Agentic AI and Automation: Reshaping Enterprise Workflows and Decision-Making

Agentic AI transforms automation, workflows and ROI - SiliconANGLE

The landscape of enterprise AI is increasingly focused on using data more effectively, particularly by integrating technologies such as automation and agentic AI. Companies large and small are looking to streamline processes and enhance efficiency through intelligent automation, which addresses issues such as manual data entry and process bottlenecks. "Our strategy is really to build a platform to give the tools to not only our customers, but also our partners to enable them to actually create the solution and go after all these different areas of opportunity," said Divya Krishnan (pictured), vice president of product marketing at Celonis SE. Krishnan spoke with theCUBE Research's Rob Strechay and Savannah Peterson at Celosphere 24, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed agentic AI, process optimization and the importance of real-time data sharing among stakeholders. (* Disclosure below.) Agentic AI enables users to build agents within their preferred development platforms. This approach allows developers to leverage existing tools while incorporating the data and context needed for effective automation. "It enables people to ... build agents in really the development platform of their choice with the data and the context that's coming from," Krishnan said. "It's not just about building the agents, it's about where do you put the agents in your process? How do you orchestrate them to make sure that they don't sort of get plopped into the automation stack and the investments you've already been making?" As organizations continue to invest heavily in RPA and backend automation, AI implementation becomes critical for maximizing the return on these investments. The introduction of agentic AI aims to enhance the effectiveness of these efforts by seamlessly integrating agents into existing workflows. "People have been putting a lot of good time, energy, effort and money into RPA, into backend automation and into complex workflows," Krishnan said. "The question is how do you optimize that and then how do you bring agents to play to really dramatically increase the ROI that you can get from all the investments that you're putting in?" Additionally, the importance of real-time data sharing among stakeholders is critical, which underscores the shift from static updates to continuous information exchange, Krishnan added. "It's not about just a one-time or an ad-hoc status check or communication," she said. "It's about how can you do intelligence sharing, mental data sharing in real time." Here's the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE Research's coverage of Celosphere 24:

Agentic automation drives enterprise AI and robotics orchestration - SiliconANGLE

The next phase of AI: Orchestrating agents and robots to streamline enterprise workflows Agentic automation is rapidly reshaping the future of enterprise workflows as organizations seek more advanced ways to integrate artificial intelligence and robotics into their operations. Moving beyond single-agent systems, which are often seen as limited and rudimentary, the focus is shifting toward orchestrating multiple agents, robots and AI models to create seamless, intelligent ecosystems, according to Dave Vellante (pictured, left), chief analyst at theCUBE Research. As enterprises begin to explore secure governance models for these technologies, they are preparing for a future where AI-driven systems eliminate friction between humans and technology, promising more efficient and scalable operations across industries. "The way it's going to evolve is you're never going to eliminate those stove pipes," Vellante said. "There's just a too much control by the ISVs that they can add value, where the super app won't be able to. The market will demand greater simplicity. For those companies like UiPath that can deliver that, I think they'll do very well and they'll pick up a really meaningful, fair share of the market." Vellante was joined by co-host Rebecca Knight (right) for the Day 2 Keynote Analysis at UiPath Forward 2024, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed the growing importance of agentic automation in reshaping enterprise workflows by moving beyond single-agent systems toward orchestrating multiple AI agents and robots. (* Disclosure below.) At the forefront of this transformation is the concept of agentic orchestration, which integrates various AI agents, robots, people and models into a cohesive framework. This orchestration aims to streamline workflows across different levels of an organization by using intelligent systems that are governed by both human oversight and robotic efficiency, according to Vellante. "We really don't think single agents, single copilots are that interesting. We think they're pretty early days and rudimentary. It's the dial up of agentic, if you will," he said. "You don't want to give you credentials to an LLM. We know that, but what's new is the guardrails. The guardians of the agents are going to be humans." Security is a major concern as enterprises adopt AI systems that work with sensitive data and handle critical workflows. Robots, which are often deterministic in nature, follow instructions to the letter, but ensuring security and integrity in the face of potential threats is crucial. While there have not been widespread reports of robotic systems being compromised, the interaction between robots and APIs presents a potential vulnerability that companies must address as automation becomes more prevalent. "APIs are sort of somewhat vulnerable and robots sometimes interact with APIs, but maybe they're pulling data," Vellante said. "It's an interesting positioning in my view. UiPath building out an agent control framework, which is I think a very high value piece of real estate. Then for UiPath, pro devs, automation devs and citizen devs will give a seamless transition." Automation platforms such as UiPath Inc. have recognized the need to govern these technologies properly. Through an agent control framework, they aim to create seamless transitions between developers, enabling both professional developers and citizen developers to build agents effectively. This shift is set to happen in the near term, with UiPath's "Agent Builder" slated for release in just over a month. "You got intelligent automation and bots, and then you got semi-autonomous. [Bobby Patrick, CMO of UiPath] said the only real AI piece today in the UiPath portfolio was document understanding," Vellante said. "That's where the most of the AI is today. And then agentic is on top of that. I would say it's at least three to four years before you see true agentic orchestration that is going to have meaningful prejudice impact." Here's the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE's and theCUBE Research's coverage of UiPath Forward 2024:

AI agents for automation transforming workflows with adaptable AI - SiliconANGLE

AI agents for automation reshape enterprise efficiency and decision-making: Industry analysts weigh in Artificial intelligence is driving a new wave of automation, moving beyond robotic process automation to more sophisticated AI agents for automation. These agents offer dynamic, adaptable workflows capable of managing both structured and unstructured decision-making processes. While bots continue to handle rules-based tasks, AI agents are stepping in to manage more complex, probabilistic decisions, enhancing operational efficiency, according to Andy Thurai (pictured), vice president and principal analyst of Constellation Research Inc. As businesses adapt to this next phase, industry leaders are increasingly focusing on multimodal AI systems that balance human-machine collaboration, ushering in a transformative era for enterprise workflows. "It is easy to automate and to automation of a robot and then leave it at that point," Thurai said, vice president and principal analyst of Constellation Research Inc. "Now, for the first time ever, the probabilistic decision-making engines are making its way into the enterprise. When you put that in the automation scheme, it's not just about the agents, it's about the platform, it's about the workflow, it's about the ecosystem." Thurai spoke with theCUBE Research's Dave Vellante and co-host Rebecca Knight at UiPath Forward 2024, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed the evolution from traditional RPA to more flexible, agent-based models, enabling more dynamic workflows and complex decision-making. (* Disclosure below.) Automation companies that once dominated with their RPA solutions are now embracing agent-based systems. The RPA era was centered on creating software robots to handle repetitive, rules-based tasks. These bots became the foundation of many enterprises' automation strategies, automating tasks that could be broken down into deterministic decisions -- those where outcomes were certain. "Last couple of years you look at all these other companies releasing the agentic things, automation things, and then they kind of lost their mojo," Thurai said. "There are a couple of things they announced ... their vision has changed. Instead of doing more of robotic automation platforms, now they're interested in talking about agents and providing a platform for agents and also for multimodal combination. That, I think, is the difference they're bringing to the market." In response, automation platforms are adopting agent-based models that allow for greater flexibility. Agents, unlike bots, can manage probabilistic decision-making, meaning they can adapt and learn from various outcomes in real time. This dynamic ability allows agents to go beyond simple automation and start acting as collaborators in workflows, according to Thurai. "You can build the agents from ground up," he said. "You can take one of the existing models, they're also talking about the agentic marketplace where they'll have hundreds if not thousands of agents available. You'll take an agent and say that some of this will work for me, but I want to modify it a little bit. You could build agents on top of existing agents." While the potential is significant, one of the biggest challenges remains data orchestration, according to Thurai. Many companies are grappling with how to manage and harmonize data across platforms. Companies are actively working on solutions, focusing on building the right infrastructure to support both agents and bots, ensuring that AI-driven automation can meet the demands of complex workflows. "The organization is going to pay not for the small language model or the large language model, whatever it is, they're going to pay for the outcome of the system that allows them to extract their proprietary data and use it for competitive advantage, whatever that system is," he said. Here's the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE's and theCUBE Research's coverage of UiPath Forward 2024:

