How RPA Is Shaping China’s AI‑Driven Digital Transformation

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has gained new vitality under AI technology and is becoming a powerful tool for enterprise digital transformation.

On September 29, the RPA sub‑forum titled “Strategic Planning, Intelligent Future” was successfully held at Beijing Shougang Park, attracting over a hundred RPA experts, scholars, and user representatives, with more than a thousand online viewers.

Cao Feng , Deputy Director of the AI Department at the Institute of Cloud Computing and Big Data, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), noted that RPA is an effective means of applying AI and other technologies to boost productivity. He highlighted the rapid growth of the RPA industry, the current lack of standards for project delivery, capability certification, and product rating, and called for joint efforts from industry and academia to accelerate standard construction, industry research, and technical exchange.

The forum announced the establishment of the “RPA Industry Promotion Alliance” led by CAICT, which will carry out technology exchange, standards development, industry analysis, public services, and talent training. More than thirty enterprises have already joined as alliance members.

Guo Ruipeng , Senior Researcher at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Digital Banking Lab, explained that ICBC launched the “ICBC Smart Brain” and began deploying RPA in February 2019. To date, over 100 RPA robots have been deployed in more than 120 scenarios, automating over 5,000 tasks.

Hu Yichuan , CTO of Laiye Technology, presented “RPA+AI: The Smart Connector for Digital Transformation,” emphasizing that RPA acts as a connector that creates value by linking applications, and that the integration of low‑code and strong connectivity with AI is continuously enhancing RPA’s capabilities.

Qu Wenhao , Pre‑Sales Director at Jinzhivi, shared deployment models and case studies of RPA in the front‑, middle‑, and back‑office of banks such as China Construction Bank, ICBC, and Bank of Communications, and stressed the importance of establishing a hierarchical RPA system and industry standards.

Hu Lijun , Co‑Founder and Senior Vice President of Yisaqi, discussed how RPA’s rapid progress expands the application scope of OCR, ML, and NLP, and forecasted trends including increased emphasis on practice, accelerated fusion with process mining, the emergence of robot factories, hardware integration, RPA‑as‑a‑service models, and gradual standardization.

Li Hai , Head of AI Department at Zhejiang Mobile, analyzed the latest RPA industry dynamics, typical application scenarios, and presented Zhejiang Mobile’s use cases in financial audit, ICT contract drafting, and risk data collection, while addressing common concerns about the necessity, deployment methods, and system integration of RPA.

Xu Hong , General Manager of North China Region at Daguan Data, spoke on the intelligent development trends of RPA, covering compatibility, control capabilities, and the significance of AI integration, and listed successful applications in finance, finance, government, HR, IT, and manufacturing.

Dong Xiaofei , Deputy General Manager of the New Generation AI Research Institute, introduced the RPA Capability Maturity Assessment framework, released the first version of the evaluation indicator set, and explained the standard‑setting process and key focus areas for enterprises wishing to participate.

The RPA sub‑forum was a new segment of the AIIA2020 AI Developer Conference, marking the alliance’s strong commitment to advancing the domestic RPA ecosystem, providing systematic industry services, and enhancing China’s RPA research and application capabilities.