DOD takes automation a step further with machine learning - FedScoop

Automating tasks has long been a goal of large workforces, and none is larger than the Department of Defense. With financial management systems that process a more than $700 billion budget annually, getting a helping (digital) hand can reduce wasted labor hours and costly mistakes. But simple automation sometimes is not enough to help solve more complex challenges, like pairing unmatched transactions in databases. That's why the Defense Innovation Unit teamed up with the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to inject a boost of machine learning so that robotic process automation (RPA) can approach more complex tasks, like finding mislabeled and unmatched transactions. "The DOD has been using RPAs for several years to help fix [unmatched transactions], but RPAs are based on simple'if-then-else' cases where most of the [unmatched transactions] require more sophisticated analysis, which up to now have required manual intervention," said Eric Dorsey, a DIU program manager in the AI portfolio.