One of those masterclasses, covers the topic of "intelligent automation" or as we refer to as "cognitive RPA". Last Tuesday, the first masterclass took place at our own offices in Leuven with over 30 enthusiastic participants. During these masterclasses, we demonstrate the possibilities of combining artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA). Almost any potential business process for robotic process automation requires some form of human intelligence. Combining the expertise of our venture Brainjar with the people from Roborana, we we're able to deliver an in-depth workshop filled with use cases.

Cognitive RPA (Robotic Process Automation), as the name itself, suggests, provides intelligence to conventional RPA. Conventional RPA is extremely good at automating rule-based tasks involving structured and semi-structured data. However, with enterprise processes being highly complex and technologically intertwined, utilizing both structured and unstructured data becomes complicated. It is imperative that only the RPA solution would not suffice. The digital workforce (Bots) would be required to make complex decisions that involve learning, reasoning, and self-healing capabilities.

Now, a complex AI-driven automation initiative like cognitive RPA is majorly anchored by bots. They need extensive strategy, support, maintenance and trouble-shooting arsenal around it – in a continuous manner. Process changes, app updates, security patches etc. have a huge impact on bots and involve human intervention. Bot maintenance and governance should be a conscious and well-thought out strategy from day one. Having a Robotic Operations Center (ROC) in place makes the job easier for enterprises betting big on cognitive RPA.

The key role of enterprise services in Orange's plans for growth was spelled out clearly by Orange Group's Chairman and CEO, Stéphane Richard, when he presented the Group's five-year strategy, Engage2025, in Paris in early December. He said, "The enterprise market is changing profoundly to become data-driven, multi-cloud based and end-to-end cybersecurity…more than ever we believe in convergence of the technical and IT business, and we intend to accelerate the transformation of the B2B business. "The best proof of IT convergence is the skyrocketing demand for virtualised and on-demand services such as SD-WAN. We have a clear edge over conventional digital services companies in that we have the IT know-how. We are prepared for the challenges…of creating the right partnerships and automating and digitising the processes with the benefits of data analytics and AI". Multiservice integration services (MSI) are one of the areas in which Orange Business Services has invested heavily to gain that edge, a claim supported by testimony from Gartner and more importantly, from its customer Sony. In July, Sony Group announced it had chosen Orange Business Services to consolidate and transform the communications infrastructure of its two largest operating companies, starting with a harmonised network to improve user experience globally. Orange will be Sony's principal global provider, delivering a fully automated, intelligent network for all global business units over time. The solution will be built on Orange's Flexible SD-WAN and will connect more than 500 locations in over 50 countries across five continents. The plan is to deliver better performance, security and scalability. "Orange innovation, integration capabilities and international network are the catalysts that will allow us for the first time to bring our regional operating companies under one umbrella," said Makoto Toyoda, Chief Information Officer, Sony Group. "Only Orange could deliver a platform with the scale and scope to cover all the moving pieces of our international business.

Cognitive robotic process automation (RPA) is a fast-evolving field of computing and is an emerging form of business process automation (BPA) technology. It involves the automation of many internal and external customer journeys through software "bots." RPA started roughly 20 years ago as a rudimentary screen-scraping tool, technology that is used to eliminate repetitive data entry or form-filling that human operators used to do the bulk of. For example, the software could copy data from one source to another on a computer screen. Imagine a finance clerk handling invoice processes by filling in specific fields on the screen. Early RPA was able to take this function off the clerk's plate by automating that invoice processing.

With increased focus on robotic process automation (RPA) to automate mundane and repetitive tasks, the next evolution in cognitive automation is now underway. Chief Information Officers (CIO) are evaluating and deploying second generation Cognitive RPA robots with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities such as sentiment analysis, natural language and machine learning to enhance the decision-making process and to more cognitively orient tasks traditionally reserved for humans. While traditional RPA has been around for several years, it gained extensive popularity around 2015. RPA addresses the need to provide a comprehensive business solution in order to address operational questions in a holistic manner. It utilizes existing disparate and isolated legacy systems by emulating the same daily manual activities that a human operator takes to link functionality within systems together.

The proliferation of robots completing manual tasks traditionally done by humans suggests we have entered the machine automation age. And while nothing captures the imagination like self-directing machines shuttling merchandise around warehouses, most automation today comes courtesy of software bots that perform clerical tasks such as data entry. Here's the good news: Far from a frontal assault on cubicle inhabitants, these software agents may eventually net more jobs than they consume, as they pave the way for companies to create new knowledge domain and customer-facing positons for employees, analysts say. The approach, known as robotic process automation (RPA), automates tasks that office workers would normally conduct with the assistance of a computer, says Deloitte LLP Managing Director David Schatsky, who recently published research on the topic. RPA's potential will grow as it is combined with cognitive technologies to make bots more intelligent, ideally increasing their value to businesses.

Cognitive technology like IBM Watson and robotic process automation technology have been largely separate. After all, they're meant to perform different jobs for different situations. But what happens when you combine the two, bringing together the cutting-edge capabilities of cognitive and the practical, powerful abilities of RPA? The video above invites you to jump on our virtual elevator and see why we decided to devlop an enterprise solution that gives the best of both worlds. Want to see how it works?