Business automation in your words

Hyperautomation, a term coined by Gartner in 2019, is defined as “a business-driven, disciplined approach that organizations use to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible.” Even Gartner has deviated from this definition recently with the introduction of Business Orchestration Automation Technologies (BOAT) at the Gartner AIBS Summit in May of 2024, which adds a layer of orchestration on top of automation technologies. 

Some of the in-market incumbent RPA vendors are attempting to perform a pivot to Agentic Process Automation (APA) to signal that they have fully embraced Agentic AI adaptability and speed, but in doing so, they present several new challenges on the way to hyperautomation

As Gartner intended it, hyperautomation occurs upon successful implementation of multiple technology solutions—AI, LLMs, RPA, IDP, BPM, iPaaS, and more—to automate as much as possible. But this acronym soup leaves a bad taste due to its fragility, high costs, and maintenance challenges. Rather than using disparate solutions to accomplish full-scale enterprise automation, companies turned back to their incumbent automation solutions and tried to overlook its faults. 

Despite the fact that vendors abused the term as a buzzword instead of seeing its full potential (see: agentic AI in the 2024 automation market), hyperautomation is possible.

Unrealized Expectations of Hyperautomation

Conceptually, hyperautomation promised to revolutionize business processes by enabling end-to-end automation. In practice, however, moving beyond the concept proved challenging for several reasons:

Misuse of Hyperautomation in RPA and IDP

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) have both been mislabeled as hyperautomation solutions, rather than components of a larger hyperautomation strategy. While both technologies contribute to hyperautomation as the market currently knows it, along with many other technologies like AI and iPaaS, they are not hyperautomation in and of themselves. 

RPA excels at automating repetitive, predictable tasks, but it lacks cognitive capabilities to solve complex processes that require human-like decision-making ability. 

IDP is great at processing unstructured data from documents, but is limited in terms of use cases it can serve and frequently fails to integrate with larger enterprise systems. 

Neither of these solutions constitutes hyperautomation, though both could contribute to a hyperautomation strategy alongside other technologies. 

Practical Implementation of Hyperautomation

In order to stay competitive, anything that can be automated, must be automated. Kognitos brings the original vision of hyperautomation to life by automating virtually any IT or business process you can dream up, all with a serverless infrastructure that maintains a system of record accessible to any business stakeholder who can read in plain English. 

Our Hyperautomation Lifecycle (HAL) platform doesn’t require integrating multiple automation technologies, because we’ve done that work for you on the front end. HAL can automate the entire lifecycle of creating automations, truly bringing hyperautomation to life, without the cost and headaches outlined in the original Gartner definition. For the first time, end-to-end business process automation is possible with one solution. Here’s how it works:

  1. Auto Write: Provide simple instructions and automatically create sophisticated workflows, eliminating the need for complex coding or technical expertise. If you have an SOP, you can now deploy a process automation. 
  2. Auto Test: Verify the functionality and reliability of your automated workflows without manual intervention. The system simulates various scenarios and edge cases, ensuring that the automation performs as expected across different conditions. 
  3. Auto Deploy: Kognitos’ HAL relies on an invisible, serverless infrastructure to ensure rapid and reliable releases. Minimize human error, enhance consistency, and accelerate speed throughout your entire automation lifecycle.
  4. Auto Monitor: Continuously observe and assess the performance, health, and security of every automation, with an accessible system of record in natural language. The system will note any exceptions and pause to ask for human guidance, if needed, instead of breaking.
  5. Auto Debug: For any issues that arise during Auto Monitoring, Kognitos will apply its own bug fixes and confirm with a human team member as needed. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how your organization can simply automate more, reach out to a member of our team for a customized demonstration of how HAL can work for you.

Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly changing the way people work. The office that perhaps stands to benefit the most from the successful adoption and implementation of AI is that of the  Chief Information Officer (CIO). 

AI automation platforms like Kognitos are empowering CIOs to drive unprecedented change, innovation, and value within their organizations. As CIOs make this shift, their position is being redefined from a support function within the organization to a strategic business driver. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of CIOs will be explicitly measured on their ability to contribute to revenue growth, showing that the market is already trending in this direction. 

From Cost Center to Profit Engine

IT departments have long been viewed as a necessary expense to keep the business running smoothly, rather than a department that drives revenue. However, as we mentioned above, AI is flipping the script on this narrative. AI automation solutions like Kognitos allow CIOs to have a significant impact on various business units, driving productivity gains, cost savings, and digital transformation initiatives company-wide.

Forrester’s recently released 2025 predictions states that “more than 50% of technology decision-makers will see their technical debt rise to a moderate or high level of severity as they enter 2025. By 2026, this number will increase to 75%, driven by the acceleration of solutions to adopt AI.” But AI automation solutions like Kognitos actually present a golden opportunity to consolidate technical debt while demonstrating tangible ROI and positioning IT as a profit center. 

Empowering and Retaining Top Talent

The AI revolution is not just about technology; it’s about people. According to Deloitte, “nearly 90% of tech industry leaders said that recruiting and retaining top tech talent remained either a moderate or major issue, with challenges related to the tech workforce outpacing challenges related to fostering innovation, driving productivity, and integrating new technology.” 

As CIOs adopt AI to automate routine tasks, they are able to elevate IT professionals into more strategic roles, cutting down on the number of mundane tasks while simultaneously increasing job satisfaction and attracting more diverse talent. Deloitte’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends cited that nearly three-quarters of respondents believe it is “important to ensure that the human capabilities in the organization keep pace with technological innovation, but just 9% say they are making progress toward achieving that balance.”

Platforms like Kognitos allow CIOs to adopt a single technology solution that serves a variety of automation needs, so they can create an environment where IT professionals can enhance their human skills, focus on strategic work, and feel valued, challenged, and integral to the company’s success.

