Can you go one day without hearing about Artificial Intelligence (AI)? It feels like we hear about AI all the time, and while robots aren’t taking over the world, they are integrating themselves into the workplace. Artificial intelligence and process automation are coming together to reshape the business landscape. And it’s no surprise: from smart homes to smart speakers and smartwatches, it seems like everything is turning into a brainiac. AI and process automation join forces to forge a new acronym, intelligent process automation (IPA), to turn your business into a smart organization. IPA is a technology capable of learning from data, understanding patterns, making decisions, and automating complex tasks far beyond the capabilities of traditional workflow management. Here are three areas of business process automation AI is already shaking up.
Empowering decisions
The artificial intelligence component of IPA enables systems to analyze and understand complex datasets, providing insights and predictive analytics that can inform strategic decision-making. AI is a prime way to combat big data—an issue overwhelming 95% of businesses. Big data is an issue steadily plaguing businesses since the dawn of Web 2.0. But apps and endless social media feeds are just the beginning. The Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to open a new set of data floodgates. IoT tags a sensor onto physical goods collecting thousands of data points from refrigerators, trucks, and even Brita water filters. In 2012, the guardians of all things internet opened up 340 undecillion new IP addresses, enough to give one to every grain of sand on the planet—and still have enough to give one to every star in the known universe. But on a practical level, the decision permitted innovators to onboard everything from smart washing machines and thermostats to the information superhighway. As Harvard Business Review forecasted in 2014, IoT will force organizations to reexamine their core offering, prompting the question, “What business are we actually in?” Every company, despite its industry or market, is now a data company. A 2020 acquisition by Lululemon, the famous purveyor of yoga pants, underscores the shift. The retailer picked up Mirror, an interactive device that walks users through various workouts—while Lululemon walks away with an invaluable trove of insights into consumer fitness habits. In the same vein, Amazon’s Roomba acquisition was a head-scratcher for outsiders. But if you look through an IoT lens, you’ll see the benefits of mapping the layouts of millions of homes. As businesses collect more and more IoT data on consumer habits, manual analysis will become impossible to manage. Enter IPA, which will play infinite roles in IoT. IPA will chime into automated workflows to provide valuable insights into finance, marketing, accounting, and more. In transportation, AI can reroute a fleet of trucks around poor traffic or weather conditions. Internet-connected accelerometers and gyroscopes point out erratic drivers that must be pulled aside for retraining. We’ll see AI weaving into automated workflows to:
