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Intelligent Automation - Learn How to Harness Artificial Intelligence to Boost

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iv
INTELLIGENT
AUTOMATION
Welcome to the World of HYPERAUTOMATION

Learn How to Harness Artificial Intelligence to

Boost Business & Make Our World More Human

PASCAL BORNET
IAN BARKIN - JOCHEN WIRTZ
 Welcome to the world of
HYPERAUTOMATION
A pragmatic and action-oriented guide to transforming
organizations with Hyperautomation

A reflection on the impact of automation and artificial

intelligence on work, society, and on our world

Pascal Bornet – Ian Barkin – Jochen Wirtz

viii | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

Copyright © 2021 by Pascal Bornet, Ian Barkin and Jochen Wirtz

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods
without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other
non- commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission
requests, write to the publisher at the inquiry address below.

ISBN: 9798691819230

This version: Full - Paperback - EN - October 2020

All inquiries to be sent to [email protected]

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 Testimonials | xi

Testimonials
(in alphabetical order)

“The most pressing question we face “This book on Intelligent Automation

today - Is this time different? – results from is a must-read today for any organization
the rise of Intelligent Automation. Read this executive – for profit or not. It describes
book for a careful but refreshing, grounded in detail the advantages of human-
but provocative, and cautionary yet hopeful and-robot interaction, emphasizing
perspective, not just on the future of work, corporate, personal, and societal
but on the future of humankind.” benefits. If you have not started to
implement automation yet, this book
Ajay Agrawal, professor at the can help be a catalyst for action. If
University of Toronto, founder of the you have already started your journey,
Creative Destruction Lab, and author effectively scaling automation programs
of Prediction Machines: The Simple will be the critical difference in winning
Economics of Artificial Intelligence in the Automation First era.”

Daniel Dines, Co-Founder and CEO at

“The book presents a compelling UiPath
case for Intelligent Automation (IA),
supported by data and historical
examples of change. If you needed “AI may be the buzzword today, but
convincing about IA, this is absolutely how will we use this new technology to
the book to read.”  build, reshape and direct our society,
businesses and organizations? In
Sarah Burnett, Executive Vice “Intelligent Automation” an answer is
President, distinguished analyst, AI & given. The book makes a compelling
Business Transformation, at Everest argument that we need to be smart
Group about using AI and in doing so we need
to understand the key role that humans
will play more than ever. A great and
“Intelligent Automation is here, it is
thought-provoking read!”
real, and it is about to change everything.
This book is a must-read for all who care
Professor David De Cremer, Provost
about both business and societal impact.
Chair in Management and Director
It has been written by some of the top
of the Centre on AI Technology for
digital thought leaders on the planet.
Humankind at NUS Business School,
Thank you, Pascal Bornet, Jochen Wirtz,
National University of Singapore, and
and Ian Barkin!”
author of Leadership by Algorithm:
Who Leads and Who Follows in the
Frank Casale, Founder of the Institute
AI Era?
for Robotic Process Automation and
Artificial Intelligence (IRPAAI)
xii | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

“Pascal Bornet, Ian Barkin and Jochen “AI is not a magic wand. Through
Wirtz’s new book easily tops my favorites their hands-on experience of numerous
this year. While we’ve all read the headlines, implementations across industries,
IA still seems a mystery in terms of its the authors provide a practical guide
impact on our job, business, enterprise, to what technologies can achieve in
and world. What I particularly liked is that businesses today. I am glad to see that
they don’t just repeat the reassuring waffle this book shows that there is no such
of ‘new jobs emerging to replace old jobs thing as Artificial Intelligence but that
that are now automated.’ Instead, they it’s all about us, humans, understanding
embrace the truth: Work, as we know it, and learning how to use these new,
will probably disappear. And yet, this book powerful, tools in order to get the best
asks the questions that really count: What out of them.”
is our purpose in life? Is it work? Might not
an automation-centric future enable us to Dr. Luc Julia, CTO and SVP Innovation
get back to our real true purpose – to be at Samsung, co-creator of Apple Siri,
more human? Could the end of work lead and author of There is no such thing
to a golden age of well-being? I’ll be buying as Artificial Intelligence
the first copies for my children so that they
understand the future they are helping to
shape.” “A thoughtful, clear, and well-
researched book! Intelligent automation
Barbara Hodge, Principal Analyst and is one of the most significant disruptions
Global Digital Editor at The Shared of the white-collar labor market since
Services and Outsourcing Network the PC. Still, it is unclear to many
practitioners what technologies make
up that term. The authors lay out a
“Automation is going to bring bright and articulate description of the
profound changes to our society. technology that comprises IA and the
Intelligent Automation is the roadmap business environment that consumes it.
for the best version of a more human
future. A future in which technology “Cliff Justice, Partner, US and Global
is used to augment our humanity and Lead, Intelligent Automation at KPMG
strengthen our connection to each other
and to ourselves. This book is essential
reading for anybody who cares about “A global ex-McKinsey consultant, a
the future of work.” high-flying tech entrepreneur, and one
of the world’s leading academics at the
Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO frontier of business knowledge. These
at Thrive Global three authors came together as one
team to write a powerful, insightful, and
immediately useful book on the future
of work, life, and society. This new book
shines a light into the future we will all
be sharing.”

Ron Kaufman, New York Times

bestselling Author Uplifting Service

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 Testimonials | xiii

“Bornet, Barkin, and Wirtz have earned “This book is an insightful exploration
their automation “street credentials” of Intelligent Automation and the future
through years of helping clients gain of work. It is helping us understand
benefits from intelligent automation. the challenges and opportunities that
Therefore, they know of what they write. automation, RPA, deep learning, and
The authors meaningfully distinguish artificial intelligence represent.”
between artificial intelligence (AI) and
Intelligent Automation (IA). While AI is Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO
ensconced with Hollywood-levels of fear of Sinovation Ventures, President of
and hype, IA is a realistic Wall Street-to-Main Sinovation Ventures Artificial Intelligence
Street business strategy supported by a Institute, and New York Times bestselling
collection of tools to redesign knowledge Author AI Superpowers
work. The authors describe what IA
technology actually does today. Most
refreshingly, the authors recognize that “This well-articulated book provides
the implications of IA are emergent and excellent insights into Intelligent
therefore avoid naïve predictions. I think Automation technologies, their early
this book will be a welcome read in any and potential applications, and their
graduate business course on contemporary impact on work, business, and people.
strategy, automation, ethics, or information I especially enjoyed the sizing and
technology.” opportunity sections. The world is at the
cusp of unprecedented transformation.”
Professor Mary Lacity, Director of the
Blockchain Center of Excellence, at Alex Lyashok, Co-founder and CEO at
the University of Arkansas Workfusion

“ This is an excellent book to understand

“An absolute must-read not only if
how AI is enabling the era of Intelligent
you are interested in deepening your
Automation and how it is transforming the
knowledge of Artificial Intelligence and
future of work. Bornet, Barkin, and Wirtz
Automation Technologies but also if you
have done an excellent job of capturing
care about forming your own opinion on
this moment of a major technological
how these tidal forces of change, at the
change and its impact on our society. A
core of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,
must-read for anyone involved in the digital
will reshape our societies and forever transformation of today’s enterprises.”
change the way we live.”
Shariq Mansoor, Founder and
Frederic Laluyaux, President and CEO Chief Technology Officer at Aera
at Aera Technology Technology

“This book needed to be written. “One of the most important books of our
Intelligent Automation is taking hold. An times! A must-read for everyone that wants
excellent summary and guide on how to to understand how Intelligent Automation
make it work.”  is transforming our world and why this
means that we have to completely rethink
Craig Le Clair, Forrester Research, the nature of business and the concept of
Author of Invisible Robots In The work as we know it today.”
Quiet Of The Night
Bernard Marr, Internationally best-
selling author and strategic business
& technology advisor, Author of The
Intelligent Company
xiv | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

“In this thoughtful book, the authors “This book brilliantly demonstrates
make the indisputable point that the the full potential of IA to impact our
upside of IA on the future of work society, save millions of lives, and
outweighs any downside. The book conserve trillions of dollars. Anyone
provides a great perspective for any interested in these topics simply cannot
organization looking to understand afford to pass this book up!”
better how AI will augment, not replace,
the human experience.” Leonard A. Schlesinger, Baker
Foundation Professor-Harvard
Asheesh Mehra, Co-founder and CEO Business School, President Emeritus-
at AntWorks Babson College

“Humans are generally creatures “Bornet, Barkin, and Wirtz have been
of habit. But we are not made for able to brilliantly describe and provide
repetition. The world of Intelligent guidelines to maximize the impact and
Automation (IA) is giving us the benefits of Intelligent Automation.
opportunity to refocus on our creativity; They present this analysis at employee,
it is opening us up to an infinite realm of customer, company, global economy
possibilities.” levels, and even from a society point
of view. It is rare to read a book about
Sylvia Saw McKaige, Founder and technology which includes such
CEO at Salween Group diverse levels of analysis and reading.
As an outcome, this creates a rich
book useful and accessible to a wide
“Bornet, Barkin and Wirtz weave
variety of audiences. This guidebook is
together a masterful and optimistic
instrumental for success in the Fourth
collection of insights that give us a
Industrial Revolution.”
genuine vision of what our automated
world will look. In today’s business
Klaus Schwab, Founder and
environment, nothing is more valuable
Executive Chairman at the World
than human insight, empathy, creativity
Economic Forum
and energy. The authors tell the story of
how IA gives us the time and confidence
to hone these qualities as routine, low
value and repetitive work is digitized. This “ Leaders of core technologies,
book is also more relevant than ever, with ‘back-office operations,’ and revenue/
the current Pandemic Economy and our customer-facing business functions
huge reliance on digital technologies to alike can all benefit from the authors’
keep businesses, school and governments articulation of how Intelligent
functioning.” Automation can – and will – in so many
ways transform the global human
Phil Fersht, Founder and CEO, HFS condition.”
Research
Prag (Pragnesh) Shah, Global Head
Experience & Innovation at Princess
Cruise Lines, Ltd.

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 Testimonials | xv

“This book is right on the spot; “A must-read book that not only
the future impact of IA depends enables a deep understanding of
on human understanding its values Intelligent Automation but also
and capabilities to build the entire presents its incredible potential to
ecosystem that will change the world. achieve a higher societal purpose.”
The impact of AI and automation is
the black swan of our generation. The Tiger Tyagarajan, President and CEO
book helps leaders and curious people at Genpact, and Board Member at
to understand the situation better and Catalyst
redefine their approach to ensure the
brightest future.”
“A powerful assessment of the
Harel Tayeb, CEO at Kryon promises and practicalities, Intelligent
Automation is a timely guide replete
with examples and advice culminating
in a detailed, sane mapping of where
“Can you imagine an organization all this could lead.”
where everything that can and
should be automated is? That’s the Leslie Willcocks, Professor at London
philosophy of Hyperautomation. This School of Economics, Co-author of
field guide is essential reading as Robotic and Cognitive Automation:
you prioritize your exploration and The Next Phase
exploitation of the ‘art of the practical’
to help you automate activities
optimally at speed.”

Cathy Tornbohm, VP Distinguished

Analyst at Gartner
 TABLE OF CONTENTS |1

Table of contents
About the authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Key contributors to the book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Preface: Why this book?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Additional book assets available online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Awful pictures that Intelligent Automation (IA) can help change. . . . 15

Introduction: Understanding IA. . . 23

Understanding the power of IA through an example . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Who should read this book, and why?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
What will you learn from this book?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
What is IA?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Differentiating IA from AI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
The promise of IA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Key definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Part one: The promise of IA for a

better world. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
IA is a business imperative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Improving the employee experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Boosting the customer experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Avoiding $10 trillion of losses due to fraud, errors,
and accidents per year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Saving 10+ million lives per year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Building a society more resilient to crises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Key takeaways of Part One. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
2 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

