Will robotic process automation create or eliminate jobs?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has been touted as one of the potent technologies when deployed smartly, could lead to significant productivity enhancement and resultant reduction in costs. While RPA is yet another IT software, unlike the traditional tools which are deployed first and all exceptions are handled with human interventions, RPA has in-built Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities. Thus the repetitive, labourious, ‘non value adding’ tasks in functions such as finance, customer relationship management, procurement or insurance could be taken over by RPA by triggering actions, manipulating data and communicating with other software systems.