Automation in the workplace is nothing new — organizations have used it for centuries, points out Rajendra Prasad, global automation lead at Accenture and co-author of The Automation Advantage. In recent decades, companies have flocked to robotic process automation (RPA) as a way to streamline operations, reduce errors, and save money by automating routine business tasks.

Now organizations are turning to intelligent automation to automate key business processes to boost revenues, operate more efficiently, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Intelligent automation is a smarter version of RPA that makes use of machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive technologies such as natural language processing to handle more complex processes, guide better business decisions, and shed light on new opportunities, said Prasad.

For example, Newsweek has automated many aspects of managing its presence on social media, a crucial channel for broadening its reach and reputation, said Mark Muir, head of social media at the news magazine. Newsweek staffers used to manage every aspect of its social media postings manually, which involved manually selecting and sharing each new story to its social pages, figuring out what content to recycle, and testing different strategies. By moving to a more automated approach, the company now spends much less time on these processes.

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“We use Echobox’s automation to help determine which content should be shared to our social media and to optimize how and when it is posted so that the largest possible audience will see it,” Muir said. “Automating in this way has created more time for us to focus on our readers and find new ways to engage our audience.”

Industry watchers predict that intelligent automation will usher in a workplace where AI not only frees up human workers’ time for more creative work but also helps them set strategies and drive innovation. Most companies are not fully there yet but do have numerous opportunities for business process automation throughout the organization.