Business process automation
Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Multiple issues Business process automation (BPA), also known as business automation, refers to the technology-enabled automation of business processes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Development approaches
There are three main approaches to developing BPA:<ref>Template:Cite journalTemplate:Creative Commons text attribution notice</ref>
- traditional business process automation entails developing BPA software in a programming language for integrating relevant applications in the digital ecosystem to execute a given process;
- robotic process automation uses software robots (also called agents, bots, or workers) to emulate human-computer interaction for executing a combination of processes, activities, transactions, and tasks in one or more unrelated software systems;
- hyperautomation (also called intelligent automation (IA), intelligent process automation (IPA) integrated automation platform (IAP), and cognitive automation (CA) combines business process automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to discover, validate, and execute organizational processes automatically with no or minimal human intervention.
Deployment
BPA toolsets vary in capability. With the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), organizations are implementing AI-driven technologies that can process natural language, interpret unstructured datasets, and interact with users. These systems are designed to adapt to new types of problems with reduced reliance on human intervention.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Business process management implementation
A business process management system differs from BPA. However, it is possible to implement automation based on a BPM implementation. The methods to achieve this vary, from writing custom application code to using specialist BPA tools.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Robotic process automation
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Robotic process automation (RPA) involves the deployment of attended or unattended software agents in an organization's environment. These software agents, or robots, are programmed to perform pre-defined structured and repetitive sets of business tasks or processes. Robotic process automation is designed to streamline workflows by delegating repetitive tasks to software agents, allowing human workers to focus on more complex and strategic activities.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
BPA providers typically focus on different industry sectors, but the underlying approach is generally similar in that they aim to provide the shortest route to automation by interacting with the user interface rather than modifying the application code or database behind it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Use of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence software robots are used to handle unstructured data sets (like images, texts, audios) and are often deployed after implementing robotic process automation. They can, for instance, generate an automatic transcript from a video. The combination of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) enables autonomy for robots, along with the capability to perform cognitive tasks. <ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> At this stage, the robot can learn and improve processes by analyzing and adapting them.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
- AI alignment
- Artificial intelligence detection software
- Artificial intelligence and elections
- Business-driven development
- Business Process Model and Notation
- Business process reengineering
- Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)
- Business rules engine
- Comparison of business integration software
- Job scheduler
- Real-time enterprise
- Runbook
- Synthetic intelligence
- Weak AI