IQ Bot Reviews

We integrate IQ Bot with TaskBot in Automation Anywhere, so whenever we do invoice processing, we use IQ Bot, so this is its main use case.

What I found most valuable in IQ Bot is its stability because it's now getting very much stable. Automation Anywhere is continuously enhancing this product. Initially, while my team was doing the PDF automation training in IQ Bot, sometimes, the solution doesn't extract the data, but now, you can easily group the software in different folders and you can integrate with TaskBot easily.

Another valuable feature of IQ Bot is data extraction. The solution makes it easy to fetch data and extract data from PDFs. Without IQ Bot, it's very tough to do PDF data extraction. Now, I can extract data from more than five hundred templates easily through the solution.

I also like that IQ Bot has great functionality.

There's still room for improvement in IQ Bot because sometimes, my team has certain types of PDFs that need to be grouped, for example, five types of videos need to be sorted to get data, but it was impossible to do in the solution.

There's even an instance when I'm extracting data, for example, the invoice numbers, and I trained IQ Bot to do the extraction just for the invoice numbers, but it failed to do it. There could be some exceptions that the product developer is working on, but it could take time because sometimes IQ Bot works, and sometimes it doesn't, so the error isn't because of the developer. The error lies with the system.

Another area for improvement in the solution is that during installation, it makes your machine drastically slow. It requires you to have RAM of 16 GB and a 500 GB hard disk, but that's still not enough.

Slow downloading is also an area for improvement in IQ Bot because whenever you try to execute bots around 20MB to 100MB, for example, that will be downloaded from the cloud to local machines, and this process could take between seven to eight minutes, and this could be frustrating especially when you're trying to showcase it to a customer. Bot downloading into a local machine shouldn't be taking more than five minutes because it's embarrassing in front of clients.

It's good that Automation Anywhere provides a cloud version for IQ Bot, but if you're unable to execute it fast, then that's not very good. I was working for one client in Brazil and there was a time I was showing the bot to them and it was taking around seven minutes to get downloaded on the local machine, and I even tried to connect with the support team, but that still didn't get me anywhere.

If you're working on some code and you're executing a bot, you need to change one line and the bot will download completely, so it should be pipeline or SVN or Git. If you've downloaded a 50MB bot, you just change one variable name, but then you have to download the 50MB code again, and it makes you wonder why you need to download the complete code. You have to double-check if you already have the code in your folder, and why would you need to download it again. Only one line should be changed for the download time to decrease drastically, but right now, you need to be downloading the code completely, so if you're executing a 100MB bot fifty times, then that means it will be downloaded fifty times as well.

IQ Bot is not a straightforward solution, so my team is struggling with it. Currently, my company has been doing some R&D about the solution, and it has several main problems that need to be addressed.

What I'd like to see in the next version of the solution is support for unstructured PDFs because currently, it's a very good solution for structured PDFs.

I did the first POC with IQ Bot in 2019, and I'm still using it. I've been using the solution for three years now.

I would rate the stability of IQ Bot as eight out of ten. It's a stable product.

IQ Bot is not as scalable, especially in terms of scaling it based on what you've paid. At the moment, it would feel like you're paying too much, so my rating for the scalability of IQ Bot is five out of ten.

Initially, the technical support for IQ Bot was very good. Nowadays, it's getting worse. A few days back, I opened one ticket with a severity level of one, and I only got the message from support after two or three days. It seems that support is being downgraded quality-wise.

The initial setup for IQ Bot isn't simple. If you're a new user of Automation Anywhere products, and you want to install IQ Bot, for example, it'll be difficult for you. You have to do some R&D first, and you have to connect with Automation Anywhere.

Installation is not a straightforward process in IQ Bot versus the installation process for Microsoft Power Automate. Microsoft Power Automate is very easy to install while installing IQ Bot will even give you SSL certificate errors many times.

