The potential for cost savings across all kinds of business processes could be greater than the potential for new revenues from digital transformation. We estimate that 45% of all work activities in all industries could be automated through RPA, saving $2 trillion in global workforce costs.
Whether that percentage holds in financial services remains to be seen, but RPA has huge potential in regulatory and compliance reporting, especially for reducing costly errors in that process, and in financial reconciliation, especially for closing the gaps between non-straight-through-processing (STP) systems.
Software bots, not R2D2
Becoming cloud-based and fully digitized can require heavy investment and heavy lifting by the IT staff in a financial services firm. Compared to that, RPA is a walk in the park. RPA is not typically part of the IT infrastructure, but sits on top of it.
RPA can be designed with lightweight, easy-to-program software tools that can automate a range of digital activity. Business analysts and other power users can be trained to create RPA with tools available today; many vendors offer training programs. More vendors continue to enter the market, each with a new take on the technology. It is likely that a couple of them will emerge as the front runners over the next two to three years.