Part two: IA technologies

explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
A framework for explaining the power of IA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Capability 1: Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Capability 2: Execution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Capability 3: Language. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Capability 4: Thinking & learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Combining capabilities to create synergies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Positioning IA in the spectrum of existing technologies. . . . . . . . 154
Building a compelling IA implementation roadmap . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Key takeaways of Part Two. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Part three: How organizations

succeed in implementing IA. . . . . . 161
What are the challenges of implementing IA?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
How to succeed in your IA transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Management support, vision, governance, and structure. . . . . . . 181
Preparing the transformation and scaling it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Driving change and talent management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
New enablers to help organizations thrive with IA. . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Enabler 1: Democratization of IA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Enabler 2: Convergence of technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Enabler 3: IA generated by IA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Enabler 4: Symbiosis of people and IA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Preparing for the long-term trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Key takeaways of Part Three. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 TABLE OF CONTENTS |3

Part four: Reinventing society

with IA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
IA is central to the fourth industrial revolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
The optimistic scenario. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
The pessimistic scenario. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Preparing for both scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Imperative 1: Evolving skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Imperative 2: Sharing the wealth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Imperative 3: Rethinking “work” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Imperative 4: Reinventing education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Imperative 5: Building a new society. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Key takeaways of Part Four. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Conclusion: Our world urgently

needs more IA!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Asset: IA use cases library. . . . . . . . . . 311
Appendix: List of IA experts who
took part in the survey. . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Appendix: Artistic inspiration
from IA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
4 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

About the authors

Pascal Bornet is a recognized
global expert and pioneer in the field of
intelligent automation. He is passionate
about the capacity of artificial intelligence
and automation to make our society more
human. Bornet is a senior executive with 20+
years of experience leading digital business
transformations and creations. Over the
last ten years, he has founded and led the
“Intelligent Automation” practices, first for
EY (Ernst & Young) and then for McKinsey
& Company. These lines of business
delivered high-impact results to corporate clients across industries through
innovation, research, strategic investments, and cutting-edge technology
developments. In these contexts, he successfully led hundreds of intelligent
automation transformations at scale across industries and functions. He has
also created and managed a proven track record of distinctive, innovative
solutions, technologies, and IP portfolios.

Bornet is a recognized author, thought leader, lecturer, and speaker on

artificial intelligence, automation, and the future of work. He is also an
influencer on the same topics, elected Top Voice in Technology 2019; he
has more than 300,000 followers on LinkedIn and Twitter. Bornet holds
an MBA from the University of California Los Angeles, an MBA from the
National University of Singapore, a Master of Science in Management
from EM-Lyon/Saint-Etienne, as well as several certifications in Data
Science and Finance (US CPA).

linkedin.com/in/pascalbornet/

twitter.com/pascal_bornet

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 About the authors |5

Ian Barkin is Chief Strategy & Marketing

Officer at SYKES. He is a globally
recognized thought leader and veteran in
the Intelligent Automation space. Barkin
co-founded Symphony Ventures, a pure-
play Intelligent Automation consulting
company. Built in 2014, the company
had more than 225 employees in 2019,
providing cutting-edge advisory services
in Intelligent Automation to companies
across all sectors. Symphony Ventures
was acquired for US$69 million in 2018
by SYKES, a NASDAQ-listed global leader in Customer Engagement
Services.

Barkin is a seasoned leader and innovator in Digital Operations, Robotic

Process Automation (RPA), Intelligent Automation, Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO), and the Future of Work. He is the author of popular
LinkedIn Learning courses on RPA and the leadership best practices
in the age of Intelligent Automation. He has a proven track record of
digital transformation solution development and sales of complex
global engagements. Barkin holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of
Management, and a BA in Economics and Psychology from Middlebury
College.

linkedin.com/in/ianbarkin

twitter.com/ibarkin
6 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

Jochen Wirtz is Vice-Dean MBA

Programmes and Professor of Marketing at
the NUS Business School, National University
of Singapore (NUS). He is also a research
affiliate with the NUS Centre on AI Technology
for Humankind, an international fellow of the
Service Research Center at Karlstad University,
Sweden, an Academic Scholar at the Cornell
Institute for Healthy Futures (CIHF) at Cornell
University, US, and a Global Faculty of the
Center for Services Leadership (CSL) at Arizona
State University, US. Previously, Dr. Wirtz was the
founding director of the UCLA – NUS Executive
MBA Program, ranked #6 globally in the Financial Times 2016 EMBA rankings
(from 2002 to 2017) and an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School,
University of Oxford (from 2008 to 2013). Dr. Wirtz is a leading authority on
services marketing and management. His research has been published in over
100 academic journal articles, including six features in Harvard Business Review.
He has received over 40 awards in recognition of his excellence in research
and teaching. His more than 20 books include Services Marketing – People,
Technology, Strategy (World Scientific, 9th edition, 2021), and Essentials of
Services Marketing (Pearson Education, 4th edition, 2021). With combined
sales of over 800,000 copies, they have become globally leading services
marketing textbooks.

Dr. Wirtz has worked with international consulting firms, including Accenture,
Arthur D. Little and KPMG, and major service firms around the world. He has
been an angel investor in a number of start-ups, including Accellion (www.
accellion.com, exit in 2020), TranscribeMe (www.TranscribeMe.com) and
Uplifting Service (www.UpliftingService.com). Dr. Wirtz received his Ph.D. from
the London Business School. He holds a professional certification in banking.
Originally from Germany, Professor Wirtz spent seven years in London before
moving to Asia. Today, he shuttles between Asia, the US, and Europe.

linkedin.com/in/jochenwirtz

twitter.com/JochenWirtz

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 Key contributors to the book |7

Key contributors to the book

We would like to thank the following people, without whom we would
never have been able to present such a thoughtful and informed
perspective on the impacts of Intelligent Automation on the worlds
of work, life, health, education, culture, and more (in alphabetical order):

Ralph Aboujaoude Diaz

Key contribution: key success factors, RPA, IA

David Ashton
Key contribution: reinventing society with IA

Sebastien Bourguignon
Key contribution: blockchain

Francis Carden
Key contribution: low-code, no-code, artificial intelligence

Lee Coulter
Key contribution: overall structure of the book, key insights
8 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

Samiran Ghosh
Key contribution: artificial intelligence, machine learning

Bernard Golstein
Key contribution: reinventing education with and for IA

Mohsin Khan
Key contribution: machine learning, IA use cases

Mahesh Panbude
Key contribution: RPA, IA use cases

Mael Plougastel
Key contribution: overall structure of the book, key insights

Gaurav Sharma
Key contribution: RPA, IA use cases

Thomas Zakrzewski
Key contribution: blockchain, Internet of Things

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 Preface |9

Preface: Why this book?

While Intelligent Automation (IA) has already started to become a
pivotal lever to enhance customers’ experience and boost business
productivity, very little has been written on it. The first sources were a
blog2 written by Bornet in early 2017, an article by McKinsey,3 followed
by a standard by IEEE,4 all referenced later in this book. In 2018, a
reference book5 by Lacity and Willcocks covered some aspects of
IA, together with other themes. Since then, most of the literature
available today has come from technology vendors in the form of
articles, white papers, or implementation use cases. But, while we
have seen many books in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine
learning, or robotics, a comprehensive reference guidebook had
never yet been written on the topic of IA. Hence, it seemed critical to
us, the authors, to objectively document and build the latest insights
on this field in a first reference document.

This also explains why working on this book has been challenging,
building the content almost from scratch; it took us more than a
year to write this book. We have tried to concentrate the wealth of
experience not only from ourselves but also from a large and growing

2 Bornet et al., 2017. “Intelligent automation is about creating synergies between RPA, cognitive,
chatbots and AI”. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-robotic-process-automation-rpa-artificial-
ai-journey-bornet/
3 McKinsey, 2017. “Intelligent process automation: The engine at the core of the next-generation
operating model”. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/
intelligent-process-automation-the-engine-at-the-core-of-the-next-generation-operating-model
4 IEEE Std. 2755-2017, IEEE Guide for Terms and Concepts in Intelligent Process Automation.
5 Mary C. Lacity and Leslie P. Willcocks, 2018. “Robotic Process and Cognitive Automation - The
Next Phase”.
10 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

community of IA leaders from diverse organizations, geographies,

and industries.