Elevated Executive Status

AI technology solutions are now central to business operations, with the office of the CIO largely responsible for oversight and governance. A recent article suggests the only way to avoid the risks associated with shadow AI use is for the CIO to implement a governance platform. Further, Gartner identified that organizations with robust AI governance policies “will experience 40% fewer AI-related ethical incidents compared to those without such systems.” As CIOs take on this responsibility, their role within the C-suite becomes elevated, making it a more strategic position in line with operations and technology. As agentic solutions grow in popularity in the coming months, attention will undoubtedly turn back to the responsibilities of the CIO. 

On average, 46% of global CIOs respond directly to the CEO, but in companies with advanced digital transformation agendas, this figure increases to 55%. We expect to see this elevated status grow in the coming years, with CIOs taking on a more strategic business role as they drive AI-powered business transformation.

Owning Operational Intellectual Property

Perhaps the most transformative aspect for CIOs embracing the AI revolution is the opportunity to codify and own their organization’s operational knowledge. As AI automation platforms increasingly automate and document processes, CIOs can create a comprehensive blueprint of how their organization functions.

Having well-documented AI and automation processes allows organizations to scale their initiatives significantly faster, while maintaining a system of record. A platform like Kognitos records these processes in plain English, so they are accessible by technology and non-technology personnel alike. This intellectual property becomes an invaluable asset, insulating the company from knowledge loss due to employee turnover and providing a foundation for continuous improvement.

Advantages for Forward-Thinking CIOs

In order to achieve success in their AI initiatives, CIOs need a trusted partner. Kognitos offers a unique solution that empowers CIOs to:

The AI revolution is reshaping the business landscape. CIOs who embrace this drive their organizations to unprecedented efficiency and profitability. 

To explore how Kognitos can become a trusted partner in your AI transformation initiates, book a demo with a member of our team, and take the first step towards redefining your role as a CIO in the age of AI.

Understanding the Role of Automation in CPG

The Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry operates at immense scale, characterized by high volumes, rapid cycles, and intense competition. From your morning cereal to household cleaners, CPG products touch daily life globally. Managing this intricate ecosystem—from manufacturing to shelf—demands extraordinary efficiency and responsiveness. This is precisely where automation asserts its transformative power. Traditional manual processes, while foundational in the past, now struggle to keep pace with dynamic consumer demands and complex global supply chains.

This article comprehensively explains the profound impact of AI and automation within both the Consumer Packaged Goods and related packaging industries. We will detail how these cutting-edge technologies are fundamentally reshaping manufacturing, supply chain logistics, stringent quality control, and direct customer interactions. The article will highlight significant benefits such as dramatically increased efficiency, substantial cost reduction, and notably enhanced product quality, providing a clear understanding of AI in Consumer Packaged Goods. For leaders today, grasping these advancements is pivotal for driving sustainable growth and maintaining a competitive edge.

AI and Automation: A New Era for CPG

The convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation signals a new, groundbreaking era for the CPG sector. This powerful synergy moves beyond simple task execution, empowering systems to learn, adapt, and make intelligent decisions across the entire value chain. It redefines what’s possible for Consumer packaged goods technology. Where automation handles repetitive actions, AI infuses the process with cognitive capabilities, enabling a level of precision and foresight previously unimaginable. This creates a compelling case for widespread Automation in CPG industry.

AI, powered by advanced algorithms like machine learning, can analyze vast datasets from consumer behavior, market trends, and production metrics. This analysis drives more accurate demand forecasting, optimizes inventory levels, and identifies subtle patterns in customer preferences. When coupled with automation, these insights translate directly into optimized production schedules, streamlined logistics, and personalized customer engagements. This powerful combination is shaping the future of CPG, fostering unprecedented levels of agility and responsiveness. The rise of AI in CPG is a testament to this shift.

Reshaping Manufacturing with Intelligent Automation

Manufacturing within the CPG sector is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the strategic integration of AI and advanced automation. This revolution promises not just incremental gains but fundamental shifts in how products are made, ensuring higher quality and unprecedented efficiency. Concepts like automated food packaging systems are central to this change.

Intelligent automation fundamentally reshapes manufacturing processes by:

These advancements in Consumer packaged goods technology ensure that products are manufactured more efficiently, consistently, and cost-effectively, redefining the very essence of CPG production.

Optimizing Supply Chains for CPG with AI

The complexity of CPG supply chains, spanning global networks from sourcing to distribution, presents immense challenges. Here, the strategic application of AI and automation offers transformative solutions, revolutionizing efficiency and responsiveness. The role of AI in CPG supply chain optimization is paramount.

AI optimizes supply chains by:

Through these integrated approaches, Automation in CPG industry supply chains becomes highly intelligent, adaptive, and resilient, ensuring products reach consumers efficiently and reliably.

Elevating Quality Control Through Automation

Maintaining consistent product quality is non-negotiable in the CPG industry. Automation, significantly enhanced by AI, is revolutionizing quality control processes, ensuring product consistency, safety, and reducing waste throughout the production and packaging pipeline. This extends to every packaging automation system.

Automation elevates quality control by:

These advancements ensure that CPG products consistently meet the highest standards, building consumer trust and reducing costly recalls.

Transforming Customer Interactions in CPG

Beyond manufacturing and supply chain, Automation in CPG industry is also reshaping how brands interact directly with consumers. AI-powered tools are enabling more personalized, responsive, and efficient customer experiences, strengthening brand loyalty. This is a critical area for Consumer packaged goods technology.

AI and automation transform customer interactions by:

These applications ensure that CPG brands can deliver more tailored, consistent, and satisfying customer experiences at scale.

The Next Generation of Automation in CPG with Kognitos

For Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies seeking to truly transform their operations and competitive standing through intelligent automation, Kognitos enables intelligent Automation in CPG industry through its patented natural language AI and profound AI reasoning, making enterprise-grade automation natively accessible for orchestrating sophisticated industrial transformations.

Kognitos empowers leaders in the CPG industry to define and automate complex processes across manufacturing, supply chain, and customer interactions using plain English. This innovative method bridges the gap between understanding operational needs and actually automating them. It allows users closest to the work to articulate their requirements, and Kognitos uniquely translates that direct human insight into precise, auditable automation, making it a pivotal tool for orchestrating enterprise-wide AI in Consumer Packaged Goods initiatives.

