According to a McKinsey study, cognitive automation tools empower businesses by automating 50–70 percent of tasks—and as the technology continues to learn and improve, that number keeps growing. It’s a core part of what’s known as cognitive enterprise automation, where smarter systems handle more complex work. Businesses are now streamlining everything from invoice and sales order processing to onboarding and exception handling, making these tasks faster and more accurate than ever.
So, what is cognitive automation exactly? It’s a technology that mimics human decision-making to handle tasks that used to require manual input. And what are the advantages of cognitive automation? It doesn’t just save time—it also improves accuracy, reduces errors, and keeps workflows moving without delays. The days of waiting around for approvals are quickly becoming a thing of the past. In this article, we are going to learn more about what cognitive automation is and its advantages.
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What Is Cognitive Automation?
Cognitive automation is a concept that describes the use of machine learning technologies to automate processes that humans would normally perform. There are various degrees of cognitive automation, from simple to extremely complex, and it can be implemented as part of a software package or content management platform.
When it comes to cognitive automation, focusing on the result is oftentimes easier than focusing on the technology itself. For example, if you purchase a content management system with automation capabilities, you should focus on the following:
- Does it automate the task?
- Does it perform the task as a human would?
- Does it eliminate part or all human intervention for a specific process?
- Does it always perform tasks the same way? Or does it change how it works overtime to account for variances in your process?
Cognitive automation is more advanced than regular automation technologies because it doesn’t just take on repeatable tasks, it also makes processes faster and more efficient by connecting the dots in a way that only a robotic mind can. As it learns the ins and outs of your processes, it uses advanced logic to further streamline them, giving it a decided advantage over traditional automation software.
What is the Advantage of Cognitive Automation?
The advantages of cognitive automation lie in its ability to go beyond basic rule-based automation by incorporating elements of artificial intelligence, such as machine learning, natural language processing, and data analytics. It offers several distinct capabilities:
- Adapt and Learn: It keeps on improving by learning from data and workflow patterns, exceptions, and feedback.
- Understand Unstructured Data: Cognitive systems can understand emails, documents, images, and speech—something ordinary automation tools are not capable of doing efficiently.
- Make Decisions: It can process complex data sets to aid in or even make decisions in real time, minimizing human intervention.
- Improve Efficiency: By comprehending and streamlining processes from end-to-end, it eradicates inefficiencies, minimizes errors, and accelerates results.
- Scale Seamlessly: Once trained, it can be scaled across various departments and processes with little extra setup.
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Overall, it revolutionizes the way companies work by making processes smarter, faster, and more efficient—making it a major pillar in the transition to digital transformation and intelligent enterprise operations.
Unlocking the Potential of Cognitive Automation
Cognitive automation isn’t just another buzzword for process automation. There have been a lot of those over the last several years, with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) taking the lead. For now, let’s set all of that aside and focus on the potential of this technology within an enterprise-class organization.
First and foremost, it’s important to understand that this technology is already being implemented in countless organizations. In fact, a 2019 global business survey by Statista claims that nearly 40 percent of businesses are already incorporating some form of cognitive automation to improve processes. Although the way these businesses are using it varies greatly by industry, it speaks to the importance of this burgeoning technology. Soon, the majority of companies will be leveraging this advanced form of automation to work smarter — not harder.
How Cognitive Automation Differs From Other Automation Tools
Comparing and contrasting the various types of automation is a challenge for even the most knowledgeable automation enthusiast. From machine learning to artificial intelligence and the aforementioned RPA, it seems like new automation-related terms are constantly being invented. Since these technologies are oftentimes incorporated into software suites and platforms, it makes it that much more difficult to compare and contrast which type is best for a particular business.
As we mentioned previously, cognitive automation can’t be pegged to one specific product or type of automation. It’s best viewed through a wide lens focusing on the “completeness” of its automation capabilities. Essentially, it is designed to automate tasks from beginning to end with as few hiccups as possible.
For example, RPA shines with repetitive processes that are performed the same way over and over again. When something unexpected happens, RPA lacks the ability to analyze context and adjust the way it works. While reliable, RPA is also rigid, relying on if/then logic rather than actual human perception and response. Therefore, RPA has trouble automating certain processes that are prone to “exceptions” and unstructured data, such as invoice processing.
Cognitive Automation vs. Traditional Automation
The main difference between these two types of automation is the manner in which they handle structured and unstructured data. Traditional automation thrives with structured data but falters when it comes to unstructured data.
Conversely, cognitive automation can easily process structured data and many instances of unstructured data. Although it can’t guarantee straight-through processing for all data, it can learn to handle many “exceptions” (i.e., mismatched part numbers, unit of measure discrepancies, duplicate invoices, and other instances that generally require human intervention).
Here’s how traditional automation works:
- Event
- Structured Data
- Business Rules
- Decision/Approval
Now, let’s take a look at cognitive automation:
- Event
- Structured OR Unstructured Data
- Deep Learning
- Data Becomes Structured
- Business Rules
- Decision/Approval
With traditional automation, the process comes to a grinding halt once unstructured data is introduced, restricting your organization’s ability to unlock truly “touchless” processing. In a traditional automation environment, humans and machines work together to speed up processes. In a cognitive automation environment, humans and machines still work together, but machines handle more tasks at a faster clip. Human ingenuity is only required to handle the most confounding outliers.
IntelliChief Has Experts That Can Help You
While some high-end point solutions designed to handle one particular task or department may incorporate cognitive automation, it’s more likely that you will find it housed within a robust business process automation solution, such as IntelliChief.
Therefore, you need to consider your budget, implementation timeframe, and processes before moving forward with a cognitive automation solution. Once you have collected this information, you can consult an expert to see whether or not this advanced technology is right for you.