Pricing for IQ Bot isn't good because if you're paying a lot and you're still getting some problems from it, then you can't give it a good rating. You have to compare how much you're taking out of your pocket with what you're getting from the solution. For example, I have a client paying $30 or $40 for the solution, but sometimes, he's still getting exceptions or errors from it.

The cost of IQ Bot is too high, so people are hesitant to purchase the license for it. On a scale of one to five, with one being expensive, and five being affordable, I'm giving IQ Bot pricing a one.

I evaluated UiPath, and IQ Bot is far better.

I have hands-on experience with IQ Bot.

My rating for IQ Bot is eight out of ten. As the solution is from Automation Anywhere, it's one of the leading tools in the market and it's capturing eighty percent of the market currently. IQ Bot deserves an eight because you get resources easily and you get community support. It's also easy to use. It's user-friendly, and it's a very good tool that you can pitch to clients.

I work for a service-based company providing design and development services to clients, so the number of IQ Bot users would depend on the client, but in my company I use it with six others.

We are using IQ Bot for AI-related tasks such as document understanding and classification. For example, we are using IQ Bot to extract invoice data from various types of PDFs that come from different vendors. PDFs can come in different formats such as handwritten, printed, or scanned with images, and IQ Bot is being used to extract the data from these various types of PDFs.

There are around 10 to 15 developers in our team who are using IQ Bot for different projects, and there are around 300 to 500 people in the organization who are using both Automation Anywhere and IQ Bot.

The most valuable feature of IQ Bot is that it allows me to create a learning instance or create groups multiple times based on the number of periods required, which is an advantage of using IQ Bot.

There are two areas where improvement is needed. Firstly, I find it difficult to select the key and value mapping area when creating learning instances. I suggest that the selection area could be improved. Secondly, IQ Bot should add more predefined headers for each type of document, and allow for custom headers to be added.

In the next release, I would like to add more features to IQ Bot, such as text classification, image classification, sentiment analysis, and natural language processing tools. I believe that these additional features would make things easier and enhance the capabilities of the tool beyond document analysis.

I have been using it for six to seven months. The current version is 8360 of Automation Anywhere.

I would rate the stability of IQ Bot as 50/100, meaning that it is stable only half of the time. Improvements can be made to the code behind IQ Bot, particularly in how it handles variations in PDF formats. If even a slight change is made to a PDF format, IQ Bot may fail to read it, requiring me to create a new learning instance and redeploy the Bot. This is a pain point in IQ Bot, and it would be great if it could identify even slight changes in the PDF format.

We have created tickets on the support website of Automation Anywhere whenever we needed support, and the support team used to get back to us via email or by ticket contact support. Although, we have not encountered any critical scenario that required support.

Neutral

The solution preferences depend on the client's preference. For example, if the client is using Automation Anywhere as their automation tool, then IQ Bot is the available option for AI registration.

The initial setup for IQ Bot is not difficult. One needs to procure the license and add it to the current control room. It is easy to set up Automation Anywhere as well, with just the installation of the MYSQL Server required for the infrastructure setup. The setup is pretty fast.

I would recommend trying it out in a proof-of-concept (POC) first to see if it provides the desired document classification results. I also suggest considering other options, such as Intellibot, as potentially easier to learn for this purpose.

Overall, I would rate IQ Bot an eight out of ten. The reason for not giving it a perfect score is the need to create a new learning instance for every type of document, even if there are only slight changes. It sometimes fails to read certain types of documents, requiring the user to create a new learning instance.

We have invoice data in the form of an image. With a normal task bot, we cannot extract the data from that. So, we are using IQ Bot to extract information or invoice data.

I have worked on version 11.3.6, but Automation Anywhere has released Automation 360. I have been working on that for the last three to four months, and it has many good features as compared to version 11.

The best feature is that we can extract data from an image. That's why Automation Anywhere implemented IQ Bot. Otherwise, you cannot extract data from an image. Nowadays, every industry is scanning invoices and uploading them to some website or storing them on some shared drive. IQ Bot can do data extraction from the PDF format and the JPG format.