Kognitos and CPG Automation:

Kognitos streamlines the entire journey to intelligent Automation in CPG industry, making advanced enterprise automation practical, scalable, and inherently secure for large CPG organizations.

Strategic Steps to Achieve Automation in CPG

Successfully implementing transformative Automation in CPG industry requires a methodical approach. Understanding what are the steps to achieve automation in CPG industry ensures a smooth transition and maximizes the benefits derived from AI and automation.

  1. Identify High-Impact Processes: Pinpoint manual, repetitive, or error-prone tasks across manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and customer service that offer significant automation opportunities.
  2. Define Clear Objectives: Articulate specific, measurable goals (e.g., “reduce production errors by X%,” “accelerate order fulfillment by Y%”) aligned with overall business strategy.
  3. Map Current Workflows: Thoroughly document existing “as-is” processes to understand bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and key data flows.
  4. Select the Right Technology Partner: Choose a robust Consumer packaged goods technology platform like Kognitos that offers advanced AI, natural language capabilities, and seamless integration for end-to-end automation.
  5. Pilot and Iterate: Implement automation in a controlled environment. Gather feedback, refine workflows based on real-world performance, and make necessary adjustments.
  6. Scale and Monitor Continuously: Roll out successful automations across the organization. Continuously monitor performance, identify new AI in CPG opportunities, and optimize workflows for ongoing efficiency gains and packaging automation system improvements.
  7. Foster a Culture of Innovation: Encourage cross-functional collaboration and empower employees to identify and drive automation initiatives, ensuring broad adoption and sustained benefits.

Following these steps allows CPG companies to effectively leverage automation and AI.

The Future of Consumer Goods

The transformative impact of AI and automation on the CPG and packaging industries is undeniable. As consumer demands become more individualized and supply chains grow more complex, the ability to leverage intelligent automation will define market leadership. The future points towards highly agile, data-driven, and autonomously optimized CPG operations, powered by advanced Consumer packaged goods technology.

Kognitos stands at the forefront of this evolution, offering an unparalleled platform that simplifies the orchestration of intelligent Automation in CPG industry. The platform ensures that businesses can not only optimize existing processes but also strategically build an adaptable and resilient packaging automation system that consistently delivers operational excellence and customer satisfaction. The role of AI in CPG is just beginning.

Finance and accounting teams regularly deal with complex documents and processes that can have a significant negative impact on the business if they are not accurately processed. It’s often time-consuming, tedious work. Workflow automation can improve efficiency and reduce or eliminate the risk of human error, so team members can focus on strategic decision-making rather than mundane tasks. In fact, a Deloitte report cited that two-thirds of CFOs surveyed believed their departments could reach an autonomous state by 2028. Curious how your team could get there?

Here are the top five ways we’ve seen accounting benefit from AI-driven workflow automation.

1. Data Entry and Reconciliation

Accounting teams at large organizations often include team members dedicated to manually entering data from invoices and cross-referencing transactions. These types of activities are an excellent way to incorporate automation into your accounting processes. An AI automation platform like Kognitos can input and reconcile financial data, match transactions, and flag discrepancies within seconds. This effectively eliminates human error while also allowing for reallocation of resources to more strategic tasks, or even reduction in full-time headcount.

2. Financial Reporting

Preparing quarterly financial reports for leadership teams can be labor-intensive and often takes days or even weeks to complete. This reporting pulls from a variety of sources to paint a full picture of financial performance and health for executives, board members, and stakeholders. Kognitos can transform this process by integrating data from each source with little to no human intervention, allowing accounting teams to generate comprehensive reports with just a few clicks. Rather than spending their time compiling reports and auditing data to ensure it’s consistent and reliable, the accounting team can spend their time analyzing the reports to make strategic business decisions.

3. Accounts Payable and Receivable

There is often a subset of the accounting team responsible for handling accounts payable and accounts receivable. These team members manually process each incoming and outgoing invoice, which can lead to delays, mistakes, or even missed payments as a result of simple human error. With Kognitos, workflows accounts payable invoices can be automatically scanned, recorded, and sent for approval, so payments are processed on time, every time. For accounts receivable, automation is capable of generating invoices, sending payment reminders, applying cash receipts, and updating customer accounts, all without a team member lifting a finger. 

4. Budgeting and Forecasting

Another area where automation can help accounting teams gain huge efficiencies is in the budgeting and forecasting process. Workflow automation allows teams to integrate historical data with predictive analytics to generate budget forecasts. The team can quickly analyze the output, adjust scenarios, and explore financial models. This leads to more accurate forecasts, better resource allocation, and more informed decisions.

5. Compliance and Audit Management

Manual compliance checks are overwhelming and labor-intensive for accountants and auditors. Automating the process allows for a more hands-off approach where the team can still be confident in the data. Kognitos can continuously monitor compliance requirements and generate audit trails. The can also distribute reports to key stakeholders and even regulatory bodies. Each step of the way, saves time on routine tasks so team members can instead analyze data for potential risks to the business. 

The Impact of Automating Accounting Processes

Workflow automation is more than just a productivity enhancer. It can completely transform accounting departments at large companies. Using an AI automation platform like Kognitos allows finance leaders to reallocate resources to the most impactful activities that will drive growth and innovation for the organization. In the event that cost-cutting measures need to be enacted, automation can even help reduce full-time employee headcount.

As more and more accounting teams implement automation in their organizations, Kognitos provides a solution that can scale to support accounting and finance teams, as well as various other departments struggling with tedious, manual work that distracts from strategic initiatives. If you’re interested in a personalized demo, reach out to a member of our team today!

HR departments are an integral part of maintaining effective, efficient teams within an organization. Their tasks are critical for success: recruiting, onboarding and offboarding employees, training and professional development, payroll processing, and vacation tracking, among many other responsibilities. 

A Gartner survey from early 2024 revealed that 38% of HR leaders were actively engaging AI automation in their departments—from the planning stages to pilot programs or active implementation. If you’re not yet considering AI automation, or if you’re in the early stages of planning, this blog uncovers the top ways that workflow automation can make your HR team more successful.

