Robotic process automation (RPA) is an opportunity and not a threat, according to a speaker at this year’s FundForum conference in Berlin.
The speaker commented: “Robots are seen as a threat, and this is not always the case. It does require a different mind set in general and a change in personale. Some people are really happy with their robots, but this requires a change in mindset—see it is an opportunity and not a threat."
Specifically, the panel discussed the best practise in how machine learning and robotics is transforming key back office processes.
It was noted that with increasing pressure on margins due to a never ending regulatory avalanche as well as strong competition from disruptive new entrants, financial institutions need to reinvent themselves, be smarter in the way they work and turn their labour cost-cutting strategies into process efficiency strategies.
In this context, the emergence of RPA and digital labour represent significant opportunities for market players in the future.
Beginning the session, the moderator asked the panel if there were any characteristics of process that the panellists were specifically looking for.
One member of the panel replied: “From a technologist point of view, selection needs to come with the business, and it should be business led in terms of understanding value. Understanding factors such as scale, risk, and compliance is important. In this process, a business can start small and simple and then think about bringing it up from there."
Discussing RPA, one panellist commented: "RPA is doing the same thing as a human being, and if you change the whole process it will be time consuming. But don’t believe that you will make an RPA programme without involving the IT."
The moderator then asked the panel what the main benefits of RPA implementation are, one speaker replied by saying that precision is needed.
“Processes are timely”, the speaker said, but “on the other hand, a robotic will be faster and reliable, and it can work 24/7. Cost space might not necessarily be foremost perspective but it might come down.”
The speaker warned: “It's not a free lunch it has risks. It makes the processes more brittle. If you remove the human then you remove the common sense and so you actually have a higher chance of losing common sense with RPA. If you give a robot any kind of substance it will work with it.”
“If you are using RPA then you have to overlay a bit of intelligence and that is for the management to make sure themselves that the robots are working correctly."
The panel then discussed the challenges on the technology side with one speaker discussing plans for infrastructure.
“[The industry] needs to start thinking about planning for infrastructure in terms of how you can think about having multiple processes running on the same robots and how we can get them to work in parallel streams. There are a lot things that can be achieved but it is really important to have that technology and business partnership."
Taking an optimistic approach, one panellist added: “Technology is not threat and it won’t take away my business but in fact I can use it to propel my business. Cultural change is really when the penny drops."
Looking to the future, the panel were asked what the next steps are in the phase of implementation.
"New developments; It started with ‘technology that does’ and now we are on ‘technology that thinks’, and the next step will be technology that learns."
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