This eBook provides an overview of intelligent document processing (IDP) and the role it plays in Robotic Process Automation (RPA). The process map for RPA and IDP reveals where intelligent data extraction fits within an RPA platform, reaching far beyond OCR software capabilities.
Many of us are enthusiastic about RPA and appreciate further clarity in where document automation fits within RPA. This eBook is intended for those who are interested in how automated document classification and data extraction (with an emphasis on machine learning) play an integral role in RPA initiatives. RPA is founded on one of the earliest examples of expert systems. This form of AI simply encodes the knowledge of a subject matter expert (SME) for a given task into a set of rules that can be executed by a computer-based system. The more specific and known the given task, the more applicable RPA is in successfully automating it.
When it comes to automation of complex processes where there is complex data involved, use of simpler rules-based instructions and learn-by-example is insufficient. In order to achieve true unattended automation with processes, machine learning techniques must be applied not only to how tasks are defined and updated, but also to the effort of understanding what tasks are completed accurately vs. what tasks need to be reviewed.