Robotic Process Automation
RPA and human workforce collaboration: Finding the perfect balance
If you believe science fiction, robots and AI are the worst enemies that threaten the existence of humanity. This could not be farther from the reality as we know it today. The truth is, although robotic processes and AI solutions can do a lot of things, there is a great deal more we can achieve through human-robot collaboration. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is one of the most popular solutions that is augmenting the capabilities of the human workforce and shaping the hybrid workforce of the future.
Understanding RPA and the evolving workforce
RPA, put simply, is the process of leveraging machine learning and AI capabilities to automate rule-based, high-volume, repetitive tasks to complete them faster and more accurately. RPA integration involves deploying “robots” that emulate the actions of a human to automate digital workflows.
As a result, the role of the human workforce is evolving, where they are transitioning from repetitive to innovative tasks, adding more value to the business through their engagement. Businesses are also adapting to this shift, strategising RPA integration, embracing the hybrid workforce, and empowering employees with RPA skills to maximise the benefits of human-robot collaboration.
enefits of human-robot collaboration
Robotic automation BPO services are popular across a broad spectrum of industries, including banking and insurance, telecom, healthcare, government, and more. RPA solutions are facilitating human-robot collaboration across these industries, demonstrating positive impacts, such as:
Enhanced productivity
Human-robot collaboration is a great way to boost overall productivity and performance. The bots can handle high-volume repetitive tasks while the humans can focus on complex problem-solving, adding more value to the business and driving efficiency.
Faster turnaround
RPA integration augments human decision-making capabilities by speeding up and ensuring accuracy in extracting actionable insights from available data. This results in shorter lead times for critical processes or customer queries, leading to improved outcomes.
Improved quality
Embracing automation virtually eliminates the risk of human error in repetitive tasks. As a result, you can enhance data quality, compliance, and outputs.
Enhanced scalability and flexibility
A hybrid workforce — where humans and robots work together seamlessly — is both scalable and flexible. Businesses can deploy additional bots as business demands evolve, ensuring they can adapt to changing market conditions and business growth.
RPA integration challenges
Although RPA integration has its benefits, finding the right balance of human-robot collaboration is often challenging. You can not underestimate the impact of the human contribution and the human touch when it comes to optimising your performance through automation. Here are some challenges you must overcome when balancing RPA integration:
Resistance to change
The first and foremost challenge is employee apprehension, as they might fear that automation will make their job obsolete. This can result in resistance to change, which you can address by being transparent with the employees, addressing their concerns, and empowering them with RPA skills to cope with the evolving workforce needs.
Cultural shift
Embracing human-robot collaboration requires a fundamental cultural shift within the company. With this, integrating bots into the workforce can become smoother. Fostering a culture of collaboration, learning, and innovation, with management leading by example, can help overcome this challenge.
Hybrid workforce management
Only through proper planning and management can human-bot coordination become effective. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities and transition training can help overcome this challenge and ensure seamless human-robot collaboration.
Ethical and responsible automation
With RPA entering the mix, data privacy, bias, transparency, and fairness become key concerns. Adopting responsible automation and having stringent data security and privacy protocols in place can help you ensure ethical and transparent RPA implementation.
Moving forward with AI-human collaboration
The relationship between humans and machines is evolving rapidly, and a tighter integration of RPA with solutions like AI, machine learning, and natural language processing for intelligent automation is no longer just a theory. AI-human collaboration is the logical next step to human-robot collaboration, where intelligent RPA solutions can help foster a better work-life balance while improving the overall quality of work. Such intelligent automation will not take jobs away but rather create a digital hybrid workforce that will create even more opportunities to thrive and grow.
How can Infosys BPM help you with RPA implementation?
Robotic automation BPO services are the key to designing and managing the hybrid workforce of the future. Infosys BPM RPA solutions can help you achieve levels of efficiency and productivity like never before. You can leverage our unified people-process-technology framework for automation and control capabilities that offer unparalleled value propositions and achieve seamless human-robot collaboration.
