AI is everywhere, all around us and no one discusses anymore if we will end up in an "AI Winter" again. Just the opposite. Now the main question is if we will ever reach an era where "Artificial General Intelligence" (AGI) will prevail. An era where AI will be at least as intelligent as a humankind since today's AI is nothing more than a narrow one or a "Weak AI".
RPA, then? What about it? Does Robotic Process Automation (RPA) have anything in common with AI? Do AI & RPA really complement each other? Can RPA help AI to reach AGI? Will we ever reach AGI era?
Many questions to answer. We can maybe reach AGI, the nirvana of AI, but nobody knows when and if it is possible... At least for now...
Let's take a few steps back, and try to answer the simple question:
What is RPA?
As a technology, Robotic Process Automation is all about software robots that mimic human actions. Be it opening a mail, pressing a button, saving a document, transferring data from a document or even more complex actions like being a bridge to transfer data between different applications by using Application Programming Interfaces (API).
It is a very known and proven fact that it brings huge advantages to all kinds of businesses and industries. Automation helps all verticals, from public sector to big enterprises, to increase their efficiencies while running different processes. The main idea with the RPA is to automate mundane and repetitive tasks so that the employees can focus on more complex and value generating tasks while getting rid of the boring ones.
The software that helps to automate all those tasks is called a Robot and this is where the name Robotic Process Automation comes. The robots can work 7/24, without getting tired and without making any mistakes. Just think about what you can achieve by using this technology and how you can increase the level of job satisfaction for those who get tired of dealing with repetitive tasks...
I have been learning RPA for 8 months now and seeing the capabilities and the value it brings, I have become more and more passionate with it, like AI which has been my passion for so long.
And AI... There are tons of definitions of it. But the two ones I like the most are:
- AI, is non-biological intelligence...
- Using the power of computers to augment human thinking.
