AI
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A longside machine learning ( ML ) and natural language processing ( NLP ), robotic process automation ( RPA ) has transformed over the last year “ from fledgling siloed capabilities to tenets of strategy ” with “ profound potential for business and society ,” according to Deloitte Insights ’ breakdown of technology trends for 2019 . Gartner predicted in June that the global RPA market , after growing 63.1 % last year , will continue its meteoric expansion , reaching $ 1.3bn in 2019 . By 2025 , McKinsey & Co believes that automation technologies ( of which RPA is expected to be a leading element ) could have a global financial impact of around $ 6.7trn . The experts are united : RPA is going to leave behind a dramatically different world to the one that preceded it .
RPA is often mentioned in the same breath as artificial intelligence ( AI ), deep learning , ML and NLP . First coined by AI pioneer Arthur Samuel , RPA is a child of ML endeavors that took place at the end of the 1950s , thought to be stepping stones along the way to creating more and more sophisticated AI . While Samuel , his colleagues at IBM at the time , and the world ’ s IT community as a whole , were decades away from anything approaching the success they sought , the first step had been taken .
As it was then , so it is now ; AI , ML and RPA have always been closely entwined . An ML pioneer coined the term and computer scientists today
OCTOBER 2019