There has been a lot of buzz lately in and around attended automation. Recently, Automation Anywhere released their first named bot in this space, AARI. They equated it to an “automated business process” assistant in the same realm as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant. In addition, the “Low Code” market continues to grow and show profitability both for services and support. The value proposition behind this thought is that applications can be built quickly and by non-coders (i.e. citizen developers). In recent studies referenced at the AA conference, by 2023 there will be 4 times more citizen developers than traditional developers. It is clearly an area of high adoption and promise.
It seems like a lifetime ago we wrote a blog entitled “3 Killer Front Office RPA Use Cases”
This blog addressed 3 high value use cases that can be solved with attended automation. That was 2018. We are now closing in on 2021 and the bar has been raised quite a bit. Some of the RPA leaders have done well proving out the value proposition of “Low Code” solutions to their customers. As noted above, the adoption of citizen development is set to increase over the next few years. While I believe there have been some good use cases, the adoption, and the use of “Low Code” applications that rely on a stack of technology for intelligence and usefulness is going to grow exponentially.
Coming from an RPA perspective I see how UiPath and its UiPath Apps offers a compelling case to provide the most complete solution for citizen development.
Using Apps and StudioX, citizen developers will be able to create data driven bots and applications. These will help them identify and solve problems faster in their day-to-day activity. Apps can act as a “digital assistant” that will fit each user’s specific needs and demands. At the click of a button, Apps will turn on pre-configured UiPath bots that will gather all the data necessary and perform actions in a sequenced fashion. The fantastic part about UiPath Apps is that it’s a blank slate that can leverage the entire UiPath tech stack.
There is a myriad of use cases UiPath Apps can solve.
Whether Apps acts as a digital assistant or as an application enhancement/replacement, it is the most efficient way to move data through the digital environment. With Apps we can now focus on navigational efficiency by reducing the number of steps it takes to execute work with business applications. The architecture reduces time to market and provides a simple distribution model that is both agile and aides in continuous improvement.
It is an exciting time to be a part of the automation space as these tools continue to improve and provide more functionality.
I truly believe this movement to create applications that are “actually” usable, efficient, and low code will transform how new applications are created and consumed by end users. RPA, with AI and ML as its engine, creates new opportunities that previously seemed inconceivable. The amazing thing about this is we are at a point where the technology is very profound and reliable. Anything is possible. Because of the breadth of today’s tools, it is evident that automation and rapid application development are here to stay. They will define the next era of the technology, and with it, we will achieve true digital transformation.
Written by: Peter Camp, CTO & Founder, CampTek Software
