How RPA became the ultimate race to win in AI and Digital Transformation

The world is full of amazing digital transformation ideas, AI proofs of concepts and promising pilots. In the research labs IBM, Google and Tencent and innovating governments like Dubai these showcases provide a peek into the future and a sense of the art of the possible.

Most businesses operating under quarterly pressures, constant customer demands have a harder time integrating digital innovations into operational plans, let alone see short term results from them. In most corporate cultures ideas that cannot prove immediate benefits are often put way behind more pressing current priorities.

That is why robotic process automation has proven so attractive and practical for many businesses as the start of their digital journey. It has the benefits of bringing process digitization, machine learning and AI into the mundane everyday activities of the business while generating instant savings in labor and process times. You can be a technology innovator and save money. Even CFOs love this. More importantly, it takes digital transformation concepts from the conceptual discussions to everyday work.

In a recent study by the process benchmarking authority APQC shows that a staggering 69% digital transformations are driven by RPA projects. Once organizations gain experience with faster processing and more effective workforce they tend to be open to more complex digital projects as well. It helps that savings generated with RPA can help fund the digital transformation projects themselves.

Even in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, a Harvard Business Review study shows that 47% of AI projects were also cognitive RPA and not advanced topics like cognitive analytics or engagement

This could be reasons that traditional industries like telco, healthcare and banking deployed thousands of bots across their business functions to free up the workforce to tackle other digital priorities like customer experience that have less tangible savings but clearly essential value.

The race to digital transformation is becoming the race to scaling RPA for many industries. Since these projects generate their own funding mechanism at an increasing scale, it will be harder and harder for late starters to catch up.