The primary purpose of this book is to share our passion for this new
concept called IA that we strongly believe can improve our world
significantly. We would like to inform, inspire, and educate more
people on the power of IA. As we will demonstrate in the book, it is
critical that we expand the uses of IA to help solve the most pressing
issues of our world and create an opportunity to build a new, more
human society.

On top of this, it seemed essential to us to establish IA as a field,

with its own frameworks, use cases, methods, and critical success
factors. We have tried to document our knowledge, drawing from
years of failures and successes in designing and implementing IA.
Nevertheless, this work is not meant to carve these frameworks in
stone. This is just a sketch, a beginning; it provides a foundation
for further and broader evolutions of our field. A field has its
practitioners. We dedicate this book to them and to those who are
joining this growing community every day. A mere five years ago,
our roles as Intelligent Automation practitioners did not exist. In July
2020, searching for “Intelligent Automation” on LinkedIn, we could
find more than 145,000 profiles mentioning it in titles, roles, or job
descriptions. It is impressive how quickly the worlds of consulting,
services, and work have changed.

In this book, we also wanted to clarify the purpose of IA. We have

often heard IA professionals being referred to as “job killers”: people
who are automating the work of other people, causing them to be
laid off, just for the sake of generating productivity gains. With this
book, we want to clarify that not only does IA not displace roles,

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 Preface | 11

but it creates more, and the new ones are more exciting than the
legacy ones. We demonstrate how it helps workers to find fulfillment
in their work and augment their capabilities, and could help bring a
renaissance to the future of work.

Several technology vendors pretend that IA is a universal solution

that is cheap, easy to implement, and delivers a high return on
investment. This is not true. In this book, we have been careful in
painting a more neutral picture of IA, not only depicting its benefits
but also presenting its limits and challenges. We have built upon
these points to offer recommendations for fair and successful uses
of IA.

Over the last several years, we have witnessed that technological

innovation is rapidly accelerating. Thanks to advances in the fields
of process automation and machine learning, the boundaries of
what can be identified, interpreted, and automated are continually
being pushed. For example, it used to take months to design and
write automation scripts able to perform work. With the help of deep
learning, we can now achieve this in hours. This enables automation
programs to learn patterns and behaviors by themselves, without the
need for a developer to write code. With that, we grow ever closer
to IA being generated by technology (explained in Part Three of the
book) involving incredible scalability.

These advancements will have a significant and disruptive impact on

the world of work. With such powerful technologies, an increasing
amount of the work performed by millions of people across the
globe in captive and outsourced back-office functions (e.g., finance
& accounting, supply chain & logistics) might soon be automated.
Furthermore, can you imagine the impact of such a technology on
12 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

the three million U.S. call center professionals6 and the many millions
more across the world? What else could have such an impact on
the 3.5 million truck drivers in the US and across Europe where self-
driving truck pilots are already underway?

It seemed crucial to us to document and share the imperatives that

need to be in place to prevent the negative impacts of IA at scale
on our societies. It is not a matter of “if” it will happen; it is a question
of “when.” We leveraged this book to convey a warning message to
companies and governments. In order to capture the full potential of
IA at scale, there are imperatives to anticipate potential issues and
get prepared.

Finally, we believe it is timely, as our world is slowly recovering from

the COVID-19 crisis. This book aims at guiding leaders in improving
the resilience of their organizations and building the capacity to
anticipate and overcome future similar downturns.

We hope you will enjoy this read and that it will shift your thinking
and action!

6 King White, 2015, “How Big is the U.S. Call Center Industry Compared to India and The
Philippines?”. https://info.siteselectiongroup.com/blog/how-big-is-the-us-call-center-industry-
compared-to-india-and-philippines

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 Preface | 13

Additional book assets

available online
We have also built an extension of this book in the form of a dedicated
website. It not only introduces the book, but also allows our readers
to ask questions and keep connected with the latest insights through
a blog and regular newsletters.

