Started by: TechManager_Mike | Jan 2025
Hey folks, our company is looking to automate bunch of processes and im kinda confuzed between going with traditional RPA or these new AI automation tools. Budget is around $50k for this year.
Current we still have alot of paper-based stuff (invoices, approval forms etc) and want to digitize. Saw somewhere that 45% companies still use paper processes so we're not alone lol.
What you guys recommend? Should we go straight to AI or start with RPA first?

Reply by: AutomationGuru2024
honestly mate, don't jump straight into AI without getting your processes documented first. I learned this hard way last year. AI requires well-documented and structured processes as a prerequisite.
We tried implementing AI for our workflow and it was disaster because our data quality was terrible. Start with mapping out your processes, clean up that paper mess, THEN think about automation.

Reply by: JohnD_IT
+1 to what AutomationGuru said. Also, something like 77% of organizations say their data quality is average or poor when they try AI implementation. Your not going to get good results with bad data, no matter how fancy the AI tool is.
My suggestion - start with simple RPA for repetitive tasks, get your data house in order, then layer AI on top. Thats the proper sequence.

Reply by: TechManager_Mike
Thanks all! So basically i need to:

Document current processes (ugh, the boring part)
Clean up data quality
Then decide on automation platform

Makes sense. Anybody got recommendations for process mapping tools that dont cost an arm and leg?