1. Improve Candidate Screening and Recruiting

HR offices at large organizations can find themselves flooded with job applications from hundreds of candidates each time a role is posted. Instead of allocating hours upon hours of recruiters’ time to sifting through endless applications, imagine if you could automate the screening process. An AI automation platform can compare applicant skills and qualifications against the criteria required for the open position, allowing HR teams to focus on more strategic tasks that require human input, such as assessing cultural fit.

2. Enhance New Employees’ Onboarding

It’s imperative to make a good first impression during the onboarding process for new employees. It sets the tone for expectations in their role and how they can progress. HR departments can use automated workflows to improve the employee experience from day one. An example of an onboarding workflow might include a welcome email with an onboarding kit,  training materials, mandatory HR forms, and other beneficial information. From there, the supervising manager would get notified to set up their introductory meeting, and a peer from the team could be assigned as a mentor. Meanwhile, IT setup will be initiated to streamline access to systems, all without HR lifting a finger.

3. Streamline Benefits Management and Payroll Processing

Every human activity is subject to human error, but few have a direct financial impact for employees in the same was as payroll processing. Setting up AI automation processes for payroll helps minimize human error, so employees are paid accurately and on time, every time. Kognitos can pull information from multiple sources to integrate timesheets, salary adjustments, and bonus calculations—all in a single workflow. Rather than spending time addressing clerical errors, HR can focus on more strategic activities like compensation structure and strategy.

4. Simplify Employee Data Management

Maintaining accuracy of employee data is an arduous task for human resources teams when it’s a manual process. But when it’s automated, HR personnel can be confident that employee records are accurate, up-to-date, and accessible at any point. When employees update their contact information in one system of record, for example, it could trigger an automated workflow to update their contact information in every database within the organization without manual intervention. This saves a lot of time for HR and eliminates the chance of human error during data entry.

5. Optimize Feedback and Employee Offboarding 

When an employee leaves the organization for any reason, it’s important for HR departments to efficiently collect their feedback. An AI automation workflow can send an exit survey upon resignation, followed by any other forms and notifications an employee needs prior to termination. When exit surveys are completed, the workflow can also aggregate data and analyze it for insights to help the HR team improve policies, training materials, and more.

The Impact of Automating Human Resources Processes

While HR automation doesn’t completely eliminate a human touch, it can drastically improve HR outcomes by freeing them from mundane, manual tasks so they can focus their efforts on the things that actually matter. Human resources personnel can engage their employees on a deeper, more human level when they aren’t bogged down by repetitive tasks. 

Kognitos can help transform your human resources function with HR automation. For more information or a personalized demo, reach out to a member of our team today. These top five use cases are a great way for HR departments to get started with automation, but the possibilities are endless.

Customers expect rapid, personalized support from customer service teams, often on a 24 hour cycle. This can be a daunting task for customer service teams, especially without the right tools. Workflow automation offers customer support teams the opportunity to improve service delivery so they can focus on what really matters—providing exceptional experiences to customers. 

Here are the top five ways customer support can leverage workflow automation, complete with real-world examples to illustrate its impact.

1. Automate Ticket Categorization and Routing

Many customer service teams spend countless hours manually sorting incoming customer inquiries, leading to delays in communication and resolving issues. Rather than spending time on sorting and data, teams can adopt AI-driven automation tools capable of categorizing and routing tickets based on keywords and customer history. Each inquiry will reach the right agent quickly to reduce response times and improve the overall customer experience.

2. Enhance Self-Service Capabilities

Automation tools can provide customers with the ability to resolve issues independently. Not only does this improve the customer experience by providing them with instant feedback, but it also frees up team members to handle more complex inquiries that require a human touchpoint. Self-service options might integrate with chatbots, knowledge bases, and email systems to provide instant, accurate responses for customers.

3. Streamline Escalation Processes 

When a customer issue cannot be resolved with self-service, it’s important to have processes in place that will escalate problems to the appropriate support team contact. Automating these processes saves valuable time in solving customer problems or answering more complicated questions. An additional benefit is that an automation process will prevent inquiries from falling through the cracks, ultimately resulting in happier customers.

4. Collect and Analyze Customer Feedback

Leaders can automate the collection and analysis of customer feedback to identify trends that can be used to improve customer interactions. Automated surveys can gather insights and aggregate the data with minimal human interaction, allowing teams to pinpoint opportunities for improvement and adapt service strategies to improve customer satisfaction.

5. Monitor and Report on Performance

Customer experience leaders are responsible for tracking performance metrics, which can be a labor-intensive manual process. An automation solution can consolidate data from multiple sources into a real-time reporting dashboard, so leaders can focus on celebrating successes and making improvements to customer experience instead of manually compiling data. This data-driven approach helps promote accountability and drive continuous improvement for support teams and their leaders.

The Impact of Automating Customer Service Processes

Workflow automation can be transformational for customer support leaders. From resource allocation and escalation to reviewing feedback, automation can eliminate manual processes so team members can focus on providing exceptional customer experiences, every single time.

Customer support teams will be able to engage with customers on a deeper, more personalized level by removing tedious tasks and reallocating resources to the activities that matter. If you’re a leader looking to improve your customer support operations, consider implementing an AI automation solution like Kognitos for these five use cases, then expand into other areas where team members are focusing time and energy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly gone from an abstract concept in computer science or a science fiction trope to a real-world technology impacting virtually every industry and job role. Generative AI takes it a step further, as automation evolves to new levels of sophistication and creativity—although not without its flaws (see: hallucinations). 

Machines are now able to analyze and interpret data, along with creating content, designs, and even code. In this blog, we’ll explore the origins of AI, what makes generative AI unique, and its growing role in business process automation.

Introduction to AI: A Brief History

AI has its roots in the mid-20th century. Alan Turing did the most foundational work simply by asking if machines can think. The field of AI was pioneered by Alan Turing, John McCarthy, and Marvin Minsky, relying on rule-based systems to automate basic tasks like playing chess or solving math problems

The 1956 Dartmouth Workshop, often considered the birth of AI as a formal academic discipline, explored how machines could simulate human intelligence through logic, reasoning, and symbolic computation. 

