INTERVIEW Kostas Fiakas, INFORM Lykos: “Software robots enriched with AI will contribute to economic growth via productivity increase”

“One of the most important goals of a company is to provide customers with a high level of service. Lately, and since the technology is mature enough, companies would like to further push the self-service of their customers. This is the main target of Chatbots and with the use of AI and ML this has become a reality,” Kostas Fiakas Chief Strategy Officer, INFORM Lykos told The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“Other important goals of a company are the increase of productivity and the reduction of costs. RPA comes here an important technology to contribute. The native integration between Chatbots and RPA solutions could give to the end-user an excellent Customer Experience.”

What are the key elements at the heart of RPA?

The key elements at the heart of RPA are the variety and ease of integration to other systems and the short time-to-market when it comes to automation of repetitive and mundane tasks, and hence we foresee that in the future RPA will become a necessity in business.

Indeed, Automation is an important factor in digital transformation projects and is important to choose the right partner, which has experience in Enterprise Automations implementations and relevant use cases like HR, Accounting, Customer Service and Back-office Automations.

Why should companies invest in RPA and Chatbots?

One of the most important goals of a company is to provide customers with a high level of service. Lately, and since the technology is mature enough, companies would like to further push the self-service of their customers. This is the main target of Chatbots and with the use of AI and ML this has become a reality.

Other important goals of a company are the increase of productivity and the reduction of costs. RPA comes here an important technology to contribute. The native integration between Chatbots and RPA solutions could give to the end-user an excellent Customer Experience.

What are the benefits of implementing chatbots?

A Chatbot can be used for: Answering frequently asked questions of customers, Digital on Boarding (DOB) of new customers, serving employees with services related to internal procedures of a company like Human Resources, IT operations, etc.

Here INFORM incorporates more technologies for Automation in Data Capture and in Data entry, providing end to end automations in DOB journeys, in Back office and front office operations.

Therefore, Chatbots increase Customers Satisfaction, and decrease Costs by offloading Contact Centers and automating internal company procedures.

What are the challenges of implementing software robots inside a company?

If we refer to the more efficient management of all the tasks of a company, whether we are talking about an area such as accounting, HR, production or back office, RPA improves the quality of services by taking care of these tasks and its repetitive activities respectively. The main challenge of implementing software robots inside a company is to find the well-structured, repetitive, and mundane processes to be automated. The answer to this reddle is given by INFORM’s Business Consulting team and the Business Needs Assessments offering to our customers. Another challenge is the integration with legacy systems which are part of the processes, and then maintain the end-to-end process. Both are addresses by the Center of Excellence teams, proposed to each of our customers and trained by INFORM.

There are a lot of alternatives in finding the right process automation solution involving software robots. It is worth mentioning the key elements that have to be present in the company such as speed, intelligence, ease of use, information processing.

How will software robots change the economic landscape in the future?

Software Robots enriched with artificial intelligence, are transforming businesses and will contribute to economic growth via productivity increase. They will also help address societal challenges in areas from health to climate change.

At the same time, these technologies will transform the nature of work and the workplace itself. Robots will be able to carry out more of the tasks done by humans and complement the work that humans do.

Everything can be simplified using technology that in addition to the visible benefits, in this way, time is on the side of employees. Finally, for fast communication, the transmission of desired information to customers and suppliers can be achieved by applying Chatbots and INFORM is ready to support this coming economic growth with the use of the technology, professional services and applicable use cases.