RPA is a combination of several technologies, which have been brought together under a single toolkit for various automation purposes. Although the term 'RPA' appear in the early 2000s, initial development began after the 1990s.
Machine Learning (ML) is one of the techniques that helped in the direction of freshness, which eventually lead to the creation of RPA. In 1959, 'Arthur Samuel' developed machine learning. Machine learning allowed computers to perform many important tasks, such as translation and text summarization, etc. However, there were limits to how the computer could process the language. This led to the development of 'Natural Language Processing (NLP)', which helped computers understand and process human language more accurately. In 1960, the NLP combined 'AI (Artificial Intelligence)' to establish a link between computers and human languages. Then, the technology moved towards the establishment of RPA, and some further development took place in the 1990s.
Due to continuous development, technology emerged that was most closely related to RPA. The history of RPA shows that there were three major predecessors of Robotic Process Automation which are given below:
Screen Scraping
Screen scraping technology is considered an important step towards the creation of RPA.
This technology is used to extract data from the web, programs, and documents, which is further displayed by another application.
While screen scraping had many advantages over manual labor, screen scraping was also somewhat limited. Due to limitations and lack of availability of source code, programmers, and documentation, it became difficult for the average business user to understand.
Workflow Automation and Management Tools
Workflow automation is the process that involves a series of automated actions, which helps to reduce human work. These actions must be repeated so that their moves can be estimated. Such actions can be automated using automated management tools. Workflow automation uses business rules to decide when a step is completed, and execution of the next one can begin.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the ability of computer machines or robots to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence. AI programming is based on three techniques: learning, reasoning, and self-improvement.
The applications for artificial intelligence are endless and can be applied in many different fields and industries. Some of the commonly used technologies of AI are:
Image Recognition - It is the technology that identifies and detects objects or features in images or videos.
Speech Recognition - It is the technology that identifies words and phrases in spoken language and converts them into a machine-readable format.
Natural Language Constructing - This is the technology that transforms structured data into natural language.
Sentiment Analysis -It is a technology that uses natural language processing, text analysis, and biometrics to identify, extract, quantify, and study subjective information.
All these technologies together make RPA such an influential technology platform and add more benefits for business users.