For decades, AI evolved slowly, hindered by limited computational power and data availability. But in the late 1990s and early 2000s as computing power pricing plummeted, AI research exploded. Since then, we’ve seen exponential growth and acceptance of AI, along with the rise of neural networks, deep learning, and more complex tasks like image recognition, natural language processing, and autonomous driving. 

Generative AI and agentic AI are at the forefront of a new era. But what exactly differentiates generative AI from traditional AI?

What Makes AI Generative?

Simply put, generative AI creates something new. It goes beyond analyzing data inputs to generate new content, mimicking human creativity. Traditional AI models focus on identifying patterns or classifying data. In contrast, generative AI is capable of producing, for example, a new image, piece of music, or text passage based on patterns it has learned from previous datasets.

Generative AI relies heavily on deep learning techniques, particularly models like:

While no generative AI can create human output, these technologies mimic it to an impressive degree.

Use Cases for Generative AI in Process Automation

Generative AI has become a game-changer for process automation. Businesses increasingly look to AI to streamline tasks, embellish creativity, and improve decision making. Let’s explore some of the top use cases:

  1. Demand forecasting: Automate the collection and analysis of historical sales data, market trends, and other relevant factors to generate accurate demand forecasts.
  2. Inventory tracking and reconciliation: Continuously monitor inventory levels, automate reorder processes, and reconciles physical counts with system data. 
  3. CRM data management: Ensure data accuracy and consistency in CRM systems by automating data entry, updates, and cleansing processes.
  4. Sales order processing: Streamline the sales order process by automating order entry, validation, and fulfillment.
  5. Production reporting: Automate the collection and consolidation of production data from various sources. Generate real-time production reports, calculate KPIs, and more.
  6. Production scheduling: Analyze demand forecasts, inventory levels, and resource availability to generate production schedules, allocate resources, and adjust plans.
  7. Compliance monitoring and auditing: Monitor business processes for compliance with internal policies and external regulations, generate alerts for violations, automate audit processes, and produce compliance reports.
  8. Software installations and updates: Deploy software updates and patches across multiple systems, schedule installations, verify successful updates, and generate reports on the status of software across the organization.
  9. Time and attendance tracking: Automatically collect and process employee work hours, flag discrepancies, calculate overtime, and generate reports for managers, ensuring accurate payroll and compliance.
  10. Customer feedback analysis: Categorize feedback, identify trends, generate reports, and trigger alerts for urgent issues, enabling proactive customer service.

The Future of Generative AI in Automation

Generative AI has already had an undeniable impact on business process automation. We expect to see systems become more sophisticated and seamlessly integrated with human workflows. 

In the future, we might even see fully autonomous creative teams, AI-driven innovation in scientific research, or personalized education tools that adapt content to individual learning styles. For now, however, we’d be remiss to not acknowledge the ethical challenges that come with generative AI, including bias and discrimination, privacy and security, and misinformation. 

Generative AI represents a significant leap in the evolution of artificial intelligence. It moves beyond analysis, to innovation. As generative AI technologies continue to advance, we will undoubtedly witness groundbreaking applications across industries.

How Kognitos Leverages Generative AI

Kognitos harnesses the power of generative AI to revolutionize business process automation. At the heart of its architecture are two crucial Large Language Model (LLM) layers that enable the platform to understand, create, and manage complex automations with unprecedented ease and efficiency.

The first LLM layer, known as the Business Logic Model, serves as the cornerstone of Kognitos’ ability to translate natural language instructions into actionable automation steps. This sophisticated model interprets user input, breaking down complex process descriptions into clear, structured logic. The Business Logic Model can understand the nuances and intent behind user instructions, even when they’re expressed in everyday business language. This allows Kognitos to bridge the gap between human thought processes and machine-executable actions, effectively democratizing the creation of automation workflows.

Complementing this is the Exception Handling Model, a second LLM layer that addresses one of the most challenging aspects of process automation: managing unexpected issues. When an automation encounters a problem or an unforeseen scenario, this AI layer springs into action. It analyzes the situation, interprets the error in context, and then presents the issue to users in plain, conversational language. This approach allows business users, regardless of their technical expertise, to comprehend and address problems quickly simply by answering questions and providing guidance. The process is paused while the user provides input or guidance, ensuring that automations remain under human control even as they handle complex scenarios autonomously.

Together, these LLM layers sets Kognitos apart in the automation landscape. This use of generative AI makes Kognitos particularly effective for document-heavy processes that often require nuanced decision-making. While other technologies are rushing to use generative AI in process creation, they aren’t equipped to manage the challenges of hallucination and edge cases in the same ways that Kognitos boasts today. 

It’s not easy to find an automation solution that will streamline operations and empower your workforce without sacrificing efficiency, oversight, and budget. But Kognitos does just that. It’s a game-changer for businesses looking to transcend the limitations of traditional Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technologies. This blog delves into the transformative experiences of three key business functions—IT Staff, Business Process Experts, and Business Staff—when they choose Kognitos over conventional RPA solutions.

The IT Staff’s New Dawn

Before Kognitos

  1. Tasked with Automation: IT teams are burdened with automating a vast array of ever-changing business processes. Due to the evolving nature of business requirements, they face a long backlog of essential yet overwhelming automation tasks.
  2. Budget Constraints: Despite the large volume of work, IT departments often work under tight budget constraints, limiting the resources available for tackling the automation backlog effectively.
  3. Limited Tools: The tools traditionally available for automation, such as RPA technologies (e.g., UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Power Automate, and Blue Prism), are around two decades old. They do not fully accommodate modern business processes’ dynamic and evolving nature, leading to inefficiencies and inadequacies in automation efforts.
  4. Maintenance Challenges: Initial automation efforts can be successful for straightforward, ‘happy path’ processes. However, maintaining and updating this automation to handle edge cases and unforeseen scenarios becomes a significant challenge. IT staff often revisit and revise automation to incorporate new logic as real-life exceptions and variations emerge, leading to a negative ROI on many automation projects.
  5. Resource Intensive: Creating Centers of Excellence and engaging in citizen development projects were strategies to address these challenges, but they often fell short due to resource limitations and the necessity of maintaining strict governance and security standards in automation efforts.

After Kognitos

  1. Focus on Security and Governance: With Kognitos, IT’s role can re-focus on security and governance. They establish initial connections between the Kognitos platform and the business’s core systems (CRM, ERP, productivity tools) and then empower business process experts to define and document new processes.
  2. Rapid Implementation: Introducing business processes into production is significantly faster with Kognitos compared to traditional RPA systems. This is because Kognitos does not require extensive process mining or discovery before implementation, lowering the time to value for automated processes.
  3. Handling Edge Cases: Unforeseen edge cases do not burden the IT department as they once did. Instead, business staff, who are already familiar with manual process handling, can manage these scenarios directly within the Kognitos platform. This approach allows IT to concentrate on ensuring the secure and effective use of technological tools rather than perfecting the nuances of business process logic.
  4. Decreased IT Burden: The overall burden on IT is significantly reduced. They no longer face the pressure to make automation perfect, which is a daunting task in a rapidly evolving business context. Automation becomes more collaborative and adaptive to changes, with humans efficiently handling exceptions and edge cases through a system designed in natural language.
  5. Increased Business Satisfaction: There is a noticeable increase in satisfaction levels across the business as automation can be implemented more broadly and efficiently. Business staff become empowered to contribute more significantly, elevating their roles by handling complex cases and improving the day-to-day business operations without the fear of automation rendering them redundant.

Kognitos can reduce a feeling of overwhelm resulting from an ever-growing backlog of complex and often inadequately automated processes to a more strategic, governance-focused role that facilitates faster, more flexible, and human-centric automation strategies. This alleviates the IT department’s burden and enhances the overall efficiency and adaptability of business operations.

The Business Process Expert’s Revolution

Before Kognitos

  1. High Pressure: Business process experts are under considerable stress to document business processes in extreme detail. They are expected to foresee all possible scenarios that could occur, which is an almost impossible task. This expectation sets a high bar for accuracy and comprehensiveness in documenting processes for RPA implementations.
  2. Involvement in Implementation: They often find themselves deeply involved in the implementation phase, working closely with IT and RPA developers. This involvement means they must be ready to troubleshoot, sometimes even during off hours, to address any blocks or exceptions that halt the automation.
  3. Constant Revisions: Due to the complexity and variability of business processes, business process experts frequently encounter situations where the initial process documentation is not comprehensive enough, leading to the need for continuous revisions and updates. This cycle can be frustrating and time-consuming.
  4. Relying on Process Discovery and Mining Tools: To comprehend the full scope of how processes are executed manually, experts often resort to using process discovery and mining tools. These tools, while helpful, can delay the start of automation and add upfront costs, potentially affecting the ROI of automation projects.

After Kognitos

  1. Focus on Standard Operating Procedures: With Kognitos, business process experts can concentrate primarily on documenting the standard operating procedure or ‘happy path’ of business processes. From the start, there’s less pressure to foresee and document every possible scenario or edge case.
  2. Empowered to Unblock Processes: The platform’s capability to involve the business staff or the process expert directly when there’s a deviation from the documented process reduces the need for constant IT or developer intervention. Kognitos operates in natural language, which simplifies the unblocking of processes by business process experts or staff directly.
  3. Learning and Adaptation: Kognitos offers a unique feature where the platform can learn from the actions taken by business staff or experts when they address unforeseen scenarios or edge cases. This adaptive learning process eliminates the need for repeated manual updates or revisions to the automation scripts.
  4. Enhanced Monitoring and Improvement: Experts have the ability to monitor the execution of business processes closely and identify deviations from the standard procedures. This insight allows them to make informed decisions on whether process modifications are necessary or if changes upstream in the business operation will prevent deviations. It enables a more strategic approach to process improvement.
  5. Natural Language Editing and Debugging: The platform’s use of natural language significantly simplifies the debugging and editing of process automation for business process experts. They can now focus on truly improving the business processes and their efficiencies rather than being bogged down by the technicalities of automation tools. This shift enables them to contribute more strategically to the business’s operational excellence.

In essence, the life of a business process expert transitions from a high-pressure role, where every detail and possible scenario must be anticipated and documented, to a more strategic and manageable position. With Kognitos, they focus on defining best practices and standard procedures, leaving the handling of exceptions and edge cases to a combination of the platform’s intelligence and the operational knowledge of the business staff. This change reduces stress and workload and enhances the expert’s capacity to contribute to meaningful business improvements and focus on process reengineering as well.

The Business Staff’s Empowerment

Before Kognitos

  1. Fear of Redundancy: Business staff often approached automation projects, especially those involving RPA, with a sense of trepidation. There was a common fear that successful automation would render their roles obsolete, potentially leading to job losses. This fear could impact morale and the willingness of staff to fully engage with automation initiatives.
  2. Difficulty in Articulation: Explaining the nuances of their day-to-day tasks to IT staff posed a significant challenge. Much like the difficulty in verbally describing the process of tying shoelaces—a task that’s intuitive to perform but complex to describe—business staff found it hard to convey the intricate details of their work processes in an easily automated way.
  3. Miscommunication and Frustration: Even when business staff were able to articulate their processes, there was a risk of being told they were performing tasks incorrectly or that the information they provided was incomplete. This scenario created a sense of unease and potential blame, which was neither conducive to open communication nor positive towards the overall automation effort.

