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Beyond pure robotics
Intelligent process automation (IPA) is basically robotic process
automation (RPA) powered by “smart technologies”. IPA therefore makes it
possible to progress from solutions focused on standard and repetitive
tasks to new models based on a machine learning approach, allowing data
robots to develop new skills, make judgements and provide feedback.

This is because a standard, repetitive, exception-free business model does
not exist. Certain operations that are instantaneous in nature for the
operator concerned can be carried out efficiently by a software application
only with the support of machine learning technologies. In this scenario,
intelligent process automation covers a logical and technological continuum
based on multiple components of increasing impact and complexity.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
It thereby replaces the operator's role in repetitive and rule-based tasks,
reducing execution times and costs. In such cases, the technology executes
and monitors only the simple activities for which it has been programmed.
Intelligent Process Automation (IPA)
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Machine learning tools (ML tools):
algorithms and machine learning solutions pre-trained to solve a
specific decision-making problem (e.g. recognising an image), which can
be further specialised to take into account the data in the company's
specific context.
- Machine Learning Platforms (ML Platforms): highly customised solutions designed to address specific decision-making
scenarios, requiring the support of specialists who implement and train
these from scratch, relying on data and systems specific to the
organisation.
It is clear that intelligent process automation represents a genuine paradigm shift in terms of management, organisation and
implementation in which, for machine learning components, it becomes
possible to go beyond the mere concept of programming to actually “training” the machine. The machine does not
return output based on clearly defined rules and logic, but instead follows
complex decision-making process, which are self-generated on the basis of
historical data or data collected in real time.