Automating Tasks With a Different Kind of Robot

The first thing you need to understand about robotic process automation (RPA) is that it has nothing to do with robots—at least not the kind most of us visualize and not the kind of mechanical robots we build here at inVia. Instead, RPA is a way to automate business processes by creating software “robots” to perform the tedious tasks that people get stuck doing instead of spending their time focusing on more meaningful work. It’s the “cut-and-paste,” “update the database,” “fill in the form,” kind of repetitive work that becomes monotonous and, furthermore, can easily lead to errors.

RPA is also one of the fastest growing segments of business technology today, with research firm Gartner estimating that spending on RPA software will increase from $680 million in 2018 to $2.4 billion in 2022. In fact, just yesterday it was reported that RPA company UiPath will boost its valuation to more than $6 billion, making it the highest valued AI startup. It is one of many companies being built to deploy these software robots that monitor users’ individual keystrokes as they interact with applications such as enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management, identifying repetitive patterns and suggesting ways to automate them.

How Does RPA work?

Robotic process automation mimics the actions of people. The software sits on top of an application and “watches” what an employee is doing in the application’s interface. It then “learns” how to do the tasks and automates the process. And since RPA bots can run 24/7 without getting get tired or distracted, data entry errors decrease and data quality increases.

What Types of Companies use RPA?

Banks, insurance companies, telecoms, and utilities were quick to jump on the RPA bandwagon as a way to improve their customer service operations, while e-commerce companies have found that RPA can help streamline order processing, order updates, and shipping notifications. And the list of companies adopting RPA is growing every day, with Gartner predicting that 85% of large organizations will have deployed some form of RPA by the end of 2022.

What are the Benefits of RPA?

The benefits of robotic process automation are similar to the ones you get when you deploy inVia’s autonomous mobile robots: increases in speed, decreases in costs, and happier customers. And the mission is the same: to automate repetitive tasks so people can focus on doing more meaningful work.

Ready to put the power of mobile robotics to work in your warehouse? Contact our sales team today.