The percentage of accuracy is very low. When I put documents in IQ Bot and the document format gets changed, IQ Bot puts that in the validation queue. If you are uploading 100 documents, the IQ Bot accepts only 60 documents. 40% or 30% of documents go to the validation queue. Accuracy is way low. They need to improve their accuracy level. It should be at least 90%.

Another major limitation is with the handwritten applications. If I write a new application with a pen and scan it and store it, IQ Bot cannot access that information. It doesn't accept handwritten applications. It should accept the handwritten application.

Sometimes, the quality is not good, but it also depends on the quality of the document. If the quality is less than 600 DPI or 300 DPI, IQ Bot will not process the document.

I have been using this solution for more than a year. I'm working as a technical architect. Sometimes, I use it myself, and sometimes, I provide solutions to developers.

It is not that stable when the documents have different formats. When the format changes, the document goes to the validation queue.

It is scalable, and we can put 100 documents or 1,000 documents, but the percentage of accuracy should be more.

In terms of its users, currently, six to seven developers are involved in the invoicing process. It is being used daily. When IQ Bot is not able to handle the data, the document goes to the validation queue. They open the documents that come to the validation queue and retrain the particular document. For that purpose, support people are needed.

They're responsible, and they provide very good support. They are supporting us very well. They are knowledgeable.

It also depends upon what kind of support contract you have with them. Sometimes, there are restrictions on the number of tickets. You cannot create more than 10 tickets. If you create more than 10 tickets, they can charge you or something like that. It depends on the support contract. In my organization, the support contract is good.

I would rate their support a four out of five.

Positive

I never used any other product, but to my knowledge, people are moving to Python script. They are using Python script and going for the AI/ML level. Through Python script, accuracy is more as compared to IQ Bot. If you're using the Python script library, at the code level, the accuracy is more. The code control is in your hands. You control the code and you can modify it, but with a product, the control is not in your hand. 

I am not aware of its setup. Its setup is done by the infrastructure people. They set up the IQ Bot server because IQ Bot needs a server. 

I would rate it a seven out of ten.

IQ Bot has the ability to easily capture objects. The latest version is far ahead of the competition. Most of the features are excellent, valuable, and easy to handle.

When you update to a new version, you have to migrate your applications. That should be automated because it should not affect your ability to complete the task. If the version of the application changes, then you need to automate some part of that again. 

IQ Bot is a component of the newer version of Automation 360. We started using it about a year and a half ago. It was introduced in 2020, and we started using it in September 2020.

If you need an application to do some repetitive task, then you are going to create the bot. And as for the requirement, you are creating some IQ Bots and master bot and you're handling errors altogether, so obviously it will be stable up to 98%.

IQ Bot has to be scalable because it contains a lot of data and multiple features. You need to provide some services as well, so scalability is a part of it. 

If a client has a massive amount of data that needs to be processed, it's more likely that there will be errors in the data if it's processed manually. Automating the process gives you greater accuracy. 

I rate IQ Bot support nine out of 10. You might have technical difficulties requiring some tweaking or minor issues that can be resolved in a single call.  Those are easy to handle. For example, maybe some tabs are missing, so support will go inside and check the code to find out what happened.

You are provided support for one month after deploying then there are levels of support: levels one, two, and three. You raise a ticket for a specific issue, problem, or application. Maybe it's a data issue or an application-related problem. For example, perhaps some content is missing. You send a screenshot and some information to the technician. They solve minor problems in an hour or two, but something significant might take one or two days. 

Positive

The ROI varies among clients, but a customer will only implement automation if they expect a return. There are two or three points to consider when providing a solution to the client. You need to look at how much you can reduce two categories: full-time equivalent and AST.  

You should think about the headcount that can be reduced. Let's say there are three people working for 24 hours, and one bot can complete those tasks in less time. Suppose a ticket that takes two hours to resolve manually can be handled in five minutes by bot. That ROI structure is provided to the client. The price structure and an analysis of workload management must be included. You will need to create some remote machines and divide the task into different levels among various machines. 

