Robotic process automation
This technology performs structured digital tasks for administrative purposes, ie those involving information systems, as if they were a human user following a script or rules. Compared to other forms of AI they are inexpensive, easy to program and transparent in their actions. Robotic process automation (RPA) doesn’t really involve robots – only computer programs on servers. It relies on a combination of workflow, business rules and ‘presentation layer’ integration with information systems to act like a semi-intelligent user of the systems. In healthcare, they are used for repetitive tasks like prior authorisation, updating patient records or billing. When combined with other technologies like image recognition, they can be used to extract data from, for example, faxed images in order to input it into transactional systems.
We’ve described these technologies as individual ones, but increasingly they are being combined and integrated; robots are getting AI-based ‘brains’, image recognition is being integrated with RPA. Perhaps in the future these technologies will be so intermingled that composite solutions will be more likely or feasible.