Automation Trends to Watch in 2022

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In 2022, automation is going to keep its pace and become a central issue for most of the companies. Emerging remote/hybrid working model is fueling the change. In this post, you will find top automation trends to watch throughout this year.

Semantic Automation

Users who take advantage of an automation software or any automated product, are naturally unaware of the backend processes. Time and effort to develop an automation solution is always proportional to its beneficial outcomes. If a solution saves much time for users, it takes much time to develop. In 2022, automation robots which follow rules that they were taught to follow step-by-step will be replaced with robots which are able to evaluate the process and context. They will analyze the requirements by themselves and will reach to documents, data and other materials to complete a task.

automation trends: self-automationLow code self-automation  

It is great to have all these automation solutions designed for us. Nevertheless, we live in such a fast changing and competitive business ecosystem that it is not possible to wait a standard development cycle for emerging needs.

Low code self-automation will let users who don’t have coding experience, to design and develop their own solutions.

Automated customer journey

Regarding customer journey, automation equals to marketing automation for most of the companies. Although there are significant distinctions between B2B and B2C companies, there is a common point: Missing lots of automation opportunities.

Diversity of channels and touchpoints and especially diversity of customer profiles force companies to build individualized customer journeys. That is only possible via smart automation ideas, which go beyond legacy marketing automation tools.

 Automation impossible

It is not always easy to set up a comprehensive and centralized automation framework. Products, people, processes; they all change and keep changing. And automation never comes as an end-to-end ready built solution.

You need to define needs, find proper tools, deploy solutions and optimize processes. At some point, you realize that a net has been spread all over your organization. And it has become so complex that you no longer have control over it. To solve this problem, automation frameworks with high integration and centralization capabilities will stand out among automation trends in 2022.

Intelligent Document Processing (IDP)

Companies struggle to process all types of documents, which come in a variety of formats. It is a very time-consuming and high cost operation. AI powered, cloud based automation solutions offers a clear cut transformation. By this transformation, data stored in these documents will turn into valuable knowledge.

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How Does Form Extraction Add Value to Any Organization?

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Why is form extraction so important? Let’s try to make a list of paper form types, which contain valuable data for organizations.

  • Account opening forms (Banking, Insurance)
  • Customer satisfaction forms (Retail, HORECA, Services)
  • Job application forms (All industries)
  • Proof of delivery forms (Transportation, Courier)
  • Medical record forms (Health, Medicine)
  • Complaint forms (Public sector, Aviation)
  • Registration forms (Education, Travel)
  • Surveys (All industries)
  • Maintenance Forms (Logistics, Aviation, Automotive)

These are only a few examples of most frequently used form types. The list goes on.

Now, think that almost all of these forms are filled handwritten and you need to read, understand and classify every data. You can imagine how big amount of time it takes to complete the task manually. Moreover, you need to process data properly to make it ready for use. You can use a data entry layout or tool to speed up processing, nevertheless you would have to prepare a new layout and workflow for each new form type. Even for a single input field added to the existing forms.

AI Makes It Possible to Automate Form Extraction

We are lucky that there is a cost-efficient solution for this intimidating business problem. Automated form extraction (also called; form capture or form ICR) is combining ICR (intelligent character recognition) technology with AI and thereby extract any type of data easily from handwritten forms.

ICR is the muscle of automated form processing while AI is the brain. Without utilizing AI, extracting handwritten content would be less useful. Since you need to interpret, validate, classify and integrate extracted data, AI plays an essential role in automation of form processing. Another asset of AI is the capability of processing new form layouts, which are not recognized by the system previously. This feature reduces need for human intervention and minimizes errors.


How Does Form Automation Work?

onVision Intelligent Form Capture is a cloud-based solution and it can be used through API or by Web scan. After you scan the form or take a photo of it by your mobile device, you can upload it to the platform. We can also listen an e-mail inbox or watch a folder to collect forms. Once the document reaches to the platform, handwritten data is extracted in seconds and structured output is generated in XML or JSON format.

From there on it becomes possible to use data as you wish, according to business rules and workflows. You can also employ RPA solutions to optimize any process. Thus, your organization will not only save time and money, but also improve its way of doing business and customer/employer satisfaction.

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Invoice Processing Automation with RPA

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While application areas of RPA (robotic process automation) are expanding steadily, one of the fastest growing area is back-office jobs and accounts payable (AP) operations. Companies who need to process high volumes of invoices periodically, suffer from complications of manual invoice processing.

Invoice processing is a key joint stage of many business operations. AP department needs to extract data from various invoice types and formats (PDF, printed etc.) and transfer these data into their own core system only after they verify the content. If this stage takes long to step further and discrepancies occur frequently, which is unavoidable during manual work, financial workflows start to tremble and fall.

How Can RPA Help to Optimize Account Payable Operations?

 

There are three main steps of AP automation through RPA:

  • Monitoring incoming invoices: via e-mail attachments, folders, servers
  • Invoice capture: extracting data with high accuracy (see onVision’s product)
  • Validation/approval: evaluation of invoice content by AI

You can see details of these steps, and most frequent use cases in Simplilearn’s video below.

 

 

Outcomes of Invoice Processing Automation

  • Among many benefits of automating invoice processing, we should emphasize key ones.
  • Shorter cycle time for AP operations and due to it better financial planning and internal harmony.
  • Compliance and audition requirements can be met easily, because RPA handles repetitive tasks which are prone to error with high precision.
  • Companies streamline financial part of vendor management process and it leads to several improvements from production to customer satisfaction.
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