When people talk about robots, most of the time they refer to the physical robots that we can touch and see; the kind that we use to help us do physical and tangible things. However, there is a whole category of robots that people hardly ever talk about. The kind that is often left out of the robotics conversation, and with good reason. It is not as attractive, and its features do not stand out, mainly because it is not a physical kind of robot.
Software robotics is something that not most people are not well conversant with because it does not involve a machine completing physical tasks, rather, it is the use of bot programs in a computer to automate and perform the tasks that would normally be done by humans. For example, automated replies to information such as texts or frequently answered questions.
It is not surprising that a lot of people find it hard to wrap their heads around robotic software. The more common type of robots like the palletizing robot is what people are more accustomed to, so they will definitely be bound to be biased towards the ‘hardware’ type of robots.
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Computerized automation
However, at one point or the other everyone who uses the internet will have come across the ‘prove you are not a bot’ security question, and so they will have encountered a software robot. It is therefore needless to say that the ‘bot’ in question is not a human like machine sitting behind a device browsing the net, but it is a kind of software that is meant to do automated functions from within a device on the behalf of humans.
Some examples of software robotics include, presentation layer automation software, robotic IT support which uses specialized remote infrastructure management software, the use of chat-bots to facilitate customer as well as employee requests for information for internet retailers, digital dictation and voice recognition software.
Use of robotic software
Software robotics largely makes the use of robotic automation software to carry out its functions. The sector that benefits the most from this kind of software is the business sector, because software robotics is mainly used for financial type of work like invoicing, payment processing and order management. This software uses a computerized workflow to automate routine jobs that are typically done by people, like for instance validating a form and sending it to its recipient and so on.
Threat to human labor
On one hand, it can be argued that the fact that software robotics is primarily used in offices and particularly in accounting or financial and insurance departments, means that there could be a potential threat to white collar jobs. On the other hand, however, computerized automation paves way for speed as well as efficiency, and this doubles up to great customer satisfaction and higher ranking in general for the servicing company.
Advantages
Software robotics is a highly justified practice for any business that decides to take it on. For starters, it is more secure in that robots do not have the ability to misappropriate money, or make costly mistakes. Furthermore, the cost of running a service providing company is much lower when the use of human labor is sliced almost by as much as half, because of the use or robots, which do not require any sort of compensation once they are acquired, apart from the occasional routine maintenance.
In terms of significance, software robotics thrive very well in the servicing sectors as compared to the manufacturing sector. Robotic automation software provides a great stepping stone to achieving economic success, by making room for more work to be done at a faster rate and with more efficiency. Therefore, it is quite inevitable that software robotics will become very common in the future, and it will no longer pose a difficulty to people when it comes to understanding how a robot can possibly not be something physical, but rather something that is computerized.