Welcome to UiPath - as we move from RPA to intelligent automation

As work piles up and takes its toll on employees, executives are on the hunt to implement AI use cases that can quickly generate significant value from AI.

In a survey of 15,000 workers across 15 countries by McKinsey Health, a quarter (25%) of employees reported experiencing burnout symptoms.

Several AI and automation opportunities meet that sweet spot – especially intelligent document processing (IDP) and communications mining. Industries such as healthcare, banking, and insurance process a high volume of documents daily. These are just a selection of examples from a range of verticals. It’s no surprise that demand for speed, capacity and reduced costs will be a big focus this year. 

With over 10,000 customers today, enterprise automation software vendor UiPath is growing at an impressive rate. The company has attracted attention in the last 12 months with its emphasis on AI-powered automation technology. Last year saw the unveiling of Autopilot capabilities that can generate apps based on screenshots from legacy systems, text prompts, and PDFs. It also released generative AI-powered support for developers to create automations, workflows and code with natural language prompts.

Notable use cases from government, healthcare providers and finance have been showcased at events and in scrutinized earnings reports, along with examples from verticals such as agriculture, logistics and aviation. 

Staying humble while ringing the changes

With the number of automation tools flooding the market, UiPath believes it has the differentiating edge as it walks a line between transformative change and not losing sight of its humble beginnings. During a discussion with CEO Rob Enslin, corporate culture was one of the topics that we touched on: 

Culture matters when things are tough. It’s all very well if culture is great when everything is great. But not everything is great in the world right now.

There are multiple facets of UiPath's culture and offering that are resonating with buyers. One of them is the focus on a developing workforce and democratizing automation. A common thread running through employers' minds today is how to make the necessary skills adaptation required to succeed in an environment filled with generative AI and automation.

Organizations investing in automation technology need to be sure of their ability to change. One of the most challenging aspects can be how the company has handled change in the past – and whether it can move forward by shaking off unnecessary processes with a future-focused perspective rather than just rolling them forward into automation. UiPath places an emphasis on automating the right processes – not everything.

Trust and governance

This point is closely linked to trust. During a recent webinar, CMO Bobby Patrick discussed the future of work and how intelligent automation can be used to identify bottlenecks in processes that previously lacked real observability. Fine tuning those monitoring processes, and how businesses use these tools in ways that enhance productivity without undermining employees’ sense of their intrinsic value will be crucial. UiPath has an opportunity to share its experiences of culture and managing change in this regard. 

One further aspect is governance. While AI regulation is under ongoing discussion at government level, customers need guidance now. UiPath's new AI Trust Center is addressing LLM security and the creation of proper training programs and process protocols - pointing to UiPath's commitment to not just innovate, but to take its responsibility as a technology leader seriously - with models that are reliable, accurate, secure, and explainable. Expect UiPath to cover all these themes and more, via their partner-authored diginomica contributions.

UiPath has come a long way in the last ten years since co-founder Daniel Dines took three of his best developers (of a company of ten) out to Chennai to work on a pilot project. One of the biggest lessons it learned from its first customer was that it took more than one automation for success – in fact hundreds and thousands of automations were needed to orchestrate the necessary end-to-end technology requirements to refine unwieldy processes.

Customer use cases are always the biggest proof points, and we'll be chasing down these examples from UiPath customers throughout the year. In the meantime, join us in welcoming UiPath as a diginomica partner!