BPM, RPA, and the intelligent automation future

If you work in the operations, process improvement, or robotic process automation (RPA) spaces, chances are you've seen the phrase "intelligent automation" pop up many times. While this term seems like it encompasses a lot, the lack of clarity around it can render it meaningless. Is intelligent automation a rebranding of RPA? Is it RPA enhanced by AI? Or, is it simply a catch-all term for process automation software that aims to make technologies like business process management (BPM) sound new again? It starts with technologies we know and love, like BPM and RPA, and brings them together in a unified toolkit so that an enterprise's automation needs can be addressed by the most relevant tool.