logo
logo
Sign in

How a Chatbot can combine RPA, AI, and ERP

avatar
venkat k
How a Chatbot can combine RPA, AI, and ERP

RPA (Robotic Process Automation) deals with the underlying opportunities of Artificial Intelligence that enabled RPA in an ERP ecosystem.

Chatbots, simulate automate human conversation through voice commands, text chats, or both. They can be used through messaging applications or web pages and are naturally deployed in dialog systems for various application fields (e.g. customer service). The boom of AI enables smarter Chatbots to understand unstructured human input by applying natural language processing (NLP).

Also Read: Top 10 Ecommerce App Development Companies In New York

How to further increase the potential and overcome the limits of RPA?

In recent years, RPA has been one of the most impactful technologies in process automation in all kinds of organizations. Most of the RPA systems rely on structured data, static rules, and a recurrence of events.

They capture structured data based on the rules engine to perform the pre-defined workflows. However, the static setup does not allow the processing of unstructured data.

AI is the needed game changer and adds an intelligence layer on top of RPA systems so that they can handle unstructured data thanks to their dynamic ruleset.

Then RPA will be able to manage exceptions, and the system improves itself after further training. AI can derive sense out of unstructured data and deliver the now structured data to the existing RPA systems.

Algorithmisation is the process cycle of the gathering of information out of data for Machine Learning and creates new processes plus data for further processing again. Chatbots integrated into existing RPA & ERP ecosystems can provide structured data out of the human conversation for the processing of the back-end systems.

How can Chatbots support in Master Data Management?

Let’s see how Chatbots can further optimize the master data management processes. Often the employee needs to manually structure the unstructured customer input (e.g., email, phone) before it can be automatically processed by RPA.

A Chatbot would offer a natural way for the customer to directly change his master data without the need to find the right account settings or form. It also facilitates back-office employees and they can focus on exception handling or more value-adding tasks. The single automated communication channel saves time for both.

Possible use cases are ranging from simple ones such as an update of the name, postal or email address, phone number, etc. to more complex ones where more data needs to be analyzed by the AI. For instance, the change of order details, contract data, authentication method, or the request of the FAQ. A text Chatbot should be implemented before a Voicebot since it needs the same underlying logic system and voice integration is more complicated. All mentioned use cases have several benefits in common:

  • Direct Plug-in between different systems (same front-end)
  • Scalable AI and RPA capabilities (from simple to complex use case)
  • Best of both: Combining the strength of AI (unstructured data) and rule-based RPA
  • No human interaction required in the whole process

How can a Chatbot with RPA and ERP integration be set up?

Within eight weeks we developed a tangible AI MVP (minimum viable product) for automatic master data updates starting with the chat as an input channel and the customer’s wish to change the postal address. We utilized IBM Watson and its conversation as services for the NLP capabilities of the Chatbot. It is entirely integrated into an existing UiPath and SAP system, but could also work with other RPA/ ERP software.

Successful execution requires end-to-end expertise due to the various tasks. Capgemini as a Group is delivering the Chatbot MVP as a team of experts from multiple fields:

Consulting Services:

  • Leading overall agenda and bringing in experience in RPA, ERP, and digital customer journeys
  • Use case creation, functional and business specifications, setup of UiPath and SAP workflow, and agile project management

Technology Services:

  • The Capgemini APPS — IBM Watson Team is responsible for the Development of the AI conversational service, core application, and the front-end development

Business Services:

  • Focus on combining RPA and AI and the seamless integration of the interfaces

Experience Design Services:

  • UI design and visualization of the Chatbot characteristics

Further competencies with additional complimentary 3rd party software partner, Consulting companies, or the client are working with, can be brought in depending on the specific requirements and client setup.

Based on our experience we suggest four months to implement a Chatbot into a live environment. Our MVP took us two months, but integration into a live back-end system and the training of the NLP capabilities would require two additional months.

collect
0
avatar
venkat k
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more