Top 10 robotic process automation benefits, adoption barriers & trends

A significant increase in productivity is one of the main business benefits companies aim for when investing in robotic process automation solutions. 78% of respondents of the 2023 Automation Now & Next survey by Automation Anywhere consider productivity gains to be a desired benefit of RPA adoption.

Practical achievements of RPA adoption for employee productivity are widely presented in numerous case studies by UiPath, our partner and leader in RPA implementation. By automating repetitive and mundane tasks, RPA enables human workers to focus on higher-value duties instead of routine activities that do not contribute to the company’s profit.

For example, an insurance company Hiscox managed to reduce request processing time for entering the queue in UK broker services by 300% due to AI-powered RPA software. The next successful RPA deployment helped the company automate customer email processing and save nearly 480 working hours in just the first two months.

Typical clerical activities, such as data entry and extraction, can be repetitive and error-prone when performed manually. RPA bots, on the other hand, are accurate and tireless, able to handle the same task thousands of times with the same efficiency.

An example of RPA bots' precision, particularly useful in back-office processes such as accounting, can be found in the automation of P&L financial reporting. RPA bots can compile P&L financial reports automatically by extracting and merging data from multiple individual reports according to predefined rules, thereby mitigating errors that would arise during manual report compilation. Before sending a compiled report to the front office for review, an AI-powered bot can also validate the report against a company’s data quality standards, which can additionally enhance reporting accuracy.

A significant consequence of bots' superior accuracy over human employees is the improved capability to handle audit and regulatory compliance, especially regarding data management and adherence to fiscal legislation. This can be the most valuable RPA benefit for the insurance, financial services providers, and banking companies.

For example, the use of RPA in finance and accounting minimizes the risk of errors in tax reporting, invoicing, and payments, which could result in fines or even lawsuits from customers and public authorities. At the same time, RPA systems in logistics help harmonize procedures and documentation and thus streamline eSourcing.

Streamlining business workflows with robotic process automation tools can help a company enhance customer satisfaction. By delegating time-consuming and manual tasks to robots, employees can devote more attention to customer care and human relations.  Moreover, RPA bots can themselves provide timely support to customers while avoiding potential errors and delays that could compromise their experience. 

As reported by UiPath in their case study, a Spanish subsidiary of the telecom provider Orange deployed an ecosystem of 31 software bots to establish efficient 24/7 customer service. When Orange Spain's call center receives a message about a technical incident that needs to be resolved, the system initiates diagnostics, testing, and document generation, with each of these tasks managed and automated by robots. Thus, RPA helps the company provide faster customer service, enhance customer satisfaction, and reduce operating costs.

RPA tools reduce human involvement in some tasks, thus lowering the risk of human errors. The reduction of manual data processing and human interactions, in general, can prevent fraud and other illegal actions.

RPA bots complemented with AI can also help a company automate the detection and tracking of fraudulent activities. For example, RPA bots can check financial transactions for potential fraud and flag those of high risk. Depending on its configuration, a bot can block suspicious transactions, report the fraud to an appropriate department, or initiate and launch a fraud investigation process.

The availability of accurate and consistent data is key for making intelligent business decisions at different business levels. The adoption of RPA bots, with their ability to enhance data quality in the organization, helps managers and company leaders make smart decisions quicker, leading to enhanced business performance and product and service improvement.

RPA bots don't usually need complicated configurations. A duly implemented robotic automaton solution is straightforward and user-friendly and doesn’t require a lengthy employee education and training period before use.

Besides, RPA bots can seamlessly integrate into the organization’s existing digital environment and connect even to legacy IT systems via their user interfaces. Therefore, the RPA technology can bring significant business value with no big changes typical to corporate digital transformation initiatives.

RPA can automate daily business operations and tedious tasks that previously made many workers feel exhausted, causing burnout. The allocation of repetitive tasks to RPA also enables human workers to hone their cognitive skills, including strategy, problem-solving, and creativity, which can improve employee satisfaction and loyalty.

58% of respondents to UiPath’s Automation Generation Report 2023 believe automation can address employee burnout and improve their job fulfillment. 57% say they view employers that use AI-powered automation for modernizing operations and supporting employees more favorably than those that don’t.

Robotic process automation solutions, either rule-based robots or intelligent process automation (IPA) systems where RPA bots are enhanced with AI (read more about IPA vs. RPA), are a potential first step towards corporate digitalization. This technology has facilitated digital transformation in numerous companies and in most cases hasn’t required significant initial investment. After all, RPA robots are highly scalable and interact easily with legacy systems on the front-end side without altering or replacing previous settings. 

According to SSON Digital’s 2023 Global Market Report, organizations are investing in RPA adoption at a higher rate compared to AI and ML, with one of the reasons being the delivery of more immediate business results.