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Robotic Process Automation the Focus of Shark Tank Survivors

The last two finalists gear up for the ultimate competition in April.

Eric Teasdale of Automation Anywhere gives the winning presentation of the company’s robotic process automation technology at the season's last AFCEA innovation shark tank, held on March 6. His company will join five other finalists in the championship competition being held at AFCEA’s Homeland Security Conference on April 22 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. Photo by Elizabeth Moon

Judges and competitors gather at the penultimate AFCEA innovation shark tank, held on February 26. Photo by Elizabeth Moon

Two technologies that employ robotic process automation (RPA) secured the last two spots for the championship round in the latest AFCEA innovation shark tanks. Held Thursday, February 25, and Wednesday, March 6, the competitions were the penultimate and ultimate in a string of shark tanks over the past few months. The winning technologies will advance to the final competition, which will be held on April 22.

One technology, chosen on February 25, showcased use case approaches to procurement and cybersecurity. Demonstrated by UiPath, the RPA tool helps agencies with huge databases become more productive and realize large cost savings in procurements. In addition to performing repetitive tasks that otherwise would tie up humans, the RPA can execute cybersecurity. A robot is trained to sort through intrusions for effective determination.

The other RPA technology, from Automation Anywhere, was chosen on March 6. Described by the company as “a digital worker,” it is leveraged by intelligent automation for a cognitive ability with embedded analytics. Users can build bots in weeks and scale on demand without any need to change existing processes or underlying applications.

In addition to these two technologies, four others—from J&F Alliance Group, NextgenID, Xona Systems and Privoro—had been chosen in previous innovation shark tank competitions earlier this year and in late 2018. The six technologies will compete as innovation shark tank finalists at AFCEA’s Homeland Security Conference being held April 22-24 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.