Bringing Intelligence into Automation with Cognitive RPA

Tareq Ali
4 min readSep 6, 2020
Cognitive Robotic Process Automation

Cognitive Robotic Process Automation (CRPA) is a rapidly evolving field of computing and is an advancement to the traditional Robotic Process Automation technology. It comes with the ability to not only automate the rule-based and mundane processes but also with the power to make data-backed decisions that assist the human workforce in deriving value to the business. RPA has gained popularity for the myriad of benefits it provides to various industries. However, by blending with cognitive computing, RPA creates a revolution. Robotics and Cognitive Automation support the human workforce by means such as streamlining burdensome, tedious tasks, gathering information, extracting insights, and making intelligent decisions without human intervention.

How Cognitive Automation Brings Intelligence into the Equation?

Recently, we have noticed tremendous maturity in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies. This led Robotic Process Automation to transform from a technology that deploys software bots to accomplish monotonous and repetitive tasks to a technology that is, in addition, equipped with more cognitive powers. Robotics and Cognitive Automation require RPA to blend with technologies such as Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP). These technologies help build models that allow cognitive RPA to automate decision-making.

With increased cognitive capabilities, RPA ensures the processing of large volumes of text-based information, extracting meaningful insights from unstructured data sources, and enabling automated conversations. One of the best use cases of Cognitive Robotic Process Automation is automated approval or rejection of applications based on information gathered from similar cases. For example, through the use of Machine Learning Algorithms, Cognitive RPA can learn how the decisions were made in the past, depending upon the information filled in the applicants’ forms. Thereafter, Cognitive RPA can automate approval or rejection of the following applications, enabling companies to ensure considerable cost savings.

What are the perks of Implementing cognitive RPA?

The advantages of deploying the digital workforce that is more cognitive in nature to carry out tedious and repetitive tasks are boundless and are applicable to almost all industries. For instance, with Robotics and Cognitive Automation in place, the insurance sector can expedite claims processing. Manual claims processing involves costs spent on gathering information, which may require agents to make calls, dealing with a massive number of forms, and employees working to close the claims.

With the help of Robotics and Cognitive Automation, companies can build conversational platforms that allow claimants to connect and fill the required information into the systems and will enable claims processing systems to ingest information for decision-making. As a result, it minimizes the time and costs usually required to process claims.

How to choose the right Cognitive RPA solution?

Robotics and Cognitive Automation can produce groundbreaking benefits for your business, provided you choose the right platform. But how to choose the right Cognitive RPA platform? To come to a conclusion, we will have to discuss greater details of such platforms, analyze their features and functionalities, and assess potential benefits. To make the selection process easier, the key capabilities of the best Cognitive RPA platform are mentioned here.

Data Security and Integrity

Your customer’s data is one of the most critical assets of your company and may contain sensitive information. It is imperative to protect this data while outsourcing it to other business (B2B) companies. While choosing a cognitive RPA solution partner, enquire if they are SOC 2 compliant. SOC 2 is an auditing procedure that makes sure your service provider securely handles your data to safeguard the interests of your business and the privacy of your customers.

For any security-conscious organization, SOC 2 compliance is a minimum requirement while considering a Cognitive RPA provider. SOC 2 outlines standards for managing clients’ data based on five trust service principles which are as follows:

1. Security

2. Availability

3. Processing Integrity

4. Confidentiality and

5. Privacy

Omni-Channel Capabilities

RPA companies vary widely and may develop solutions with varying capabilities. For example, some companies allow process automation over APIs, documents, audios, emails, or web, while some other companies may allow you to automate processes across all these channels. Evaluate the requirements of your company. What can derive value? Email automation? Chatbots? Voice recognition services? Intelligent document processing?

Minimal Coding Requirement

For a digital transformation initiative to fetch results and produce quick ROI, solutions that require minimal or no coding for the integration make for a perfect choice. This guarantees low efforts for the implementation and ensures delightful outcomes within a short time.

Ability to Consume and Process Unstructured Data

A large portion of data is captured through disparate sources and different systems. This data is usually is in an unstructured form and doesn’t integrate with a predefined framework. The ability of Robotics and Cognitive Automation to consume and process unstructured data increases the organization’s overall potential exponentially, as their cognitive-based RPA model can handle any type of data that is fed to it.

Final Thoughts:

Cognitive Automation is a feature of Robotic Process Automation that leverages Artificial Intelligence technologies such as Deep Learning, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing to provide automation with cognitive powers. It allows streamlining tasks that require frequent decision-making by allowing you to create ML-Based models that ingest a large amount of data and learn through it. Cognitive RPA applies to all industries for enhancing productivity and efficiency across a wide range of processes and functions.

When opting for a Cognitive Technology Solution, it is crucial to take various factors into account, including data security, multi-channel support, minimal dependency on IT, and the ability to deal with unstructured data. Due diligence while choosing Artificial Intelligence Services Company for Cognitive RPA implementation will ensure that your automation initiatives result in quick efficiencies and ROI.

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Tareq Ali

Tareq Ali is enriching the web through storytelling where most of his stories revolve around humans and things influenced by fashion, fitness, and technology.