ANZ Banking Group hires intelligent robotic system
ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) has spent the last year using Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a robotic software that learns by undertaking tasks previously done by bank employees. Although the bank says the robotic software is not a job reduction strategy, it has the potential to replace workers who are involved in payroll administration jobs, as well as helpdesk support and customer service jobs, for example. In a report published by Mindfields Advisory, RPA systems are likely to have an impact on the labour market through a change in the hiring strategy and the mix of staffing required by organisations. ANZ will publish a report on their RPA strategy next month.
Fifteen leading service providers such as IBM, HP and Cognizant have participated and been benchmarked on their RPA strategies in the report. There are more than 38 case studies of RPA engagements. This report will be released by ANZ in September.

Not for culling staff

ANZ's general manager of group hubs Simen​ Munter told The Australian Financial Review the bank had been running pilot programs in all areas of the business, but work is most advanced in its finance department, HR, payments and mortgage processing.

He says RPA is not being used as a method of culling staff, and that in the 40 processes currently conducted by robot software, workers had generally been moved on to higher-value and more rewarding tasks.

"It is a bit like Iron Man, where we augment our people so that one person can do a lot more because they only need to intervene in processes when an exception occurs," Munter says.

Mindfields managing director Mohit Sharma says Uber shows technology can grow markets. Ben Rushton

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"Clearly you need less effort to do the same work, but at the same time you are not necessarily doing the same work any more … We are not looking at less people, but if I look at the hubs then the pace of recruitment has dropped off very significantly."

He says that in one area of payments, ANZ has been able to reduce the number of human staff to two from 40. Most of the workers' time had been spent fixing errors that arose daily, however the errors were nearly always the same and once the robotic systems had learned how to react, the humans could be redeployed.

Monotonous, time-consuming tasks the focus

While it is expected that the levels of artificial intelligence in RPA systems will improve to allow it to conduct more sophisticated and analytical work in future, it is mainly focused on monotonous and time-consuming procedural tasks at present.

RPA is essentially a software robot or application that can be configured to perform tasks normally performed by a human, using rule-based processes. It sits on top of existing technology systems and consistently repeats tasks it has learned to perform.

Mindfields' report into RPA showed various roles that were already being well-performed by robots. Mindfields

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Some of the tasks taken on by robots includes payroll administration, invoice processing, complaint management, helpdesk support, claims management and procurement work.

It is a new area in the business tech space and relatively small tech companies are winning contracts with big companies eager to tap into the space. ANZ is primarily working with growing US players OpenSpan and Automation Anywhere, but many of the biggest Indian and US outsourcing vendors are scrambling to incorporate RPA into their offerings.

Because the software sits on top of existing systems, it does not require the major integration work often associated with tech improvements at banks and large institutions.

Munter says ANZ has four main aims with robotics; to improve work for staff, to add shareholder value, to improve customer service and increase the control it has over its systems and processes.

Mindfields' report into RPA also showed the progress being made by companies deploying it. Mindfields

Improving, not replacing jobs

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"I think if people's jobs are to do things that robots can do, then that is not a good place to be. It is a challenge for us to ensure we actually move people into roles and enhance the roles so that they adapt," he said.

"There are likely to be significant changes in many professional roles as we go along. But then again, when I was doing my degree there used to be a role called bookkeeper. Those don't exist any more, but there has never been more people employed in accounting as today, the roles are just different."

Mindfields managing director Mohit Sharma says ANZ appears to be ahead of its big four banking rivals in the move towards adopting RPA, and is advantaged in this regard by the fact it runs its own offshore operations, rather than relying on service providers.

Other organisations making strides globally include Mastercard, Visa, US retailer Target, Dell, MetLife, the UK National Health Service, Intel, T-Mobile, Lloyds Banking Group, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.

Sharma says while it is natural to fear the rise of machines and assume mass unemployment as a result, history has proven this does not happen. He says the initial appeal of RPA would be to compliment and improve the quality of employees' work lives.

"It aims to assist employees to move up the value chain from monotonous, routine and repetitive jobs … RPA is converting normal humans into super humans as they can now do [a higher] volume of jobs with lower cost and almost no errors," he says.

"The world population has increased by 30 per cent since 1990 but the average global unemployment rate has never crossed 10 per cent. The emergence of machines in the form of computers, the internet and now artificial intelligence has shown that the new roles emerging are always greater in number than roles displaced."