After Kognitos

  1. Empowerment and Value Addition: With the deployment of Kognitos, the business staff’s role in automation shifted significantly. They are now seen more as essential co-pilots rather than passengers or redundant components within the business process automation journey. The platform’s reliance on natural language processing allows them to contribute effectively to handling complex cases and exceptions, leveraging their intuitive understanding of the business processes without the need for technical coding skills.
  2. Evolution of Responsibilities: As Kognitos takes over the routine, ‘easy-to-automate’ tasks, business staff find their roles evolving. They begin to focus more on handling complex, unusual, or high-value tasks that require human intuition, judgment, and decision-making skills. This shift elevates their importance as they oversee and ensure the quality and integrity of the automated processes, thereby securing their positions by adding more strategic value.
  3. Continuous Learning and Improvement: Since Kognitos can learn from the interventions made by business staff on handling edge cases, staff find themselves playing a crucial role in teaching and refining the system. This ongoing interaction with the platform enhances the automation’s effectiveness and fosters a sense of ownership and pride among the staff as they see the direct impact of their knowledge and expertise in improving operational efficiencies.
  4. Reduced Fear and Increased Contribution: Introducing Kognitos alleviates fears of redundancy by showcasing the indispensable role of human judgment and intervention in automation. Business staff recognize that their unique insights and expertise are vital for handling complex issues that automation alone cannot solve. Their contribution to the business becomes not just valued but essential, transforming their roles from purely operational to strategic.
  5. Collaboration and Innovation: As part of the new automation ecosystem powered by Kognitos, business staff are encouraged to collaborate closely with IT and business process experts. This collaborative environment fosters innovation, with staff members contributing ideas for process improvements and refinements based on their intimate knowledge of the business operations and customer needs.

Transitioning to Kognitos has the potential to reduce apprehension regarding job security and the challenges of articulating complex processes. Their position transitions into a more empowered and value-added role. They become integral to the automation process, their expertise is further leveraged for complex decision-making, and their contributions are recognized as essential to the organization’s success.

Business Process Automation is Already Changing

The introduction of agentic AI into both nascent technologies and traditional RPA is a leading indicator that there is already a significant shift in how the market approaches process automation. By empowering IT staff, business process experts, and business staff, Kognitos streamlines operations and fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation.

The demands of modern businesses on accounting departments are more intense than ever. From managing an ever-increasing volume of transactions to ensuring compliance and providing real-time financial insights, traditional manual accounting processes can be time-consuming, error-prone, and a significant drain on resources. For CFOs, finance directors, and accounting managers, the imperative to find efficiencies is paramount. This is where Accounting Automation emerges as a transformative solution, offering a clear path to saving both time and money.

The reliance on spreadsheets, manual data entry, and repetitive reconciliation tasks not only consumes valuable staff hours but also increases the risk of costly errors, delays in reporting, and missed opportunities for strategic analysis. 

Embracing Accounting Automation is not just about digitizing existing workflows; it’s about fundamentally re-imagining how financial operations are conducted, unlocking new levels of efficiency, accuracy, and strategic value for any organization. This shift is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge and ensuring financial health in today’s complex economic landscape.

What is Accounting Automation?

Accounting Automation refers to the use of technology to streamline, optimize, and execute various accounting and financial tasks with minimal human intervention. It involves leveraging software and intelligent systems to automate repetitive, rule-based, and data-intensive processes that are traditionally performed manually. The goal of Accounting Automation is to increase efficiency, improve accuracy, reduce operational costs, and free up accounting professionals to focus on more strategic, analytical, and value-added activities. Forbes projects this market to grow to nearly $9 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of more than 29%, signalling rapid adoption of the technology.

This encompasses a wide range of functions, including but not limited to, invoice processing, expense management, bank reconciliation, financial reporting, payroll processing, and accounts payable/receivable management. The automation of accounting process leverages technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and intelligent OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to handle data capture, validation, and workflow orchestration, creating a more seamless and efficient financial operation. An effective Accounting Automation platform centralizes these capabilities, providing a comprehensive solution for modern finance departments.

How Accounting Automation Can Save You Time and Money

Accounting automation provides a direct path to significant savings in both time and money for businesses of all sizes, particularly large enterprises with complex financial operations.

Firstly, a core benefit is the dramatic reduction in manual effort. Tasks like data entry from invoices, receipts, and bank statements, as well as reconciliation, are traditionally time-consuming. Automated accounting systems use intelligent data capture and AI to extract information, eliminating manual input. This frees up accounting staff from mundane, repetitive duties, allowing them to focus on higher-value activities such as financial analysis, strategic planning, and addressing complex discrepancies. This direct reduction in labor hours translates into significant time savings.

Secondly, accuracy is vastly improved, which directly impacts cost savings. Manual processes are inherently prone to human error—a misplaced decimal, a forgotten entry, or a miscategorized expense can lead to significant financial inaccuracies, requiring costly rectifications, potential regulatory fines, and damaged financial reporting integrity. Automated accounting systems perform tasks with consistent precision, validating data against predefined rules and cross-referencing information across systems. This drastically reduces errors, minimizes rework, and ensures more reliable financial data, directly saving money that would otherwise be spent correcting mistakes or dealing with compliance issues.

Thirdly, automation of accounting process accelerates financial cycles. Invoice processing, expense approvals, and payment runs can all be expedited. Faster processing means businesses can capture early payment discounts from suppliers, which adds directly to savings. It also leads to more timely financial reporting, enabling better cash flow management and more informed decision-making. This accelerated cycle optimizes working capital and enhances liquidity. 

Fourthly, improved compliance and audit readiness contribute to cost savings. Automated accounting systems create comprehensive, immutable audit trails for every transaction and process. This ensures adherence to regulatory requirements and internal policies, significantly reducing the risk of non-compliance penalties. During audits, the readily available and accurate data simplifies the process, reducing the time and resources typically consumed by manual data compilation and verification, thereby saving both time and money.

Finally, the scalability offered by an Accounting Automation platform is a key economic advantage. As a business grows, transaction volumes increase. Manual accounting processes struggle to scale efficiently, often requiring additional headcount. Automated accounting systems can handle significantly higher volumes without a proportional increase in resources, allowing businesses to expand their operations without a corresponding surge in accounting department costs. This long-term scalability provides sustained time and money savings.

