Coming Wave of Artificial Intelligence & RPA

A wave of Robotic Process Automation or RPA is coming and will take over corporate America faster than we think. Businesses will be forced to implement it to stay competitive and be able to do more with less resources.

There are many naysayers who dismiss RPA as a mere rebranding of simple automation that have existed in different industries for many years. I disagree with this sentiment because this time around the automation we have is capable of leveraging Artificial Intelligence. RPA is to Automation what Facebook was to Myspace, Stripe is to PayPal, Uber to Taxis or Google to Yahoo.

The time is right

As surprising as it may sound, we are going through a massive cultural shift around reducing the human interaction and increasing on-demand services. This is evident from the success of companies like Doordash, GrubHub, Amazon, Uber, Lyft and UberEats. The coming generation wants to drive less, order online and get their things delivered to them as fast as possible. A stark contrast to the time when American companies used to tout having a real person answering the phone as one of their competitive benefits.

In healthcare, faster claims processing, speedy payment delivery and immediate replies to customer inquiries are easily possible via RPA. These RPA solutions can be developed quickly because in today’s market, we have many niche softwares and tools that can act as ingredients in designing a large system. This availability of external tools is what has made the RPA highly valuable.

For example: to use OCR within RPA workflow, we can use Google Cloud Vision, Amazon’s AWS or free open source libraries. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM alone are offering so many cloud based tools that there are very few processes left that could not be automated using the RPA.

Is RPA truly an AI? 

RPA is a sequence of events or flow manually designed by a developer to mimic a specific process. When people talk about AI, they generally mean machine learning, deep learning or neural networks. However, the Artificial Intelligence is a term that includes every algorithm that allows automation to happen irregardless of how smart it is.

If I had to describe AI and RPA to a beginner, here is how I would put it:

AI is an umbrella term that includes RPA, machine learning, deep learning and neural networks. Out of these, the RPA is like a limb in a human body while the rest act as brain. RPA is capable of clicking on things, entering data and mimicking movements on a computer similar to that of a human. Machine learning, deep learning and neural networks on the other hand are like a brain and are capable of thinking, recognizing patterns and learning from past experiences.

The true power of RPA comes in when it is combined with machine learning.

For example: you can train a machine learning algorithm on 5 years worth of claims data and connect it to a claims processing RPA flow. This system will eventually be capable of processing claims at a much higher and accurate rate than an employee who has been doing it for 5 straight years.

Difference between RPA and Classic Automation 

Classic automation have always existed in one shape or form but what makes the current RPA different is its ability to handle exceptions and being system agnostic. RPA can work with multiple systems while classic automation only lives within the bounds of a single system it was designed for. RPA can also take any standard manual process and automate it. It can also leverage machine learning and neural networks to learn and improve itself.

Take claims processing as an example. Automatic Claims Adjudication is an example of classic automation. In the current claims adjudication processes, any claim that produces an error or requires special handling like manual checking of a Prior Auth needs a human to look at it. RPA on the other hand can not only learn from the previously processed claims but can also use any third-party systems that could aid in completing the processing of a claim.

Why RPA will take over corporate America? 

RPA will take over quickly because it is easy to implement, has high ROI, decreases errors, increases quality, reduces the turnaround time. It enables employees to work on innovative things, deal with customers and focus on more complicated tasks. Businesses that want to grow and stay competitive will have no choice but to implement RPA.

Will RPA cause job losses? 

A common myth about RPA is that it will take over all jobs. The truth is that RPA will actually result in a net increase in the number of total jobs. It's just that the nature of jobs will change. As mundane repetitive tasks are automated with RPA, new opportunities will emerge and new technological roles will evolve. Even the jobs that may become obsolete will not cause layoffs. The majority of businesses will opt for attrition rather than going for massive layoffs.

Final Thoughts 

Whether we like it or not, AI is coming. Implementing it is not a matter of being cool, saving money or automating things. It is about survival!

All of us implementing AI are in the same boat because we are essentially going from human to a robot. The processes in our companies were designed with humans in mind. This single point is what makes us different from the new businesses coming to market. Majority of these newcomers are starting with AI first and humans later.

Any insurance startup which designs its business processes based on AI will instantly have an upper hand on any existing insurance company. Their processing capability and revenue will be higher while their workforce will be a third of the incumbents.