How to explain Robotic

Process Automation (RPA)

in plain English
What is robotic process automation (RPA)? What kinds of
repetitive tasks can it handle? Here's a primer for IT and business
leaders – and anyone needing to demystify the concept
If “machine learning” sounds like the beginning of a bleak dystopian future – think The Terminator mixed with
The Matrix – then “robotic process automation” must be the phase when the machines rise up to rule
humankind with ruthless efficiency.

Fortunately, robotic process automation (RPA) involves nothing of the sort, except perhaps for the efficiency
part. There aren’t really even any robots involved in this automation software.

First things first: There aren’t really any robots involved in robotic process automation.

“Robotic process automation is not a physical [or] mechanical robot,” says Chris Huff, chief strategy officer at
Kofax.

What is robotic process automation?

Rather, the “robot” in robotic process automation is software robots running on a physical or virtual machine.

“RPA is a form of business process automation that allows anyone to define a set of instructions for a robot or
‘bot’ to perform,” says Aaron Bultman, director of product at Nintex. “RPA bots are capable of mimicking most
human-computer interactions to carry out a ton of error-free tasks, at high volume and speed.”

If that kind of automation technology sounds sort of, well, boring – especially compared to the Hollywood
robots – that’s by design. RPA is ultimately about automating some of the most mundane and repetitive
computer-based tasks and processes in the workplace. Think copy-paste tasks and moving files from one
location to another, for example.

RPA automates everyday processes that once required human action – often a great deal of it performed in
rote, time-consuming fashion. That’s also how RPA promises to boost efficiency for organizations.

Let’s back up for a moment and add some other clear-cut definitions of RPA to our arsenal. Use these to
sharpen your own understanding – or to help explain RPA to colleagues, customers, or partners, especially
when working with non-technical folks.

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5 ways to define RPA in plain English
▸ “In layman’s terms, RPA is the process by which a software bot uses a combination of automation,
computer vision, and machine learning to automate repetitive, high-volume tasks that are rule-based
and trigger-driven.”
David Landreman, CTO of Olive.

▸ “Robotic process automation is nothing but instructing a machine to execute mundane, repetitive
manual tasks. If there is a logical step to performing a task, a bot will be able to replicate it.”
Vishnu KC, senior software analyst lead at ClaySys Technologies.

▸ “RPA is software that automates rules-based actions performed on a computer.”

Chris Huff, chief strategy officer at Kofax.

▸ “RPA is an advanced form of business process automation that is able to record tasks performed by a
human on their computer, then perform those same tasks without human intervention. Essentially, it is
a virtual robot copycat.”
Marcel Shaw, federal systems engineer at Ivanti.

▸ “Put simply, the role of RPA is to automate repetitive tasks that were previously handled by humans.
The software is programmed to do repetitive tasks across applications and systems. The software is
taught a workflow with multiple steps and applications.”
Antony Edwards, COO at Eggplant.

Is that process a match for RPA?

Evaluating your internal processes and workflows that would be good candidates for RPA is its own story for
another day. That said, there are some fundamental criteria worth noting here since they can help you and your
team get a better handle on what RPA is and how it could be useful. Moreover, these criteria can help as you
discuss RPA implementation with non-technical colleagues elsewhere in the company. One of the big
categories: Any processes that require people to do a high volume of repetitive data work.

“RPA is ideal for tasks involving a high level of human data processing,” says Landreman, the CPO at Olive. “The
most common uses of RPA programs supplement repetitive functions or data-intensive processes, where
logic-based outcomes are anticipated.”

Landreman shares four basic check-offs when determining possible RPA fits:

▸ The process must be rule-based.

▸ The process must be repeated at regular intervals, or have a pre-defined trigger.
▸ The process must have defined inputs and outputs.
▸ The task should have sufficient volume.

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What can RPA do?
Example use cases and business processes
Show people outside of IT how RPA could reduce drudge work in their day-to-day jobs.

Explaining and evangelizing RPA outside of IT should be a bit easier than doing so for other topics that are
harder to distill down for non-technical people, such as serverless or microservices. The definitions above speak
to this. It can also be easier to show people outside of IT how RPA implementations could benefit them directly
by reducing drudge work in their day-to-day jobs. (The same task might be more challenging when it comes to
explaining to a field service technician how, say, containerization benefits them.)

“Businesses and organizations like RPA because it helps them improve productivity across a wide range of
populations – users, customers, employees, sales and marketing people, business people, accountants, legal
and finance analysts, etc.,” says Muddu Sudhakar, CEO at Aisera.

