By Sabelo Myeni, Head of Mindworx Academy
Robotics is in the workplace to stay. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is about using software with artificial intelligence (AI) and learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks such as queries, calculations and maintaining records and transactions.
An emerging technology it may be, but RPA has very quickly become entrenched in the financial sector, particularly in insurance companies and banks. You have only to consider the many benefits of automating routine processes to understand why it has taken off so quickly.
These benefits are far-reaching:
- Using a robot to automate processes eliminates human error, thus improving accuracy
- A robot can work 24/7, is much faster than we are and can save thousands of human hours per annum, so increasing productivity
- Smart chatbots improve customer service, traditionally one of the most draining human jobs in the world
- Getting legacy systems to talk to new systems is usually what holds companies back from implementing digital transformation – robotics can make this painless by automating data processing between systems
- Robotics eliminates the need for humans to do relentlessly repetitive manual tasks
- For all their advantages, humans have limits but machines don’t; their learning capabilities will only expand and improve as the technology matures
When you consider all these benefits, you can see that they have two major advantages for big business: they improve efficiency and reduce costs. No corporation would turn its back on anything that so clearly paves the way to increased profitability.
We know people worry about losing their jobs to robots but that’s not the reality as our customers – and, indeed, some of the world’s largest corporations – are practicing it. On the contrary, robotics offers great new job opportunities for technically skilled employees who are trained to meet the needs of the future – and these employees are increasingly in demand.
What business is buying is a way of enabling people to concentrate on high-level tasks that involve human attributes like judgment, communication, creativity, and innovation, leaving the machines to do the boring and repetitive stuff for them. Effectively, RPA frees employees from the mindless processes within their jobs, enabling them to do the really important work while the machines do the grunt work.
At Mindworx Academy we’ve developed a state-of-the-art training course and have been supplying our customers with RPA training for some time. It includes an 8-module foundation course and a 10-module course in advanced techniques. We provide trainees who are capable of skills such as designing RPA solutions, creating automations with applications running in virtual environments, and debugging and handling exceptions in workflow automations.
Our client base in this sector includes some of South Africa’s largest and most successful financial services corporations: we couldn’t offer them anything less than the best.