The introduction of robotic process automation (RPA) has created an opportunity for humans to interact with bots. While the promise of RPA has been widely discussed, there are reports suggesting that firms struggle to benefit from RPA. Clearly, interactions between bots and humans do not always yield expected efficiencies and service improvements. However, it is not completely clear what such human-bot interactions entail and how these interactions are perceived by humans. Based on a case study at the Dutch KAS Bank, this paper presents three challenges faced by humans, and consequently the perspectives humans develop about bots and their abilities to perform work. We then provide a set of five practices that are associated with the management of the interactions between humans and bots.

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During an annual board meeting in 2016 KAS Bank’s executive management discussed various business and client trends and their effect on future banking. Based on the discussion, they recognised the need to improve internalbusiness processes, and as such, increase the degree of client satisfaction. In the meeting, they considered the idea of using automation as a way to achieve their goal, as since their start in 1806, KAS Bank embraced technical innovations.For example, they introduced their first mainframe in 1961, a first web application in the late 1980s and subsequently introduced a monitor app to provide financial information to pension funds and insurance firms. The executive board decided to further explore various technical innovation opportunities and consequently asked the Chief Information Officer to explore possible solutions. As the was pondering on this new task, he was wondering: where do we start, which type of processes can be automated, do we have the capabilities in-house to be successful, and what will be the impact on our personnel? This case study describes an actual situation of KAS Bank and its journey to implement robotic process automation solutions. The structure that is followed comprises three stages: Development stage, Implementationstage, and the Operational stage. This teaching case consists of two parts. The first part introduces robotic process automation and KAS Bank, while the second part discusses the three stages and corresponding challenges.@en