Still, the light bulbs usually turn on quicker with accessible examples of how technology can be used in the
enterprise. So let’s return to data-intensive processes as a good starting point. Sudhakar reminds us of how
many different actions can attend data: data receiving, data processing, data collection, data correction, data
creation, and so forth.

Consider the amount of this kind of work in an area like finance: Receivables and payables alone have
traditionally required tons of manual, repetitive effort by skilled workers. This is why you see lofty predictions
about RPA in specific business functions: Gartner, for example, has predicted that 73 percent of corporate
controllers will implement some form of RPA in their finance departments by 2020, up from 19 percent in 2018.

Think about the repetitive processes in business functions such as finance, customer service, and HR.

Other traditional business units, like customer service and HR, offer their own examples of data-intensive,
rules-based, and repetitive processes. Specific industries such as insurance and financial services also fit the
bill.

Edwards, the COO at Eggplant, offers this specific use case as an example: Returns processing. Think about the
last time you returned a purchase you made online, and what that entails not only for you but also the company
from which you purchased. Those “free” returns are really anything but.

“Traditionally, returns processing has been carried out manually and has been a costly endeavor. With RPA,
companies can manage returns without adding to the cost or causing a delay,” Edwards says. “The RPA
software can now handle the return, which includes a series of repetitive steps: sending a message confirming
receipt of the return, updating the inventory system, making the payment adjustment to the customer, ensuring
that the internal billing system is updated, and so on.”

The steps involved in returning a pair of shoes that didn’t quite fit, let’s say, map quite nicely to Landreman’s
criteria above, for both customer and business. It’s a rule-based process that has a particular trigger and is

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repeatable; it has specific inputs (such as initiating the return and returning the product) and outputs (such as
your refund); and for retail businesses, especially, there’s certainly significant volume.

It’s a necessary process with plenty of “opportunities” for inefficiencies, errors, and other issues. And let’s face
it: It’s boring. It’s the kind of process that RPA exists to improve.

“The ability to automate [with RPA] allows workers to switch their focus to more thoughtful and meaningful
work while also eliminating data-entry errors that can damage processing times, compliance, and the overall
customer experience,” Huff from Kofax says.

Benefits of RPA
In addition to business processes like the ones we just examined in finance, customer service, and HR, what are
the other benefits of RPA? Think about what your organization could do with the reclaimed IT team time,
advises Eveline Oehrlich, Chief Research Analyst at DevOps Institute.

"The productivity potential of RPA is too promising to ignore," Oerlich notes. "The technology will continue to
improve, but that doesn’t necessarily mean robots are taking away jobs. Ideally, these bots will allow CIOs to
free up employees for more meaningful work that will advance their organization’s digital transformation
efforts. Also, remind skeptics that many vendors offer free trials so you can experience RPA in action before
committing."

How AI and RPA relate

Even as more enterprises tap into RPA, there’s some disagreement on the basic relationship between AI and
RPA. As our research report “Executive’s guide to real-world AI,” produced by Harvard Business Review
Analytics, notes: “Some question whether RPA qualifies as AI.”

Why the disagreement? RPA doesn't learn as it goes, like, say, a deep neural network. "If something changes in
the automated task – a field in a web form moves, for example – the RPA bot typically won’t be able to figure
that out on its own," as we have reported.

Even if you take that point of view, there’s definitely a relationship between RPA and AI – a growing relationship.

“AI technologies that augment and mimic human judgment and behavior complement RPA technologies that
replicate rules-based human actions,” says Kofax's Huff. “The two technologies work hand in glove, just like
traditional ‘white-collar’ knowledge-based workers and ‘blue-collar’ service-based workers collaborate as the
engine to drive productivity for an organization.”

Dave Costenaro, head of AI R&D at Jane.ai, notes that as RPA gets deployed in concert with AI technologies, it
gains capabilities.

“The presently booming AI technologies – namely, deep neural networks – are adding brand-new tools to the
RPA toolbox primarily in vision and language tasks,” Costenaro says. “Now, the RPA workflows can be enabled

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by these capabilities at decision nodes where they could not before. This allows documents and images to be
‘viewed’ holistically by an algorithm, and interpreted for downstream logic and routing.”

"Leveraging AI and the continuous development of processing increasingly complex data emulates human
level-decision making," Oerlich notes. "This enables faster decision-making and eliminates the potential for
human bias."

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