With RPA, software users create software robots, or “bots”, that can learn, mimic, and then execute rules-based business processes. RPA automation enables users to create bots by observing human digital actions. Show your bots what to do, then let them do the work. Robotic Process Automation software bots can interact with any application or system the same way people do—except that RPA bots can operate around the clock, nonstop, much faster and with 100% reliability and precision.

RPA tools have strong technical similarities to graphical user interface testing tools. These tools also automate interactions with the GUI, and often do so by repeating a set of demonstration actions performed by a user. RPA tools differ from such systems in that they allow data to be handled in and between multiple applications, for instance, receiving email containing an invoice, extracting the data, and then typing that into a bookkeeping system.

RPA actual use[edit]

• Banking and finance process automation

• Mortgage and lending processes

• Customer care automation

• eCommerce merchandising operations

• Optical character recognition applications

• Data extraction process

• Fixed automation process

Sample Use Cases

• Voice recognition and digital dictation software linked to join up business processes for straight through processing without manual intervention

• Specialised Remote Infrastructure Management software featuring automated investigation and resolution of problems, using robots for first line IT support

• Chatbots used by internet retailers and service providers to service customer requests for information. Also used by companies to service employee requests for information from internal databases

• Presentation layer automation software, increasingly used by Business Process Outsourcers to displace human labor

• IVR systems incorporating intelligent interaction with callers