Website: www.hyperautomationbook.com or
www.intelligentautomationbook.com

On the same website, for people who are reading this book on paper,
we provide digital access to the footnotes via this link:

https://intelligentautomationbook.com/footnote/

The purpose is to create a unique and interactive reading experience.

With the book in their hands, readers are able to open the footnote
links on their smartphone or tablet in just one click, taking advantage
of the videos and other articles in real time. We recommend this
14 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

to fully enjoy watching the demos and reading the additional digital
content that we share throughout the book.

Additional information about the book and disclaimers:

• The profits from this book will be donated to a charity that

supports education about new technologies for people in
need.

• The ideas reflected in this book are solely the views of the
authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of any
company or organization.

• The funding and writing of this book have not been associated
with any organization. This is a warranty of the neutrality of the
views provided by the authors.

• The authors have chosen to keep the book short, easy to

read, and accessible to a broad audience. Hence, they have
deliberately decided to highlight key concepts and themes
across the wide spectrum of IA, rather than enter into the
detail of each of the topics covered. They have done their
best to provide information sources so that interested readers
can explore further.

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 INTRODUCTION:

Understanding
IA
 PART ONE:

The promise of
IA for a better
world
“The technology you use impresses no one.
The experience you create with it is everything.”
Sean Gerety, user experience expert
 PART TWO:

IA technologies
explained
 PART THREE:

How
organizations
succeed in
implementing IA
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is
that automation applied to an efficient operation will
magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation
applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the
inefficiency.”
Bill Gates
 PART FOUR:

Reinventing
society with IA
 CONCLUSION:

Our world
urgently needs
more IA!
 ASSET:

IA use cases
library
This library includes more than 500 use cases.
At the time of printing this book (October 2020),
it is the largest list of use cases
currently publicly available.
312 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

A
s described in Part Three of the book, a critical success factor
to kick off an IA transformation is to identify, assess, and
prioritize the business use cases. To ease this process and
make this book as pragmatic as possible, we have built the largest
list of use cases currently publicly available. It includes 500+ use
cases across industries and business functions. The main source
has been our own experience, which we have completed by some
creative thinking. For example, we have worked on transposing some
proven successful use cases from one industry or business function
to another.

The purpose of this list of use cases is to stimulate creativity and

demonstrate the vast amount of opportunities to implement IA
in literally all functions and industries.

We have chosen to detail the use cases at a granular level to fit with
most of the organizations’ contexts and make these use cases as
actionable as possible. Nevertheless, as presented in Part Three of
the book, the leading practice is to design and implement IA based
on end-to-end processes. To reach this objective, we recommend
that you collate together the use cases of the business activities
belonging to the same end-to-end process.

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 APPENDIX:

List of IA experts
who took part in
the survey
398 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

A
survey about Intelligent Automation was administered
in December 2019 on the web. It collected views on IA:
definition, scope, leading practices, expected future, and
impact on our society.

We would like to thank all of the passionate and knowledgeable

members of the global Intelligent Automation community who
contributed to our research. With their input, we are able to present
a more informed and validated picture of the state of adoption and
readiness.

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 APPENDIX: LIST OF IA EXPERTS WHO TOOK PART IN THE SURVEY | 399

Those contributors kind enough to share their names are listed below
(alphabetical by first name):

Kristopher
Abdul Haseeb Gabriella D’Elia Rohit Arora
Carmona
Krzysztof
Abe Khaleeli Gareth Blair Rohit Basuri
Karaszewski
Gaurav Kumar
Abhi Saxena Kustaa Kivelä Ron Lozinsky
Sumit
Georgie van der
Abhilash Reddy Laukeek Ruth McGuinness
Merwe

