From the course: Intelligent Automation Foundations

What is intelligent automation?

From the course: Intelligent Automation Foundations

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What is intelligent automation?

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- [Narrator] So what is intelligent automation? Quite simply, intelligent automation is a new generation of software based automation. By software, I mean programs that help computers do work, as opposed to hardware, which is the use of physically engineered computing components. Now, this is where we must stop and make a most important distinction. We humans have been shaping and transforming our environment for as long as we've been humans. We've actually been automating since the stone ax, the very first tool anthropologists believe our ancestors crafted. Using our unmatched intellect, humans have long applied the technologies of the day to relieve ourselves of burdens of the day. And in so doing, we're able to augment ourselves to reach our fullest potential. So the distinction is this. There are two types of automation, physical and digital. Much has been made of the physical automations that have improved our lives and modernized our factories. And often, when people hear words like automation or robot, they immediately think of physical forms of automation. Intelligent automation, however, is made of different stuff. Intelligent automation is digital, virtual, electronic. It is software scripts and programs, configurations and algorithms. And by combining methods and technologies, intelligent automation enables us to, with the tools of today, address the challenges we face today. Those challenges revolve around the business processes tackled by knowledge workers. These are the white collar workers performing tasks as far ranging as setting up a new employee's HR file, processing a customer's invoice, addressing a consumer's inquiry into a call center, preparing and filing someone's taxes, and so very, very much more. In fact, the world of intelligent automation's addressable processes is so vast because the range of capabilities within the intelligent automation toolkit is so very vast. So with that, let's discuss what those capabilities are. After that, we'll do a deeper dive to illustrate the exact technologies involved.

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