Robotic process automation (RPA) is a technology application that automates business processes using business logic and structured inputs. Using RPA tools, a company can configure software, or a "robot," to capture and interpret applications for transaction processing, data manipulation, response triggering, and communication with other digital systems. RPA scenarios range from sending an automated email response to deploying thousands of bots, each programmed to automate jobs in an ERP system. RPA is being used by many CIOs to streamline enterprise operations and reduce costs. Businesses can automate routine rule-based business processes, freeing up business users' time to focus on customer service or other higher-value tasks. Others see RPA as a stopgap measure on the way to intelligent automation (IA) via machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can be trained to predict future outcomes.