Straight Through Processing - Document Automation WheretheStandard View of Unattended AutomationFails A mortgage lender has a lot of processes that involve documents. The origination process is arguably one of the most document-intensive processes that exists; there can be a few hundred to over a thousand different documents involved from the initiation of the process to the funding and completion of a loan. Can this complex process be automated to the extent that humans are not required? In other words, is such a processacandidateforunattended automation? If we are defining unattended using principles of RPA where a task is either completelyexecutedcorrectlyoritisnot,thentheanswerisdecidedly“no.” This is because document-based data is complex. There are often many different data elements on a single page leaving a significant potential for error. Take, for instance, HUD 1008 form otherwise known as the “Uniform Underwriting and Transmittal Summary.” While relatively simple, this form canhaveover40differentdatafieldstolocateand extract. The probability that any system can accurately locate all of the fields and extract them correctly is very low. If the document is more complex, such as an appraisal or an unstructured document where there are no easy ways to locate data, then the likelihood of an error on a single page rises dramatically. So using the “RPA-inspired” definition, even the most advanced machine learning system would most likely provide less than 5% unattended automation. 6