I rate IQ Bote nine out of 10. If a process is divided into use cases, it should be at least 95 percent accurate. My advice to prospective users depends on the requirement. You have to consider the complexity. If it's a simple task, you can do everything by hand, but if it takes 10 team members to do the task, you might consider automation.

I suggest automation for a complex use case involving complicated processes, multiple applications, and lots of data. If the client is working with semi-structured data, we can offer automation. We only recommend this if we can automate 55 percent of the processes or more. 

It is primarily used for extracting digital documents. It scans documents and extracts data.

It is a simple tool. We can put it in the document framework and extract the data. The success rate is 60 to 70%. It is the market standard.

The success rate must be improved. It is mostly used for printed documents. It would be helpful if it could also convert handwritten documents. The product must also provide AI features.

I have been using the solution for a couple of years. I am using the latest version of the solution.

The stability of the product depends on the success rate. If it is a fairly good document with a good resolution, it gives good results. If the resolution is low, the results will be impacted. I rate the product’s stability a four to five out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten. Around ten people use the solution in our organization. The number of users depends on our use cases and the number of documents that need to be processed. If a client demands it, we will definitely increase the usage of the product.

The initial setup is easy. It is cloud-based. It takes very little time to set it up. We just have to subscribe to the solution, install it on the system, and start using it. We used the community version first. Later, we bought the license. The community version is also very easy to set up. I deployed the solution myself. I just had to build the framework and input the documents. Once the results are out, we process them with the target applications.

The solution is cost-effective compared to other market tools. We pay a monthly licensing fee for it.

I would recommend the solution to others. It is a good product. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

We use IQ Bot to extract and consolidate the information. 

Extracting information from 500,000 invoices manually is difficult. IQ Bot automates the task and helps us summarize the data and provide it to the auditors. 

IQ Bot is very easy to use. 

The product is expensive. 

I have been using the tool for a month. 

I rate the tool's stability an eight out of ten. 

I rate the solution's scalability an eight out of ten. 

We are yet to use technical support. 

We have a team to install the tool. 

We have seen ROI with the tool's use. 

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

IQ Bot is good software, and our current version has good functionality. First, it helps to create an instance in the development environment. Then, it allows you to export this instance and import it to another environment like the certification or production environment.

IQ Bot works well when an application generates a document, PDF, PNG, or other extensions. For example, documents or files are generated in an application like Oracle EVS, making the IQ Bot work well.

In our company, we have only five processes and about 11 instances automated using IQ Bot. For example, one involves documents generated using PDF, and another uses PNG extension.

IQ Bot has helped my organization transform digital documents and files into information to be processed. We often receive files and digital documents in a path or shared directory, and IQ Bot does the work. For example, we receive 3,000 documents a month, transform the digital information and then get the necessary data to use in our processes.

We had issues getting the data when we tried to use Tesseract, an OCR, because the OCR didn't get the exact information. However, with IQ Bot, 99 percent of the documents received work well and help send information to our clients.

With IQ Bot, we can transform an unstructured or digital document into structured data. It was our first experience using software to transform digital information into structured data.

We find errors with this solution if we have a document in paper format and use a scanner to convert it to a digital document like a PNG. As an additional feature, the technology needs to recognize signatures. Currently, there are issues with the technology identifying a signature.

We also used a previous version of IQ Bot about three years ago when we started our pilot and experienced some problems. We had issues exporting an instance and could not import it into another environment.

We have used IQ Bot for one year and use version 11.3.5, the latest version. Automation Anywhere is currently working on another version called A360.

We use on-premises architecture.

It is a stable solution. We have 11 instances and five automated processes. The use of these instances depends on the architecture and number of servers. Our architecture is enough, and we have three highly available servers that allow us to grow and use IQ Bot.

It is a scalable product. However, the scalability is a little complicated. For example, in IQ Bot, you need more servers because its memory and CPU capacity is high. It also requires a lot of hardware.