Abhineet Géri Leigh Gembus Ryan Deng

Adam Bujak Giovanni Guccini Lena Janack Sabeha Zedek

Adam Gjorgjievski Gobish Lindsey Akers Sachin Hatikankar

Gowtham
Adam Österman Lonneke Vink Saif
Chilakapati

Aditya Gururaja Lucas Reis Saikrishna

Adwait Ullal Gustavo Moura Maciej Krezolek Sajeev Nair

Aishwarya Kannan Guy Nadivi Maheshwar Salman

Ajay Hal Anthony Majid Moosavinia Samir Kamal

Manoj Kumar
Allan Surtees Haran Sarah Ghanem
Sharma

Alois Harrison Goode Maor Revah Satish Jha

Amogh
Harshal Vaske Marco Scott Kennedy
Chandrashekar

Anand Hemant Kalra Mare Shafiullah

Shaik Limansha
Andrea Danesini Henri Mario Olivos
Safreen
400 | INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

Andreas Lueth Hugo Hermsen Martin Bogan Shashwat Kumar

Anirban
Ideal Arifi Maruthi Ayyappan Shatrugna Ram L A
Mazumdar
Aniruddha
Indrajeet Kumar Matous Maier Shibin Abraham
Chakravarti
Shivaramakrishnan
Anthony Giardina Iqbal Bocus Mauricio Pacheco
Ramamoorthy

Antoine Iurii Shubin Michael Dalton Siddharth Golecha

Ashish Chaudhary Jacob Mathew Michael Engel Siddheshwar Kore

Ashok Kumar
Jacob Mathew Michele Shiels Sikandar Girgoukar
Sahoo
Aurel
Jadene Pillay Mike Smith Sol
Anthamatten

Azlan Jai Devireddy MohammadReza Someshankar

Balaji CS Jaideep Kala Molly Sophie Rawlins

Balaji Sridharan Jakkam Girish Mridul Chadha Sreekiran Challapilla

Bashir Bello James Lawson Natacha Sreenath Gurrapu

Beenish Jamie Thomas Neil Munnoch Sudeepta

Bhavesh Kulkarni Jan Kozak Nick Armenta Sumanth

Jan Niklas
Binit Amin Niki Surabhi
Gajewski

Brenda Jatin Gulati Nitesh Awasthi Tan Zhang Sheng

Nurul Islam
Bridget Navoda Javier Mancilla Tanmay Dixit
Choudhury

Chaitanyakumar Jay Nejal Omayra Marchany Tarun Vasudeva

Chris Hartley JC Abella Oscar Orozco Temi Yip

| BORNET - BARKIN - WIRTZ

 APPENDIX: LIST OF IA EXPERTS WHO TOOK PART IN THE SURVEY | 401

Thomas
Christopher Parker Jenny Chong Paramprit Singh
Schwarzenböck

Ciara Murphy Jerald Jackson Patankar Pramod Tim Percy

Damo Vasudevan Jere Laaksonen Patricio Anguita Tom Scott

Patrick
David Francis Joe Wheatley Toni Tuells
Krippendorf

David Napier Joel Arnold Patrick Rankin Tushar Mathur

Davide Rizzo Jonathan Hobday Paul Wong Ujwal Mantri

Debraj
Jordan Pierre Paula M Vaisakh
Bhattacharyya

Deepak Agarwal Josmin Jose Pirro Vamsi

Deidra Cox József Papp Pradeep Kumar Varun Prabhakar

Dexter Justin Watson Prakash Bhatia Vijesh

Dhaval Shrimankar Jyoti Sagar Prasanna Vikas Kapoor

Pratyush
Dian Kurniawan Karandeep Kaur Virind Gujral
Garikapati

Disha Keerthi Kiran Yaga Preyash Vis

Doug Gowans Kelly McLean Rahul Parmar Vladimir Voelk

Dwayne Prosko Keny Lalan Rajesh Y Williams

Ed Keri Smith Ravikiran SB Yazid

Eric Bouguen Kerry Williams Ray Dudenhoeffer Younus Baig

Erika Velasco Khushnuma K Reny Jacob Reji Zack Kelemen

Erkan Sirin Kishore Pardasani Rima

Konstantinos
Fabian Cesarini Robbie de Coster
Mantzaris
 INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

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