How Kognitos helps in automating accounting tasks

Kognitos’ Accounting Automation platform helps businesses save time and money by enabling the automation of complex accounting tasks through the power of natural language. Unlike traditional tools that require extensive coding, Kognitos allows finance professionals to simply describe their accounting processes in plain English. Its unique AI reasoning engine understands these instructions and intelligently orchestrates workflows across disparate financial systems. For example, to automate a complex accounts payable process, a user can instruct Kognitos to “read invoices from email, extract vendor, amount, and date, match with purchase orders in ERP, get approval from finance director, and then process payment.” Kognitos intelligently handles the entire flow, from data extraction and validation to rule-based decision-making and system integration. This approach significantly reduces manual effort, minimizes errors, accelerates processing cycles, and provides real-time visibility, ensuring substantial time and cost savings. By making powerful automated accounting accessible to business users, Kognitos empowers organizations to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency and financial control.

The Enduring Value of Accounting Automation

The imperative for Accounting Automation in modern enterprises is undeniable. The ability to save significant time and money by streamlining financial operations is no longer a luxury but a strategic necessity. By embracing technologies that facilitate the automation of accounting processes, businesses can move beyond the limitations of manual tasks, reduce costly errors, and free up their valuable accounting talent for more strategic endeavors.

The transition to an automated accounting environment offers a multitude of benefits, from enhanced accuracy and improved compliance to faster financial cycles and greater scalability. While there are considerations regarding initial investment and integration, the long-term returns on an Accounting Automation platform are substantial, paving the way for more efficient, agile, and insightful financial management. Investing in automated accounting is an investment in the future financial health and operational excellence of your organization.

Market adoption of agentic AI has exploded in 2024. Prior to this year, agentic AI was a foreign concept to most organizations, even those already exploring traditional AI or automation solutions. However, analysts now claim that agentic solutions are poised to revolutionize how businesses approach productivity—including automation and process optimization—much in the way RPA once did. Agentic AI offers a more intelligent, adaptable, and autonomous approach than traditional automation methods used to tackle complex business challenges. So what is it?

What is Agentic AI?

Agentic AI leverages advanced machine learning algorithms and natural language processing to act autonomously on behalf of users or organizations to achieve specific goals. These AI agents are part of an artificial intelligence system designed and trained to understand context, make decisions, and execute tasks with minimal human intervention. Agentic AI can adapt to new situations and learn from experience in a way that rule-based automation systems cannot.

Agentic AI vs. Legacy Automation

Traditional automation technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) have helped organizations streamline simple, repetitive tasks and improve operational efficiency. But when faced with complex, variable processes that require human-like decision-making, the technology falls short or fails entirely.

The key differences between agentic AI and legacy automation include:

  1. Adaptability: Agentic AI can handle exceptions and adapt to changing scenarios, while RPA typically requires reprogramming for even the most simple process changes.
  2. Intelligence: Agentic AI far surpasses the rule-based logic of traditional RPA. Its sophisticated AI models are capable of understanding context and making informed decisions.
  3. Scalability: The deterministic nature of legacy automation means that it excels at handling simple, unchanging processes at volume. Organizations looking for a scalable solution often turn to agentic AI to handle diverse processes across multiple departments without extensive reconfiguration.
  4. Natural Language Interaction: RPA is built upon programming code, limiting accessibility for team members who don’t have specialized development skills. Most agentic AI solutions rely on natural language to interact and define processes, reducing the technical barrier.

Beyond Agentic AI: The Kognitos Approach

Agentic AI showcases just how significantly the technology has advanced since the introduction of legacy automation. Kognitos takes the advancements of agentic solutions and integrates them seamlessly into a platform that matches or even transcends these advanced capabilities. We offer an entirely different infrastructure that addresses and eliminates the limitations of both legacy automation and current agentic solutions.

Enterprise-Scale Digital Workforces

Most agentic AI solutions focus on 1:1 automation of individual tasks—one “agent” for one task. Kognitos builds upon the agentic model by introducing the concept of “agencies”—a large-scale digital workforce that goes beyond a single “agent,” capable of tackling more complex enterprise-wide initiatives. This “agency” approach empowers organizations to automate complex, multi-step processes involving dozens or even hundreds of steps, far surpassing the 2-3 step limit seen in current agentic solutions.

Conversational Exception Handling

Kognitos’ unique conversational exception-handling feature involves human experts in a meaningful way, allowing the system to learn from your team’s expertise to grow over time. Our approach goes beyond simple prompt engineering, enabling continuous improvement of process automation through real-world interactions and feedback.

Hallucination Control and Consistency

“Hallucinations” are a constant struggle with any AI, and can present real business implications if your automations hallucinate, or generate incorrect or nonsensical outputs. Kognitos has developed robust mechanisms to control these issues, ensuring reliable, dependable, and replicable process execution for enterprise clients.

Technical Debt Reduction

As organizations get more sophisticated, their tech stacks naturally grow. Kognitos allows our customers to consolidate multiple technology solutions into a single, comprehensive platform to address their AI and automation needs while simultaneously reducing their technical debt. This consolidation not only streamlines operations but also significantly cuts costs associated with maintaining multiple disparate systems.

Industry Validation and Future Outlook

Industry analysts and experts increasingly recognize the potential of advanced AI automation solutions like Kognitos. Gartner predicts that by 2026, over 30% of enterprises will automate more than half of their network activity, as compared to just 10% less than a year ago. Generative AI has only increased demand for automation, and agentic AI will further propel demand. Gartner’s predictions are supported by a recent McKinsey survey which found that 65% of organizations have adopted and are actively using generative AI, a figure that nearly doubled in less than a year.

Kognitos is poised to play a pivotal role in the AI landscape as organizations look to supplement or replace their legacy automation solutions with updated, integrated technology like agentic AI. With capabilities that go beyond either legacy automation or current agentic solutions, Kognitos has set a new standard for intelligent, scalable, and adaptable enterprise AI automation.

AI technology will reshape the future of work. It holds the promise of returning humans to more human work by freeing them from repetitive tasks, increasing efficiency and cost savings, and ultimately allowing them to focus on more strategic, creative, and value-adding activities.