Discussing UiPath and the interplay between AI and automation - SiliconANGLE

AI and automation shape the future of work: Insights from UiPath Forward 2024 Artificial intelligence is driving cutting-edge automation use cases that are increasingly important to enterprise operations. In response, the industry is building out expertise and infrastructure in an effort to expand the frontiers of innovation to support AI and automation. UiPath Inc. is one such stakeholder. Having evolved from early robotic process automation to comprehensive enterprise automation, the company is charging ahead to integrate AI agents into business processes. "They were doing AI for a long, long time," said Dave Vellante (pictured, left) chief analyst at theCUBE Research. "They started with computer vision [and] they had machine learning, etc. But then gen AI has changed everything. I think people are finding out that it's harder than they thought to implement AI in a way that enterprises expect. Act 2 is all about going beyond bots into agents. [Robotics process automation] is like the plumbing. Without it, water will be spraying everywhere." Vellante and co-host Rebecca Knight (right) hosted an analyst segment at UiPath Forward 2024 during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed UiPath's efforts to tackle the complexity of harmonizing data, managing agents and ensuring governance for true AI and automation at scale. (* Disclosure below.) Much is being made about the shift from traditional bots to AI-driven agents, according to Vellante. Businesses need both bots and agents to work in harmony. Bots handle structured, rules-based tasks, providing stability and governance. AI agents bring in the ability to learn, adapt and manage more complex, less predictable tasks. This combination of bots and agents working together represents the future of automation. "The application stack is about to completely change, and UiPath hopes to play a major role in that agent orchestration layer," Vellante said. "Things like causal AI, how to harmonize the data, the whole agent orchestration framework [and] backend connections ... all of that is increasingly important. And UiPath today has its fingers in a lot of those pies." While a bot can efficiently manage sensitive tasks such as handling passport or credit card information, AI agents are beginning to take on more nuanced responsibilities, albeit under the governance of bots. Dines emphasized that we are still in the early stages of this evolution, and AI agents must be carefully managed to ensure security, trust and accuracy in their operations. "This is the first time ever that we're replacing humans in cognitive functions," Vellante said. "And so there was a little bit of fuzziness there. One thing that struck me is they made the point that it wasn't too long ago that robots couldn't climb stairs, and they certainly can climb stairs today." AI, which brings creativity and innovation, must be harnessed through automation systems that handle repetitive and mundane tasks, allowing organizations to scale operations effectively. AI-powered automation is about both efficiency and freeing employees from administrative burdens, giving them more time to focus on higher-value work, Knight noted. "It's not AI that's going to take our jobs," she said. "It's the people who know how to work with AI. And I think that, yes, that is in general true because humans are going to be around, and we're going to need something to do. So I do think that there will be some short-term pain ... and there will be some job dislocation." Here's the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE's and theCUBE Research's coverage of UiPath Forward 2024:

Agentic and robotic vision: How UiPath is changing automation - SiliconANGLE

UiPath unveils agentic and robotic vision to supercharge productivity through AI-driven automation Thanks to emerging technological trends and innovations that emphasize automation, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, an agentic and robotic vision has become top of mind for enterprises. UiPath Inc. is revolutionizing productivity with AI and automation, using intelligent agents and autonomous systems that make independent decisions to boost efficiency and innovation, according to Graham Sheldon (pictured), chief product officer of UiPath. "In the past, our robots were really good at some of the left-brain thinking, the things that are rules-based, deterministic," Sheldon stated. "It's those kinds of more variable tasks, the more creative things, the more adaptive things that generative AI is really good at and the advent of agents as a way to bring that to life in an enterprise gives you that right brain. Now you need both. You need robots and agents working together, which is why we believe the future is both agentic and robotic, and UiPath is going to make that a reality." Sheldon spoke with theCUBE Research's Dave Vellante and co-host Rebecca Knight at UiPath Forward 2024, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed UiPath's agentic and robotic vision. (* Disclosure below.) Making developers' lives easier is important since it enhances productivity, innovation and overall business success. UiPath Autopilot makes this a reality because it leverages AI and gen AI to streamline various automation tasks for developers and business users, according to Sheldon. "The PC was a really good example where it democratized what was being done on mainframes," he stated. "I think one of the things that UiPath aims to do with our agentic vision and roadmap is to do the same for some of this generative AI technology and make it a little easier for both the developers and the citizen developers and even business end users through things like AutoPilot to make that accessible to more and more people. It drives productivity, but it also changes people's lives in a real material way." Despite having access to all sorts of gen AI tools, developers and business users still have to figure out what are the right ways. As a result, UiPath Agent Builder fits into the picture as one of the latest features designed to simplify the creation of domain-specific knowledge agents because it allows developers to create API integrations and tailor automation activities using low-code tools, Sheldon pointed out. "We're really trying to democratize these tools for citizen developers, for business end users and for professional developers as well," he stated. "In the Agent Builder experience today, we've tried to encode and make it easy for people to express the instructions you give to the agent. That experience and also Autopilot business end users is going to make it possible for anybody to build agents that are either reactive, like conversational ones, or proactive ones that work independently and make those dynamic decisions that's really going to drive productivity for everybody." UiPath's new stack will feature innovations such as an experience layer aimed at improving user interaction. This layer will simplify complex tasks and create smooth, personalized experiences, advancing the automation narrative, according to Sheldon. "Let me walk you through the stack as it's going to exist in the future," he said. "In the experience layer, we can start to do more proactive things and we can do things with more than just text, so images and video and things like that. In that experience layer, we will have co-pilots in different experiences, autopilots and agents that help you do work across them. That's one of the main differences that UiPath sets itself apart by being able to really connect different data silos, different systems of record, systems of engagement." Here's the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE's and theCUBE Research's coverage of UiPath Forward 2024:

AI workforce automation reshaping industries with innovation and efficiency - SiliconANGLE

AI workforce automation: Balancing innovation with workforce challenges Artificial intelligence is at the forefront of shaking up industries, with AI workforce automation poised to transform how businesses operate. While the promise of increased efficiency and innovation is clear, the challenges that come with integrating these technologies -- such as ensuring governance, security and minimizing workforce disruptions -- are just as significant, according to Craig Le Clair (pictured, right), vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. As AI becomes more central to mission-critical tasks, companies are focusing on how to build robust automation systems that are resilient, reliable and trusted. This balance between advancing technology and addressing human impact is shaping the future of industries across the globe. "A lot of the AI is helping with the human intent understanding," Le Clair said. "It's helping to reduce the friction between the applications and so forth. But without taking that human intent and doing something with it, getting something done, it becomes kind of sterile." Le Clair and Bobby Patrick (left), chief marketing officer of UiPath Inc., spoke with theCUBE Research's Dave Vellante and host Rebecca Knight at UiPath Forward 2024, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed how artificial intelligence and AI workforce automation are transforming industries by increasing efficiency and innovation while addressing challenges such as governance, security and the evolving roles of workers in response to these technological shifts. (* Disclosure below.) AI has an increasing and evolving role in the workforce, particularly in how it affects workers. Automation is not just a concern for businesses, but for workers who may feel vulnerable to the changes brought by AI and automation, according to Le Clair. His upcoming book, "Random Acts of Automation," aims to provide a roadmap for workers, helping them understand how to navigate the shifts brought by human-capable automation. "The basic idea is that all this technology we're talking about here, whether it's agents or agentic, is really going to affect the workforce," he said. "A lot of the books about this are written for the business community ... this one's written for workers." Workers across various sectors are seeing the effects of AI, whether through the rise of gig work or concerns that their credentials may be less valued in an age where AI can perform complex tasks. It is important to focus not on how many jobs will be lost, but on how job roles will shift and what workers can do to stay relevant in this new landscape, according to Le Clair. "I think there's an optimistic path for the middle, that the middle using AI can do the work of more highly trained and credentialed professionals," he said. "I think it's a very optimistic path for what I call human-touch workers, which is the lowest level of service workers. All of this physical robotics that we're doing, which are now getting integrated with LLMs, is going to make their jobs a lot safer." Governance and trust in AI is also crucial, according to Patrick. Automation, especially when combined with large language models, needs to be governed carefully to avoid issues such as data misuse or security breaches. "Many of these guys are just talking about these little agents and they have no governance, no control, and I think we bring a level of seriousness to it, which we brought in the world of automation," he said. "If you look at RPA, the areas that robots are used are mission-critical ... they've got to be highly resilient, highly reliable, very trustworthy." UiPath is positioning itself as a leader in orchestrating automation, Patrick explained. The company is partnering with AI powerhouses such as OpenAI Inc. and Anthropic PBC to provide an open framework that allows businesses to bring in their own AI models and integrate them into existing workflows. "We added another level of complexity to this and say, 'Look, we're also going to be very open as a framework for the company,'" Patrick said. "You can bring your own model. We announced several partnerships here with Inflection AI, Anthropic. We're going to be the Switzerland and that ability to orchestrate the reality of the complexity that our customers know is what's needed to deliver AI in real work and real complex work." Here's the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE's and theCUBE Research's coverage of UiPath Forward 2024:

Intelligent automation drives efficiency and innovation in business operations - SiliconANGLE

