By: Editorial Staff, Date: May 4th, 2021
When you think of automation, robots assembling products in a factory is likely the first thing that comes to mind. Today, however, automation extends far beyond performing repetitive tasks in a factory setting, and more and more companies are using automation to streamline their business in ways we might not have imagined just a few years ago.
Intelligent process automation entails using software to automate various processes in an office setting such as approving expense requests, organizing files and emails, scheduling meetings, and beyond. While “bots” are assigned to perform these tasks, these aren’t the same as the robots you might picture assembling products. Instead, the bots that make intelligent process automation possible are purely software. Nevertheless, the benefits that they offer to modern businesses are nothing to take lightly.
By automating day-to-day tasks such as those outlined above, intelligent process automation can ramp up the productivity of a company’s office while also reducing expenses. Bots tend to be much faster than a human employee at performing tasks that are relatively simple and repetitive, and they are certainly much more affordable. This allows companies to avoid having their productivity bogged down by simple yet time-consuming day-to-day tasks and frees up the company’s human resources to focus on higher-level tasks that a bot cannot yet accomplish.
As intelligent process automation continues to become increasingly more advanced and refined, we can expect this type of automation to play an ever more prominent role in the modern office setting. This is naturally a concern to many who see automation as a threat to the usefulness of a human employee. In an ideal future, however, humans and bots will be able to work side by side, benefiting from each other’s strengths to achieve maximum productivity. For now, though, there is simply no denying the time and cost-saving benefits that intelligent process automation offers to businesses in a wide range of industries.
