15 RPA for public administration enhancement

Complex IT system landscapes are straining the digital transformation of public administration. Even sophisticated IT modernization actions can barely comply with the increased requirements regarding integrity, interoperability, and compatibility due to various dependencies. Robotic process automation (RPA) allows for crosssystem automation of work processes. The integration of artificial intelligence into RPA tools supports the realization of the existing potential and the development of new fields of application. Flexible RPA tools can support the automation of a wide variety of processes quickly, consistently, and with reduced error-proneness. This chapter introduces fundamentals of RPA and discusses its relevance for enhancing public administration processes based on selected application examples as well as use cases in a governmental organization in Germany.