How intelligent automation is helping companies do more with less Intelligent automation is quickly becoming a game-changer for businesses looking to stay competitive in an increasingly digital landscape. From streamlining repetitive tasks to enhancing accuracy across complex processes, this technology is revolutionizing operations by allowing organizations to optimize resources and improve efficiency, according to Vivek Sinha (left), global head of sales -- AI and automation -- Topaz, at Infosys Ltd. The integration of AI-driven solutions, such as self-healing robots and agentic AI, is empowering companies to do more with less, reducing manual errors and accelerating workflows. As businesses seek higher returns on investment, intelligent automation is setting the stage for a new era of operational excellence and innovation. "There is no secret sauce to it -- it is hard work and grind that gets you," he said. "The biggest thing that I actually want to tell is just because the compute and the data processing capabilities have increased so much that you can really do mundane tasks with lots of compute behind it. The reason AI is so dramatic in terms of ROI influence that it can bring is because it is an order of magnitude improvement that you can get." Sinha and Robert Schneider (right), intelligent automation manager at Conagra Brands Inc., spoke with theCUBE Research's Dave Vellante and co-host Rebecca Knight at UiPath Forward 2024, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed how intelligent automation, through technologies such as robotic process automation, self-healing robots and agentic AI is revolutionizing business operations by streamlining processes, improving accuracy and boosting operational efficiency. (* Disclosure below.) Conagra Brands, a leading food company responsible for household names such as Reddi-Wip and Birds Eye vegetables, has successfully implemented intelligent automation tools to streamline its back-office operations. In a lean organizational environment where maximizing resources is key, Conagra has turned to RPA and intelligent automation to tackle the challenge of doing more with less, according to Schneider. "At Conagra Brands, just like any organization, we're a very lean organization, and we have the challenge to do more with less," he said. "With automation, robotic process automation and intelligent automation, it gives us tools that we need to continue to be competitive in a global marketplace. We were able to successfully, with a partnership of Infosys, successfully automate quite a few of our back-office processes that allow us to be more efficient, more effective and ultimately deliver our product faster." One of the primary benefits has been the automation of routine tasks, which frees up employees to focus on more strategic work. Conagra's adoption of UiPath's automation tools has resulted in faster and more accurate execution of business processes. For example, automation has cut the time required to close financial records from one week to just four hours, according to Schneider. This substantial time savings has improved both productivity and employee satisfaction, as teams can now focus on tasks that generate higher value for the organization. "In regards to intelligent automation and automation, there's a joy that you get from being in a program like this that you get to see employees become happier," he said. "The team is just so ecstatic about the fact that it's accurate, it's on time, they can monitor it, they can see what it's doing, and it allows them freedom to work on the more important tasks that add revenue to our organization." Infosys, which partnered with Conagra on its automation journey, has played a crucial role in the deployment of AI technologies that provide tangible ROI. Through well-defined frameworks and expertise in automation, Infosys helps companies such as Conagra identify key use cases for AI implementation and ensures that results are continuously monitored and refined to meet business goals. "Anything that delivers faster is going to be a success for us," Schneider said. "For our immediate future, we're investing in document understanding, communication mining, as well as process mining. We're very excited about those technologies and how those are going to benefit our organization." Here's the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE's and theCUBE Research's coverage of UiPath Forward 2024:

UiPath is marrying generative AI with robots to accelerate business automation - SiliconANGLE

UiPath is marrying generative AI with robots to accelerate business automation UiPath Inc. today announced a preview of its upcoming Agent Builder tool as it outlined its vision to combine its expertise in robotic process automation with generative artificial intelligence models and accelerate enterprise automation to the next level. The new tool was unveiled at UiPath's annual user conference, UiPath Forward 2024 in Las Vegas. The company said it'll launch in preview in December as part of its UiPath Studio developer tool suite. It will give developers everything they need to design, build, evaluate and publish AI-powered agents that can collaborate with its traditional process automation robots. The company is pushing the "agentic automation" narrative, which is focused on AI agents that go further than traditional chatbots such as ChatGPT. AI agents are designed not only to understand questions and requests and generate answers or suggestions, but also to take actions on behalf of users, essentially automating various aspects of their work. UiPath made its name in the area of robotic process automation, which is a subset of AI that's focused on machine automation. Its platform provides tools that enterprises can use to automate repetitive business tasks such as data entry. They work by studying how human workers complete these tasks, so they can replicate the process, freeing up those employees to carry out higher-level work. "UiPath is going through another transition," said Dave Vellante, chief analyst at the SiliconANGLE sister market research firm theCUBE Research. "It led the RPA market where it was an innovator and now it has an opportunity to evolve as a leader in agent-based automation." At UiPath Forward, the startup explained, its robots are best suited for carrying out repetitive, rule-based tasks in order to improve business efficiency and reduce manual effort. On the other hand, AI agents are better at adapting to new challenges, making intelligent decisions and handling complex, multistep processes. In other words, they do quite different things. According to UiPath, "agentic automation" refers to the combination of RPA robots, AI agents, humans and AI models, and it believes it has the potential to expand the scope and impact of automation in enterprise environments. By combining AI agents with its robots, UiPath says, it will enable the automation of more complex tasks that were previously impossible for anyone but humans to perform. They'll also be able to make intelligent decisions on behalf of users, the company said. UiPath founder and Chief Executive Daniel Dines said agentic automation is the next evolution of RPA and will help customers to automate entire business processes from start to finish. He explained that AI agents can leverage the millions of automation developed by UiPath's customers to integrate with thousands of enterprise applications. At the same time, those agents will adhere to the strict governance controls provided by UiPath's platform. The company also spoke about its concept of agentic orchestration, which is a process that governs the design, implementation, operation, monitoring and optimization of agentic AI workflows. Customers will be able to manage the entire process lifecycle, from start to finish, from within UiPath's platform, ensuring that humans can work together with AI agents in a compliant way. With the UiPath Agent Builder, developers will be able to build AI agents that can incorporate its RPA bots to automate various advanced business processes. They'll be able to access a number of prebuilt agents in the UiPath Agent Catalog, or build their own from scratch, and they can also choose to integrate third-party AI agents. "I think of RPA as the plumbing in agentic automation," Vellante said. "It's necessary but not sufficient for success. Traditional robots will become commoditized in my view as the value moves up the intelligence value chain toward agents and control frameworks that manage and execute against corporate goals." International Data Corp. analyst Maureen Fleming said agentic automation is about the convergence of AI and rule-based automation technologies. "The combination of generative AI and AI agents will be the first time that knowledge workers can meaningfully gain the benefits of automation to help them do their jobs, creating the next level of value from automation across enterprises," she said. Generative AI was a recurring theme across all of UiPath's announcements at Forward today, with the company also announcing general availability of its new Autopilot tool, a conversational agent designed to enhance worker productivity. The UiPath Autopilot provides a conversational interface that makes it simple for any employee to take advantage of the company's agents and workflow automations. They'll be able to use it to find answers to their questions, grounded in the company's own data, analyze documents, automate copy pasting across applications and more. Better still, customers will be able to choose from a range of large language models under the hood. One option will be Inflection AI Inc.'s Inflection AI Enterprise, which is a security-focused LLM that's aimed at highly regulated industries. Rather than run in the cloud, it uses Intel Corp.'s Gaudi 3 processors to process data on-premises, ensuring confidential data doesn't fall into the wrong hands. UiPath has some interesting opportunities in that it is a founder-led company with strong integrations, low-code chops and a strong vision," Vellante said. "Now it has to put these together, along with its partnerships, to deliver. I'm curious to see how UiPath responds to this latest challenge."

