Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a form of business process automation technology based on metaphorical software robots (bots) or on artificial intelligence (AI)/digital workers. It is sometimes referred to as software robotics (not to be confused with robot software).

 

In traditional workflow automation tools, a software developer produces a list of actions to automate a task and interface to the back-end system using internal application programming interfaces (APIs) or dedicated scripting language. In contrast, RPA systems develop the action list by watching the user perform that task in the application’s graphical user interface (GUI), and then perform the automation by repeating those tasks directly in the GUI. This can lower the barrier to use of automation in products that might not otherwise feature APIs for this purpose.

 

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.

Robotic Process Automation FAQ

What exactly is RPA?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software technology that makes it easy to build, deploy, and manage software robots that emulate humans actions interacting with digital systems and software.

Where is RPA used?

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RPA is used in most industries, particularly those that include repetitive tasks such as insurance, banking, finance, healthcare and telecommunications. RPA is used in finance to automate governance, reconcile accounts or process invoices.

What is RPA in digital marketing?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) uses software to complete tasks with minimal or no human input. In today’s data-driven marketing environment, RPA can turn big data into smart marketing decisions that would take weeks or months of data analysis for human teams to perform.

Is chatbot an RPA?

Chatbots are generally conversation-driven processes that are user-centric whereas RPA is focused on back-office, administrative processes. … RPA is applicable to specific discrete workflows that don’t even require a user interaction (by using screen-scraping and data extraction).