OREANDA-NEWS. July 13, 2015. We are entering a new era of human-machine interface for repetitive and rote processes. More than ever, software tools are emerging as the “robots” for knowledge work and driving real impact,” writes Sean Middleton. “A recent Cognizant study shows that when applied to automating core business processes, they can extend the productivity and problem-solving capabilities of human beings and improve business results.” Excerpts:

“Cognizant’s research finds that humans are working smarter with sophisticated software to automate business tasks, generating rich process data that can drive meaningful insights, value and outcomes for businesses. It is increasingly clear that robots do not dominate the process automation space, but rather help to make smart humans smarter and businesses more agile. Intelligent automation is about improving what people can do. The meaning contained in process data yielded by automation can be unlocked using process analytics.

Humans performing knowledge work are complemented by technology in increasingly high-value ways. Humans are attaining new levels of process efficiency at reduced cost. People are still essential to process work in banking, healthcare, life sciences and insurance. So smart businesses are using intelligent automation to also empower people.

With robots, intelligent automation has come to signify the next wave of efficiency gain in business processes. Many organizations are starting to use robots to do rote tasks less expensively, while leveraging people for more complex processes by allowing them to apply their talents and creativity in ways that robots cannot.

Yet, the real prize of process automation is in the explosion of rich process-level data. Analytics can help make meaning of this data and extract insights from it, which can then help organizations improve performance and innovate for the needs of tomorrow.

Smart robots, apart from saving money by automating processes, also improve accuracy and reliability with zero variance and significantly fewer errors. But robots still need oversight to monitor, orchestrate, coordinate and remediate problems.

Automation thus has its limits — there are some things that robots just can’t do, such as medical management, underwriting, case reviews and speak or comprehend colloquial expressions. The domain skills of subject matter experts too will continue to exist outside the realm of what we can expect from robots, at least in the short term. That’s where a blended model of automation involving robots, analytics and humans working in tandem can provide optimal outcomes.

Digitizing one or several pieces of an industry process value chain can impact the health of the whole business. It is important for organizations to define pressure points and then identify where, how and when smart technologies such as automation can complement the workforce, and make smart people smarter. Organizations that can master smart robots tethered to smart data will outpace rivals who don’t — or can’t.”