UiPath transforms enterprise workflow with gen AI - SiliconANGLE

UiPath launches next chapter with business automation based on gen AI: CEO Daniel Dines explains UiPath Inc., a business automation platform, is entering a new era with the rise of generative artificial intelligence as part of the enterprise workflow. The company is now focused on orchestrating gen AI agents and robots as part of its platform, building on its history of automated business operations. This coordination between people and robots is the future, according to Daniel Dines (pictured), founder and chief executive officer of UiPath Inc. "We aim to combine all of these data to give an enterprise a 360 view of all the transactions that happened in the enterprise," he said. "Of course, building the agent itself, we are introducing this agent builder, which is a low-code technology to build agents. We aim that the persona that builds automations today -- robots today -- will be capable of building agent. It makes a lot of sense to deploy them together, to have agents and robots really working side by side." Dines spoke with theCUBE Research's Dave Vellante and co-host Rebecca Knight at UiPath Forward 2024, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed UiPath's new strategy and how AI is impacting the user experience. (* Disclosure below.) UiPath is beginning its second act by harnessing the power of unstructured AI, according to Dines. Previously, the company was only able to automate repetitive business actions based on structured data. "That was really limiting, because if you look into enterprise processes, many of them will have a mix of rule-based tasks and the unstructured type ... and sometimes they are intermingled, so it's not so easy to separate them," he said. "We have to learn how can we deploy this gen AI technology that is capable of navigating the unstructured part. But the biggest challenge is this technology has agency [that] is non-deterministic. So, how can we make a non-deterministic technology reliable, and how can we deliver into an enterprise workflow context that should be reliable?" A platform that coordinates all of the data between robots, enterprise workers and agents is the next step, according to Dines. Agentic AI is only useful if deployed as part of an orchestrated action between robots and humans. "The way we are managing robots and deploy[ing] robots today will be very similar for agents," Dines said. "All the audit trays that we use for robots will be similar for agents. So, every application that an agent will touch [and] everything an agent will decide, will be fully auditable using our existing platform. We have the enterprise workflow ... we have to evolve our process orchestration technology to be capable of handling agents better." User interface is in UiPath's name, and it will continue to be a crucial element of the company's business. Although aspects of the enterprise workflow will continue to be automated, UI is going away any time soon, Dines added. "The most relevant transformation is how we will deliver the work itself," he said. "It's a dramatic shift in how we are going to work. So, I think we are going to use less applications than before for doing clearly repetitive work. I'm not sure the nature of the interface is going to necessarily change. You cannot act only via natural languages and applications. I don't think it's practical." Here's the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE's and theCUBE Research's coverage of UiPath Forward 2024:

UiPath's Second Act - RPA combined with agentic AI to enable real organizational change

