Interview with an RPA Developer

The robot I’ve been most proud of actually consists of 5-6 robots, which all work in tandem for one of the biggest Nordic banks, Danske Bank. It was a part of a huge project and the purpose was to innovate and digitalize how we buy houses and acquire mortgages in Denmark. The project is now called sunday.dk and the project still runs, but the RPA part of the journey has ended after the robots were delivered.

Well let’s start from the beginning. RPA is an acronym for Robotics Process Automation. The robots we speak of are not typical ‘mechanical’ robots, like in a car production line for example. These are more like automating human back office workers. With RPA you are able to make a robot which is able to mimic a human’s actions on a computer, so you need to see the “robot” as a co-worker that never sleeps, never takes breaks, takes no leave and works incredible efficiently. Blue Prism is the software and it’s very easy to learn, but incredibly difficult to master. Thus, any non-technical individual would be able to learn it.

This would be my dad. He is currently working as a Senior IT Architect at Vestas, which is the largest wind turbine company in the world. He has worked within the IT space for 25 years and has been my inspiration and mentor since I was very young. When I was only a few years old he used to have me on his lap while he worked, so I showed interest in IT at a very young age. My dad noticed my interest and began teaching me, I still remember, at an age of 12, how excited I was when I showed my dad that I had finally set up my very first VDI environment without his help! It’s only within the last few years that the tables have turned and he sometimes need to ask me for help on something I would know more about than him!

I don’t think robots will ever replace humans entirely. To see where this is going you need to look into the past, you consider the industrial revolution. This was the era where machines began to take over the manufacturing industry. Most of the workers transitioned into maintenance roles because you need someone to monitor the robots, the quality and be able to handle things manually if a robot breaks down. This will also happen once AI & robotics are more evolved and more adapted. I believe someone will still need to monitor this, monitor quality control and be able to stand in if the robot fails to complete its intended tasks. So robots will replace some typical human activity but not ultimately replace humans.

 

I don’t use RPA if that’s what you are thinking. Although, I have a smart home. My smart home includes an Alexa, which is connected to Sonos speakers, my Roomba hoover, which is amazing by the way, and the Phillips Hue lamps in every room. There are still a few items I need to buy and then I’m done with my smart home. 

 

I fully encourage diversity, but I believe it will slowly come, as IT becomes more and more socially accepted. At least in Denmark they are encouraging young boys and girls to go into tech, as it’s obligatory to have development classes in the 3rd grade in some primary schools. I haven’t really met lack of diversity in my career, I’ve always been in teams with an almost 50/50 split gender-wise and I’ve always worked in international teams with people from all over the world. 4 years before I started on my IT college there were 9% women on my course, my first year it was 39% and the year after had 42% women. So from my perspective and experience, there is progress happening. However, we are far from done.