Intelligent process automation (IPA)

Intelligent process automation, or IPA, joins regular automation with AI. Plain automation follows fixed steps, like copying a form into a spreadsheet. Adding AI lets it handle steps that need reading or judgement, like working out what an email is about, pulling the totals from an invoice, or drafting a reply. We work with a five-person online homewares store that typed 60 supplier invoices a month into Xero. Now an AI helper reads each invoice from the inbox and drafts the bill in Xero, and the bookkeeper checks and approves them in one sitting a week. Overseas invoices in other currencies are still done by hand. That's a sensible line to draw.