At UiPath's annual conference this week, the keynote focused on the potential of automation to reshape how organizations operate at scale. Speakers from companies like Omega Healthcare and Canon emphasized the tangible impacts of automation in fields ranging from healthcare to finance. The event opened with testimonials from customers who have successfully implemented AI-powered automation. Vijayashree Natarajan, Head of Technology at Omega Healthcare, emphasized significant operational improvements, particularly in invoicing, where automation has delivered a 99.5% accuracy rate - a substantial gain in the notoriously paperwork-heavy healthcare sector. Natarajan noted that this change was "transforming this paperwork and helping to keep healthcare healthy and affordable", by increasing productivity by 100% and reducing turnaround time by 50%. A significant portion of the keynote focused on enabling businesses to operationalize AI across enterprise workflows. Agentic AI and the ability to automate complex decision-making processes was the theme of UiPath on Tour in July, and came to the fore during the keynote. UiPath CEO Daniel Dines noted that agentic AI was the vendor's 'second act', evolving beyond rule-based robotic process automation (RPA) to include more dynamic, decision-making capabilities. Referring to the potential of generative AI to handle unstructured data and nuanced decision-making processes, Dines said: This is the first time in the history of humanity when we have access to a technology that can imitate our mind. While AI agents are capable of performing high-level, non-deterministic tasks such as making decisions based on natural language input, they work in tandem with traditional RPA robots to execute structured, deterministic tasks. According to Dines, this combination of AI agents and robots allows businesses to automate entire workflows, moving beyond the limitations of traditional automation and going end-to-end in process automation, while maintaining human oversight for critical decision-making points. This vision was echoed by Chandra Gnanasambandam, Senior Partner at McKinsey. In industries such as banking, where complex processes like loan origination and credit risk evaluation require both structured and unstructured decision-making, agents offer the potential to solve these workflows at scale. However, Gnanasambandam was quick to emphasize that these AI agents still rely on robots to handle individual tasks. "Agents need tools, and those tools will be robots," he said, reinforcing the idea that both AI and RPA will need to coexist for businesses to achieve full automation. Both Dines and Gnanasambandam, emphasized that while AI and automation can provide substantial productivity gains, these technologies must be accompanied by a shift in how organizations operate. Gnanasambandam, said it best when he explained: No more than 10-15% of the business case is actually technology; the rest is around change management. This focus on organizational change was a theme across multiple sessions. For AI-powered automation to deliver its full value, businesses must rewire their workflows, retrain their employees, and adopt new operating models. Canon's journey with AI-powered automation was one example of how customers making significant changes to embrace AI and RPA. Tom Olino, Director of Financial Systems and Process Improvement at Canon USA, detailed the company's successful implementation of robotic process automation (RPA) across its financial operations. Canon began its automation journey within the finance department, a natural starting point due to the abundance of repetitive and rule-based tasks, such as reconciliation activities and financial reporting. Olino explained: There's a lot of routine activities in finance and accounting. It just makes sense when you see processes like reconciliation -- pure definitions of tasks that automation can tackle. Canon's use of RPA extended beyond finance into supply chain operations, significantly improving efficiency across multiple sectors of the business. Canon's RPA pilot started with five bots but quickly scaled to 165 bots in production. This expansion allowed Canon to significantly reduce manual errors and improve process accuracy, particularly in areas like invoice processing and supply chain management, where complexity often leads to inefficiencies. While RPA has provided significant gains, Olino is also looking forward to the potential of generative AI. He described how AI-powered agents could eventually manage more complex workflows, eliminating even more of the manual oversight required in processes like financial reconciliations. Canon is now exploring AI-powered automation as a tool to modernize legacy systems and enable new levels of operational agility. There have been plenty of changes at UiPath since last year's conference, so it was reassuring to see the emphasis on customers during the opening minutes of the keynote rather than a smoke machine and lasers. While agents and bots naturally come under the spotlight, putting companies like Canon and Omega Healthcare add weight where words like 'transformation' and 'orchestration' are used freely. Jon Reed and I are on the ground in Las Vegas to dig into the details with customers and executives.

UiPath Unveils New Vision for the Future: Expanding the Boundaries of AI with Agentic Automation

