The credit union industry has been a pioneer in adapting robotic process automation (RPA) to handle everything from member onboarding and accounts payable to compliance handling and fraud detection. And why not? In theory, automating repetitive, rules-based processes and tasks frees up employees to handle more meaningful work, leading to a decline in human errors, increased productivity, lower operating costs and, most importantly, enhanced service delivery to members.

With a reported 30-50% of all RPA implementations failing, however, the competitive edge promised by automation is failing to materialize. It's not that the automations don't work. They just don't work quite the way they were supposed to, with constant breaks and resultant downtime keeping return on investment low and frustrations high. This is particularly troubling given the next wave of technology already looming on the horizon.