There are some improvements in the Automation Anywhere A360 new version with changes to the IQ Bot model. In this A360 model, IQ Bot RPI or Control Room automation calls are coupled. However, in the version we use, they are separated. Therefore, we must install Control Room on one server and IQ Bot on another.

I rate the technical support a four out of ten.

Neutral

We did not use another solution before IQ Bot. However, we practiced using Tesseract and considered Hyperscience, another technology with intelligent document processing. After that, we decided to stop researching other options.

Our initial setup was a little complex, and the installation and setup took about two to three hours. It was our first time using this solution, but it may have been easier if we had more experience.

We needed about three people to complete the deployment. We have one architect and an analyst for deployment and maintenance, and I am their boss.

We implemented IQ Bot in-house.

We have not evaluated our returns.

I don't have details about the cost, but we evaluated the unit cost compared to other solutions like Hyperscience, which were very similar. It will be good if the price is lower.

I rate this solution a four out of ten based on our experience. However, the rating may differ with a new version and new functionalities.

Regarding advice on this solution, firstly, I recommend choosing the best scenario and appropriate use case for a company. Secondly, investigate the technology and experiences of other companies. This is necessary because some companies declare that their servers work in different scenarios when they do not. Thirdly, make a proof of concept using this technology.

We go into companies and help them automate their processes — that's really what we do. If somebody wants to automate their processes, we have a couple of partnerships.

Usually what happens is, when our clients are scraping off the web, one client takes a report off the web, and then they publish it to their people. In the past, somebody would sit in front of the screen and they would type it in manually. Now, instead of doing that, a bot goes up, scrapes it up, and puts it into a file which they can then distribute.

We'll take that stuff and then generate a file — that's what we do. There's the data that has to be brought in from two files, or is brought in from the web. They would combine that data to create the file.

Our clients have more free time to work on other things thanks to this solution. Instead of having to copy everything from a web screen into a file, now it's done for you. You are free to work on something else.

Try to get every person working with a bot. That way, as soon as they get some manual work, they can cut over and give it to the bot to do. When the bot is done, it comes back to the person — that's the ideal state.

IQ Bot is easy to use compared to some of the other solutions out there.

They're always trying to make it easier. The whole automation industry is moving into what they call "intelligent automation", where they have started to bring AI into it also. That way, based on decisions, automation will happen.

I have been using IQ Bot for two years.

What we're seeing is that our clients had some problems initially, but now things are becoming much more stable. The competition has become much more fierce, and the industry is starting to mature a little also, so we're starting to see some improvements.

At first, our clients used to be really worried about scalability, but now they're able to scale quite nicely. If you really want to scale, then you want it to look at the cloud. With the cloud, there are unlimited resources.

The company has good support. When they're called on, they definitely help. 

It's pretty straightforward. I think the problem is usually tuning it up, and trying to get the best performance — that takes some time.

Deployment and making the best use of the software. Some companies don't properly train their staff so they take the wrong approach.

We usually try to get the company to build what we call a COE (center of excellence), where they have a group of people that have done these projects before, and they can help each of the groups in the company do it. As a result, they start to put standards in place on what the best practices are.

Then they pass it down to the rest of the people in the company. That's the way we try to get the company to move forward.

If you just try to wing it, you'll become sprawled; everybody's trying to do their own thing, without any standards. Then, when you want to upgrade or you want to make a change, issues will arise.

With the Cloud, the price goes up and down. You only pay for what you use. If it goes up, you pay for it, and then if it goes down, you don't pay for it. It really depends on what you use.

The cost can be a problem. You have to have a good strategy, and you also have to monitor what you use. If you're not planning properly and you're not taking advantage of the bots and the resources you need, there might be some issues.

My advice is to start with a good partner that can help build your expertise. Either bring in some people or collaborate with a partner.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight. There's always room for improvement, and this industry is growing and changing. Still, IQ Bot is a leader.