Cognitive Automation Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) adoption in business process automation: RPA or bots enable software to interact with applications and customers.  Some early proponents of RPA include companies offering digitization software focused primarily on reading images through optical character recognition and delivering structured data into databases. Companies have been striving to diversify their digitization business portfolios using RPAs to include business process automation in daily tasks such as workflow management and operations.
  
  Traditional proprietary programming creates a barrier to broader automation. However, RPA is easier to program as it uses graphical user interfaces (GUI) instead of writing codes. The development and deployment of RPA are affordable and faster than conventional counterparts. The RPAs are also pertinent to agencies seeking to digitize their records. In December 2022, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) jointly issued a Memorandum, M-19-21 for the transition to electronic records, advocating RPAs.
• Reconfiguration of insurance operation model: Cognitive automation streamlines the healthcare claim processing using RPA, AI, and ML tools. Automated underwriting aids insurers in simplifying customer data, providing tailored packages for customers, assessing risks, and identifying areas of potential cost savings, unlike manual claim settlement that surges adjudication costs due to the poorly integrated data and delays in insurer claim review.
  
  Key players have taken a significant leap forward in digital underwriting technology, providing insurers with a comprehensive and efficient solution for policy application processing. This advances their goal to reinvent the consumer's experience through innovative technology. For instance, in December 2023, Munich Re Automation Solutions launched the SARA interview screens module in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Latin America. The new underwriting tool accelerates policy application and healthcare claim processes.
  
  Furthermore, in June 2024, Appian and Swiss Re introduced Connected Underwriting Life Workbench in Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). It incorporates Magnum, Swiss Re’s automated health insurance underwriting solution, and consolidates scattered emails and lengthy documents while replacing outdated systems. Ongoing innovations refine underwriting processes while allowing agile adaptation to local regulations.
  
  Traditional underwriting workbenches lack integration across internal partners and third-party systems, on cloud or on-premises. Typical life insurance requires underwriters to sign in to multiple systems for accessing information, assessing complex calculations, conducting risk analysis, and updating case information to underwrite every life insurance policy. Modern underwriters seek a unified system to orchestrate tasks, updates, and transactions seamlessly and effortlessly. Key plays are capitalizing on the existing gaps in the market.

Challenges

• Selecting the appropriate tools: There are numerous tools available that can handle large amounts of data. The selection of these tools should be based on the specific type of data and the business's data access requirements. Open-source tools that can be seamlessly integrated with most programs are highly recommended. However, selecting the most suitable solution from a wide range of open-source technologies can be a challenging task.
• Resource allocation - Cognitive automation achieves high success rates with the complete access to company data. However, the process of gathering all the necessary resources for task completion is complex. If any procedure fails to integrate, the entire cognitive automation process will fail. This requires rectification to construct an integrated automation solution utilizing cognitive automation systems.