Intelligent Automation and its real estate use cases

Intelligent automation is not only a tech buzzword. Or is it? I'm not sure about that but I know that it's happening. According to CIO&Leader, 80% of companies (from their research) planned to embrace it in 2025.

In general, intelligent automation (IA) combines artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), and intelligent document processing (IDP) and other advanced technologies to streamline complex workflows and make data-driven decisions. Since many workplace processes still rely on handling, analyzing, and extracting information from documents (e.g., invoices, contracts, applications, or reports), automating these processes is often a starting point for broader intelligent automation initiatives.

The Dynamic Duo: RPA and IDP

Within the intelligent automation framework, RPA and IDP play distinct yet crucial roles. RPA provides the automation backbone by executing repetitive tasks, while IDP enhances data accessibility by extracting information from unstructured documents. Together, they enable more comprehensive and sophisticated automation.

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA): RPA is the automation workhorse. It handles repetitive, rule-based tasks like data entry, system updates, and workflow automation. If it’s boring and predictable, RPA excels at it. It's like a well-trained hand that executes tasks within the automated processes. However, RPA alone is limited to structured data and repetitive tasks. When unstructured data or cognitive capabilities are needed, IDP and AI are needed.
• Intelligent Document Processing (IDP): IDP takes automation a step further by using AI to “read and comprehend” and process unstructured data from documents like PDFs, contracts, and emails. It’s equipped with capabilities like optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP), enabling it to extract and classify data with remarkable accuracy. IDP is a critical component of intelligent automation, particularly for content-heavy processes. It helps organizations to unlock the value of unstructured data by making it usable in automated workflows.

The combination of RPA and IDP enables end-to-end automation of complex processes involving both structured tasks and unstructured data. This synergy makes IA more powerful and versatile. Imagine a relay race where IDP extracts relevant information and hands it off to RPA, which integrates it into the workflow - effortlessly bridging the gap between raw data and actionable insights.

How Businesses Benefit: Real Estate as a Case Study

Intelligent automation - with RPA and IDP at its core - has the potential to transform industries. Let’s take real estate as an example:

• Property sales and leasing: closing deals involves processing agreements, verifying identities, and extracting key details. RPA speeds up these processes by handling repetitive tasks, while IDP ensures data accuracy from sales agreements, buyer documents, and more. This means faster transactions and happier clients.
• Vendor and Supplier Management: Managing vendor contracts and supplier invoices can be chaotic. IDP analyzes contracts for deadlines and compliance requirements, while RPA ensures timely approvals and payments by automating invoice validation against purchase orders. The result? Smoother operations and fewer headaches.
• Facility and asset management: For ongoing operations, IDP automates maintenance logs and tracks tenant agreements. Paired with RPA, it can schedule maintenance proactively and ensure lease renewals are flagged in advance. This shift from reactive to proactive management leads to better tenant satisfaction and reduced downtime.

Wrapping Up

Intelligent automation does matter, obviously. It has opened up many use cases that were not possible before. And it is absolutely not the future because it is the present.

The robots are ready. How about you?