The era of Intelligent Automation: a quarter of your company’s tasks could be automated in only two years, including risk management

A quarter of a company’s tasks could be automated by 2023, according to the research and advisory firm Gartner. Intelligent Automation technologies are increasingly being adopted by companies in all sectors because they can analyse large volumes of data to make due diligence and risk management processes more efficient and effective, and identify strategic opportunities. Our new white paper explains what Intelligent Automation is, and how companies can best take advantage of its potential.

The use of Intelligent Automation is expected to accelerate further this year. Remote and digital working has become the norm for global business, while many firms are streamlining their operations to become more efficient as they seek to recover from the impact of the pandemic. Gartner’s influential, annual predictions for 2021 noted that "during the [Covid-19) crisis and the recovery, boards are demanding an acceleration of digital business.”

This is backed up by a recent study from India’s International Data Corporation, which found that 57% of organisations in the country are investing in RPA and intelligent automation to “build resilience” after the pandemic.

What is Intelligent Automation?

The phrase “Intelligent Automation” conjures up images of sci-fi films in which robots become intelligent, surpass humans and take over the world. The reality is much less fanciful: it refers a number of interlinking technologies that are increasingly widely used by companies in every sector. Intelligent Automation combines two technology applications:

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA): The automation of manual and repetitive tasks, which saves companies time and resource and frees up employees to focus on other activities.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): A range of technologies that can analyse large volumes of information; learn, adapt and improve through experience to solve problems without following express instructions; and predict future behaviour.

In combination, the potential of Intelligent Automation is obvious. It takes the enhanced capabilities of AI to analyse and solve problems, and applies it via RPA so that more and more key business processes can be automated.

Why are organisations like Gartner predicting an exponential growth in the use of Intelligent Automation across many industries? The answer lies in its potential to transform the way companies carry out a number of key activities, including:

• Driving more efficient and automated Know-Your-Customer and other due diligence processes.
• Supporting risk management more broadly, including adverse media monitoring.
• Deriving new insights and innovations.
• Improving employee satisfaction and strengthening relationships with customers and third parties.

Technology is only as effective as the data powering it

Amid the excitement around the potential of Intelligent Automation, we must remember that these new technologies do not offer a silver bullet. Processes should be optimised before they are automated to avoid replication of inefficiencies. Effectiveness also depends on the data being ingested. Intelligent Automation running across data that is out-of-date, incomplete, or irrelevant can, in fact, lead to flawed results.

Nexis® Solutions provides comprehensive news, company and legal data which has been enriched for easy use by technology applications. To learn more about this, and the global rise of Intelligent Automation, download our new white paper, ’Unlocking the Power of Intelligent Automation with Nexis Solutions’.