Exploring Human Trust in Software Robots for Robotic Process Automation

This vision paper provides a comprehensive perspective of human trust in software robots used in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and the associated challenges in establishing RPA systems that foster trust within hybrid workforces of software robots and human employees. Although the increasing technological sophistication of RPA systems enhances the autonomy of software robots, there is no framework for conceptualizing trust in software robots and its impact on human-technology collaboration. This lack of attention could contribute to serious issues remaining unnoticed, as for example the emerging re-manualization phenomenon, wherein tasks revert to manual execution due to a lack of trust in software robots. To address this research gap, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for human-software robot trust in RPA. In addition, the paper discusses five relevant research challenges that need to be tackled to enable a new wave of trusted software robots.