Without knowing the meaning of RPA and AI, it is hard to describe differences between them. Let’s start with the definitions:
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software robot that can mimic human actions. RPA tools are used to design and deploy these software robots. These tools utilize pre-defined activities and business rules to autonomously execute a combination of tasks, transactions, and processes across software systems. RPA can deliver the desired result without human interaction.
On the other side, Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to machines that can simulate human intelligence. It combines cognitive automation with machine learning, hypothesis generation, language processing, and algorithm mutation to create insights and produce analytics at the same capability level as a human, or even higher.
Now, let’s understand the differences between these two:
| Robotic Process Automation | Artificial Intelligence |
|---|---|
| RPA is a software robot that can mimic human actions. | AI is the simulation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. |
| RPA robots automate the tasks as per defined rules. | AI is based on ‘thinking’ and ‘learning’. |
| RPA is a rule-based technology that has no intelligence. It just automates repetitive tasks. | AI includes technologies like ML (Machine Learning) and NLP (Natural Language Processing), which help to do more than just creating rule-based engines to automate repetitive tasks. |
| RPA can make a huge impact on large businesses as they can process vast amount of data accurately without the need for manual inputting. | AI helps in decision making. It enables the automation of decision making without human involvement. |
| The main aim of RPA is to automate the repetitive and mundane business processes. | AI replaces human labor. In many companies, physical robots or machines are working in place of human workers. |
| RPA is easy to implement. Sometimes, an RPA can be complex with large networks of software robots exchanging information between each other, but it still will be a simpler proposition than AI. | AI needs a lot of work to set up and run. |
| RPA is said to be a process-centric technology because RPA is all about automating repetitive, and rule-based business processes. For example, RPA generates bills or process invoices, and so on. | AI is known as data-driven technology, which is all about providing good quality data. For example, AI helps in reading the bills and invoices and extracting their data to convert it into structured and intelligible information. |
In conclusion, RPA and AI are both valuable technologies that can be used for the organizatio”s digital transformation. However, the choice of implementing either RPA or AI (or both) depends on the requirements of the organization.