
- Digital Workers
- Written By Harriet Kotvics
How Automation and AI Reduce Business Risks
30-Jul-2024 . 4 minutes read
When our team at Centelli speaks to a new prospective customer, one question we often get asked is about the risks involved in deploying Automation, or what we call ‘Digital Workers’.
We answer that there is significantly more risk in NOT using them!
With the increasing number of regulatory requirements, financial, and operational processes, companies should seek ways to minimize errors and ensure compliance. Automation and AI in risk management are fantastic ways of reducing business risk with technology.
Centelli’s Digital Workers are an advanced form of intelligent automation that offers the answer to these exact challenges. In this blog, we explore how Digital Workers can help mitigate risks within businesses by enhancing accuracy, reliability, and compliance.
Precision and Accuracy of Automation
One of the most significant advantages of Digital Workers over human employees is their accuracy. Humans, despite their best efforts, are prone to errors—especially when dealing with repetitive tasks or vast amounts of data. However, Digital Workers are designed to perform repetitive tasks over and over again in exactly the same way, which in turn reduces the likelihood of mistakes. And we all know mistakes can be costly and even cause compliance breaches.
For example, consider the task of processing invoices. Digital Workers can be programmed to meticulously check every invoice against a database of past transactions (as they process these from Inbox through to finance systems and bank accounts). They don’t just ensure that amounts are accurate from what you have been sent by a supplier; they also simultaneously remember every transaction ever processed for that same supplier! This means any anomalies, such as a sudden 10x increase in the invoice amount (!) are quickly identified, flagged and stopped. This level of scrutiny and memory retention is beyond human capacity, making Digital Workers an invaluable asset in financial management and beyond.
The “Raise Their Hand” Principle – Giving 100% Control.
A common misconception about automation, especially in the era of consumer AI, is that these systems might make independent decisions or ‘guess’ answers when they are faced with not knowing what to do next. This is not the case with Centelli’s Digital Workers. We programme them with a simple yet effective safeguard: the ability to “raise their hand” when they encounter a situation that requires human judgment. This means that if a Digital Workers encounters an unexpected situation or a decision that falls outside their programming parameters, it will simply the process and alert a human member of the team. So you & your team are always in charge!
How Automation Ensures Compliance: A Perfect Match for Regulated Sectors
Compliance is a major concern for many businesses, particularly in heavily regulated sectors such as finance & banking, healthcare, real estate and construction. These regulatory requirements are not only usually complex but also often change over time, making manual compliance checks time-consuming, challenging and risky. Digital Workers excel in this area by ensuring that all regulatory boxes are ‘ticked’ and that the business adheres to the latest standards.
They can also maintain meticulous records of compliance-related activities, providing a clear audit trail that can be invaluable during reviews or audits.
For example, say your staff need to do an online training exercise every year; Digital Workers can manage those entire processes. They would alert employees to the need, log when they pass the test, issue reminders if it’s not completed, transfer training records to other systems and lots more if required. If this regulation were to then change to every 6 months, you’d just tell the Digital Worker and they would implement exactly that.
This capability not only reduces the risk of non-compliance but also minimizes the potential for associated fines and reputational damage.
Conclusion: A Reliable Partner in Risk Management
In conclusion, Automation (via Centelli’s Digital Workers) can really help any business to mitigate risks across various departments from finance to HR, and in any business sector. Their accuracy, ability to defer to human judgment when necessary, and unmatched memory for detail make them an ideal choice for handling complex, repetitive, and regulated tasks.
By integrating Digital Workers into your operations, businesses can achieve greater efficiency, reduce the likelihood of errors, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements—all of which are critical components of effective risk management.
If you want to find out more, get in touch now.