UiPath previews Agent Builder™, a tool for automation developers and business users to build, evaluate, and publish agents UiPath (NYSE: PATH), a leading enterprise automation and AI software company, announced its new vision and strategic direction centered on the next evolution of enterprise automation - agentic automation. UiPath, best known for its industry-leading robotic process automation (RPA) technology, is innovating customer automation journeys with agentic automation - a progressive leap from RPA that combines AI agents, robots, people, and models to deliver AI transformation enterprise wide for end-to-end processes. The value of agentic lies in its potential to efficiently tackle the long tail of complex and differentiated use cases across industries, while offering previously unseen potential for customization, adaptability, and cost-savings. Agentic automation will use both robots and agents to complete work tasks. Robots are best for automating repetitive and rule-based tasks, improving efficiency, and reducing manual effort, while agents are best at adapting to changes, making intelligent decisions, and handling complex and dynamic processes. The combination of robots and agents extends the scope and impact of automation, unlocking business growth and empowering employees to focus on higher-value work. Agents complete critical business processes and tasks that were not previously possible to automate due to their ability to act independently and make dynamic decisions. "Agentic automation is the natural evolution of RPA," said Daniel Dines, Founder and CEO. "Since our inception, we have helped our customers revolutionize their businesses by emulating humans through robotic process automation. Now, we're advancing enterprise automation with agents, allowing customers to automate entire end-to-end processes and orchestrate workflows seamlessly. The result is more substantial business outcomes, greater productivity, and more customer-facing direct benefits from automation." Agents can make use of the millions of automations developed by UiPath customers and leverage the same ecosystem of tools that enables these automations to integrate reliably with thousands of enterprise business applications. Agents benefit from the governance and control provided by the UiPath Platform and the precision-oriented robots that perform with high reliability as well as human-in-the-loop capabilities for critical decisions. Maximizing the value of agentic workflows requires orchestration between agents, robots, humans, and models, but the complexity of integrating often-unpredictable models into business-critical workflows can be challenging. UiPath will address these challenges with agentic orchestration: a process that enables the design, implementation, operation, monitoring, and optimization of complex business processes from start to finish. Customers can manage the end-to-end process lifecycle -- automation, intelligent process insights, modeling, monitoring, and management -- all in one platform, allowing automation, AI agents, and humans to work together for better outcomes. By understanding all roles and responsibilities in workflows, agentic orchestration can ensure compliance and deterministic outcomes with the dynamic adaptability allowed by agents. "Agentic automation will rapidly become the primary mechanism to converge AI with rules-based technologies to automate and augment knowledge work," said Maureen Fleming at IDC. "The combination of GenAI and AI agents represent the first-time knowledge workers will meaningfully gain the benefits of business automation to help them do their jobs, creating the next level of value from automation across enterprises." New agentic capabilities in the UiPath Platform At its annual FORWARD user conference in Las Vegas, UiPath announced a preview of Agent Builder™, a tool for automation developers to build, evaluate, and publish enterprise agents that work cooperatively with robots on UiPath's automation platform. Agent Builder is part of the UiPath Studio family of developer tools, meaning developers can use Studio to develop and deploy workflows and apps that work with agents. Agent Builder will allow users to build agents, either from scratch or from a pre-built agent in the UiPath Agent Catalog, that work in tandem with robots and humans. Customers will also be able to include third-party agents in their agentic workflows if they choose. "Agents allow anyone to handle more complex tasks and brand-new scenarios, which provides tremendous value to our customers," said Graham Sheldon, Chief Product Officer at UiPath. "Providing customers with the ability to build their own specialized agents in a simple, low-code integrated development environment or a pre-built template makes it easy for them to automate new use cases, avoid costs, and stay ahead of competitors." Agent Builder is expected to be available for preview across the UiPath community in December 2024. All users are encouraged to register for the preview here. Autopilot for everyone now available and free to start UiPath also announced the launch of Autopilot for everyone - a cross-platform, GenAI conversational agent that helps every employee enhance productivity at work. Autopilot for everyone allows end users to take full advantage of UiPath's agents and workflow automations, enabling any employee, regardless of technical ability, to complete complex tasks ranging from getting answers grounded with their own organization's data, analyzing documents, automating copy-paste into apps, and running automations. Autopilot for everyone provides an intuitive LLM-based conversational experience, customizable prompts, vast automation libraries, and leverages specialized AI models for specific tasks such as document understanding and semantic copy-paste. Customers also benefit from UiPath security and governance: Autopilot is built on the UiPath AI Trust Layer that enables organizations to easily manage and govern the rollout and data usage of AI models. It is a cross-platform solution that works on both Windows and Mac. More information can be found here. "At UiPath, we believe strongly in the democratization of this type of technology because we've seen firsthand how valuable it is for our customers," said Sheldon. "We're excited to help break down barriers to widespread agentic automation adoption so that everyone can take advantage of the numerous benefits that Autopilot brings to everyday work." About UiPath UiPath (NYSE: PATH) develops AI technology that mirrors human intelligence with ever-increasing sophistication, transforming how businesses operate, innovate, and compete. The UiPath Platform™ accelerates the shift toward a new era of agentic automation -- one where agents, robots, people, and models integrate seamlessly to enable autonomous processes and smarter decision making. With a focus on security, accuracy, and resiliency, UiPath is committed to shaping a world where AI enhances human potential and revolutionizes industries. For more information, visit www.uipath.com.