As the efficacy of long-established cost-savings and efficiency efforts falls, financial institutions seeking to transform their business models are increasingly looking to automation technologies to support process workflow optimisation. Although widely hyped as a game-changer, robotic process automation (RPA) – or the use of software ‘robots’ to carry out standardised, repetitive operational activities through user interfaces – is insufficient to deliver the predicted transformation in isolation. Instead, GreySpark Partners analyst consultant, Jonathan Chambers, argues that the full benefits of automation, and thus the uptake of process automation, will only be realised when it is successfully paired with cognitive technologies.
