let me explain.

Why true semantic understanding is critical

We know the promise of AI is not isolated to one step of the process. It’s support for the entire process that moves the needle. Lacking true AI vision, a critical piece of document understanding, ChatGPT cannot unlock documents with real understanding of the document itself. It is impressive as a large language model but misses the mark with many critical business processes.

Automation Hero has invested heavily in our text extraction capabilities to provide just that — real document understanding, delivering the user’s knowledge with the ‘best’ answer at the document level across more types of documents. Semantic understanding of a document is critical. Without it, no AI can return a true ‘best’ answer.

While AI is technically not required to run a competitive company, its importance to business decision-making is crucial. A company using AI will move faster, with greater confidence into more accurate decision-making and better ROI.  

Unlock the intelligence in your documents with our AI-driven automation today

Learn how we helped Markerstudy reduce its claims processing time by 40%. Additionally, learn how we reduced total claim processing time by 80% for another multinational insurance partner — cutting down manual tasks from 10 minutes to just two minutes per claim.

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• Get a personalized demo — schedule a demo, and our Heroes will get in touch!

Mar 24, 2023 by Automation Hero

Andreas Obermair is the Global Head of Automation at Roboyo, where he leads the global intelligent automation practice. Automation Hero recently caught up with Andreas to hear about his work at Roboyo and to get his thoughts on trends in enterprise automation. 

Automation Hero: Tell us about Roboyo.

Andreas Obermair:  Roboyo is the world’s largest professional services provider dedicated to Hyperautomation. We are laser focused on creating business value and impact through automation and the optimization of processes for our customers. We have a wide range of approaches and technologies to make it happen, and we’re excited to have Automation Hero as part of our partner technology stack.

AH. So, tell us what’s Roboyo’s specialty?

AO: Our years of real-world process and project experience and working with different technologies. Plus, we have the in-depth knowledge of the different geographies and industries that our clients exist in, so we have a broad experience when it comes to digital transformation in general and hyperautomation specifically. 

AH: Roboyo was founded in Europe but has expanded globally. What does this mean for your customers?

AO: It was important for us to create a global footprint and to create sustainability for our clients. Over the past few years, our expansion means we now cover all the world’s time zones. This is great for our customers because they get the same quality of expertise and access to resources wherever they are in the world. We can support global engagement out of every market; and that’s all out of one brand, which is amazing.

AH: And where do you have offices?

AO: We have a presence in the Americas, in Europe, and in the APAC region. We have offices in 24 cities, across 15 countries including in Germany and the UK, Australia, India, the US and so on.

AH: How have views of automation changed in recent years?

AO: In the past—when we started our business—companies came to us saying, “We have a process. We want to automate it.” That’s it. I now believe there’s a shift in thinking. So that means people want to work with more advanced technologies and they want to solve problems in a more intelligent way. It’s more important than ever to work with such technologies to be able to take things to the next level.

AH: What’s an example of this?

AO: What we see with our customers now that’s especially interesting is the automation input. With documents, you get the input via PDF, via analog, via scan, and you can digitize and classify them. You can automate and bring them into your backend environment. This all requires high-level intelligence, and we’ve seen a push for this in recent months.

AH: What technology trends are you seeing?

AO: I see in the market right now a general push for new technologies and innovation, and we’ll see a huge push continue in 2023—that’s my feeling. What I’m seeing in the market is that companies are focused on getting more intelligent solutions into their enterprise environment. They are moving away from solving one-off problems, instead adopting the mindset of “How can we solve problems in a more intelligent way or with more advanced connected technologies?”. That’s where our experience in hyperautomation comes into play. 

AH: In your opinion, why do large-scale IT projects fail?

AO: I love that question to be honest because I think it’s never the technology which fails. It’s more about the people who are in front of the technology. Maybe they don’t understand how to use it, or maybe they’re not aware of how the processes work or how things are structured. 

That’s one reason we often see when it comes to our engagement, and the other part is people often expect the 100% solution. This is, of course, a way forward, but I’m not sure that always makes sense. In many cases 80/20 is a good approach to figuring out the most important things and to digitize them. It’s much more efficient than going for 100% right away.

AH: How do you convince someone of the value of new technologies?

AO:  Typically, companies invest in creating value and in problem-solving first. So they want to get a solution for the problems, and the technologies have to demonstrate how they can, for instance, improve efficiency, reduce costs, or enhance the customer experience. 

At Roboyo, we are experts in that area, so we can help companies understand how they can map their processes to the right technologies, and where they need to invest to make digitalization possible. And what we see is that you need to combine both the value perspective and the tech perspective.

AH: Where are you seeing hesitation?

AO: What we still see quite often is the topic of the cloud. We have many discussions of going on-premise versus cloud services. When it comes to advanced technologies, intelligent technologies, or hyperautomation technologies, you have to think about cloud services. You need training data and other models behind it, so we recommend going with the cloud. It can be painful to set up on-prem and to get the most out of the technology. It’s important to switch the business’s mindset to cloud-based solutions. 

AH: What if there’s a security concern with the cloud?

AO: Typically, we discuss with our clients in detail our own security measures plus that of our partners and the solutions we offer. We reassure their IT and security departments with the security measures we put in place and encourage them not to be afraid anymore – and most importantly to see the opportunities which result from the technology.

AH: You have an event coming up, All Eyes on Automation – Americas. What can we expect from it?

AO: Our All Eyes on Automation event is designed to provide a forum to exchange ideas, talk about new solutions, see how others have solved their digital transformation problems and learn from the best in the business. We’ve invited many of our clients to contribute whether that be a keynote speech, a panel discussion or breakout session – after all, they are the people you want to hear from who are making the technology work for them every day.  And of course, all our partners will be there sharing the latest technology and platforms and helping to understand how to implement digital solutions successfully. We’ve also just announced this year’s European All Eyes on Automation will be heading to Barcelona in September!

Learn more about Roboyo on their website, or you can check out the All Eyes on Automation – Americas event page.

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