What is cognitive automation? How can enterprises benefit?

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According to a report, the global Intelligent Process Automation Market is expected to reach USD 20.7 Billion by the year 2026. Another report predicts that cognitive computing will disrupt the digital sphere, unlike any other technology introduced in the last 20 years.

RPA vs. Cognitive RPA

Robotic Process Automation simplifies repetitive tasks that follow a set of pre-defined rules and instructions. In contrast, Cognitive Automation is the application of AI technologies, including ML and NLP, to process complex, unstructured data, and tasks that require decision-making and judgment. With technology becoming a core part of digital transformation, enterprises benefit from cognitive automation in more ways than one.

Provides accurate data analysis

For instance, the healthcare industry deals with a massive amount of unstructured data. Cognitive computing collects and analyzes data from multiple sources – business reports, past data, and diagnostic tools, among others. Cognitive language technologies such as NLP, speech recognition, sentiment, and text analytics extracts information from unstructured data, deriving meaningful experiences, and analysis.

Of course, for the cognitive system to make accurate decisions, sufficient data is necessary, or it will fall flat. Traditional RPA works wonders on structured, rules-based processes, whereas cognitive RPA enables the automation of unstructured data.

Supplements the decision-making 

It harnesses the power of AI and Automation to emulate human intelligence, automating tasks that involve judgment and solving problems with its unique decision-making ability. With the application of predictive and prescriptive analysis, it empowers business leaders to draw conclusions derived from data. 

With the IA tools mirroring human intelligence, judgment, reasoning, and cognitive machines now perform decision-making that was once perceived to be only the preserve of the human worker. Cognitive decision making is the future. The cognitive decision-making model in your enterprise’s RPA platform is a stepping stone to digital transformation. The system design focuses now on human intelligence, for instance, the cognitive tools map how the humans interact and manage various scenarios, learning as they evolve, as new information is known, making data-driven decisions.

Improves business processes

Automation is no doubt at the heart of back-office processes. It helps spot business opportunities, enhances efficiency, thereby allowing the human worker to focus on tasks that require judgment and reasoning. Cognitive tools help improve an organization’s workflow, thereby improving operations and swivel chair activities. RPA-led transformation helps enterprises achieve quick wins and move the needle.

Enhances customer interaction

As real-time communications make greater inroads into our lives, hyper-automation is the next big thing.

Cognitive technologies provide contextual information without interacting with staff, thus reducing the waiting time and provides customers with relevant information. Enterprises can now understand the customer journey, automating customer support, and saving FTEs. From handling customer queries to ticket management/resolution, it provides a plethora of benefits. The cognitive tools help forecast risk, predict customer demand, changing the way businesses interact with customers, thus enhancing the customer experience. 

Builds the future workforce

A sub-discipline of AI, cognitive automation uses cognitive technologies, understands human language, learns from experience, and evolves, hence allowing the human worker to improve their abilities and focus on more revenue-generating tasks. In short, the bots will mimic not only human intelligence but also augment human intelligence in the future. Enterprises down the road will prepare to embrace the digital workforce, where managing bots is crucial. Bots will complement the human worker, compelling the human worker to acquire new skills, urging businesses to redefine and reconfigure roles across domains.

Conclusion

With enterprises feeling strongly about cognitive RPA, we can safely say that this is just the start. Cognitive RPA is a game-changing technology that’s not only an enabler of digital transformation but also puts data front and center, creating meaningful customer experiences. The new technologies help enterprises meet the rising customer expectation, realigning the company’s goals.

Thanks to the exponential growth in data and computing power, enterprises are no more on the fence about going beyond traditional RPA. Technology has no doubt made significant strides over the years, going beyond human capabilities, successfully transforming businesses.

Today, enterprises want to not only automate back-office processes but also embark on the automation journey — from RPA to Cognitive RPA.

Deployment of cognitive automation has the potential to create value across sectors, opening up new possibilities for the new digital age, driving enterprises to be future-ready.

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