Elevating Automation: The Era of Intelligent Automation

It is no surprise that most of your customers want things done fast. Employees want to make things right and meet their demands even faster. Unfortunately, this might be difficult to achieve with limited resources and, as a result, it can negatively impact your customers' buyer experience. During the pandemic, many companies used robotic process automation (RPA) to improve their customer service, and it can still be helpful for some as it imitates what an end user would do using a step-by-step process.

However, this type of technology is dramatically limited in scope and capabilities, especially regarding complex or interconnected tasks. It’s far from a cure-all, so thankfully, there’s a smarter way.

Intelligent automation encompasses a broader spectrum of automation technologies, including decision-making capabilities, machine learning, data analytics, and now cognitive services that mimic human decision-making processes. For instance, text analytics can extract key phrases, summarize information, and determine intent or sentiment, which is crucial in routing requests and orders efficiently in realms like customer service, sales, and warehouse management. Similarly, audio analytics can listen to and transcribe calls, making it easier to determine the intent behind customer interactions. With all these capabilities, exciting examples of intelligent automation are transforming many industries today.

How Intelligent Automation Helps Companies Stay Ahead

Bolstered by cognitive services, intelligent automation empowers organizations to thoroughly analyze processes and capture valuable knowledge that might otherwise be lost. This enhanced knowledge management accelerates onboarding, training, and overall employee productivity, ultimately providing a competitive edge in the market.

With countless options available, companies like Unilever leverage intelligent automation and cognitive services to drive operational efficiency and innovation. By aligning automation with digital strategies and collaborating with technology experts, companies like yours can significantly improve operational functionality and cost-efficiency, redirecting resources toward growth and value-add activities.

Companies Should Consider the Benefits of Intelligent Automation

There are several reasons why you should consider adding intelligent automation capabilities to your business practices. Here are four of the biggest:

1. Keep Up With the Competition: The world of technology is always evolving, with new changes and implementations occurring daily. Smart companies are taking advantage of all of the benefits of intelligent automation, which makes it vital for you to do the same. By forecasting demand, optimizing server resources or delivery routes, managing inventory, and automating real-time bug detection, you can operate more efficiently and maintain a high-quality standard. This not only ensures smoother user experiences but also positions companies competitively, ready to adapt swiftly to market dynamics.

2. Elevate Customer Engagement: Intelligent automation further improves customer interactions by powering chatbots and virtual assistants, ensuring swift and personalized customer responses around the clock. Whether in banking, retail, or other sectors, automating customer service with these technologies assures your customers that they’re heard and leads them to more engaging and complete solutions.

3. Improve Customer Retention: Employing intelligent automation capabilities to glean customer insights during and after a purchase enables a tailored marketing approach that is laser-focused on customer loyalty. By analyzing customer data to understand preferences and buying behavior, your business can craft personalized marketing strategies and campaigns that resonate, fostering a strong connection with your audience and keeping them coming back for more.

4. Expand Market Offerings: Through intelligent automation and cognitive services, companies can swiftly analyze market trends and application feedback, enabling the development and launch of new, tailored offerings. This data-driven approach accelerates innovation and facilitates the expansion of market offerings, meeting evolving customer needs and capturing new market segments.

Future Trends and Advancements

As these intelligent automation capabilities mature, they’ll meld with core business processes, boosting operational efficiency and decision-making. The expansion of use cases into fields like education and healthcare will further transform traditional processes. Advancements in natural language understanding (NLU) and natural language processing (NLP) will refine machine-human interactions over the phone and online, improving customer service beyond what we can imagine now. Enhanced computer vision capabilities are on the horizon, promising precise image and video recognition applicable in sectors like security, healthcare, and retail. Moreover, real-time data processing and analysis, crucial for immediate decision-making applications like autonomous driving, underlines the growing prowess of cognitive services in modern automation endeavors.

Embracing intelligent automation doesn’t just enhance efficiency and customer satisfaction -- it also positions your business to excel and innovate in an ever-changing market. Leveraging the benefits of intelligent automation is pivotal for bolstering competitiveness in a rapidly evolving economy. Don't wait to get started.