Automation Anywhere Reviews

We use Automation Anywhere for our clients which consists of banks and a telecommunication company to automate their developing systems using bots. We receive the process definition documents from our clients and we developed a process that they need to approve before we can implement the automation.

With Automation Anywhere, we can automate high-priority projects first and gradually shift our focus to automating smaller, manually-driven projects.

It takes around three months to train non-technical people to use Automation Anywhere. We start training on simple Excel automation tasks and progress from there.

Automation Co-Pilot has helped increase productivity. The bots save three to five minutes for each small task per person and even more time on larger tasks. One bot can handle thousands of projects.

Automation Co-Pilot has helped save staff time for other projects.

Automation Anywhere successfully integrates automation into workflows, APIs, business applications, and documents. Everything runs seamlessly in the backend with no issues. 

Automation Anywhere offers valuable features, including command packages for PDF, Windows, XML, and Excel, as well as universal recording capabilities.

Automation Anywhere has difficulty collecting data from Citrix and Oracle applications.

Extracting customer addresses from Google that are not in a standard URL format is a challenge for Automation Anywhere.

I would like Automation Anywhere to make available more development tools, so our people can learn on their own and enhance their skills.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for just over one and a half years.

Automation Anywhere effectively automates our manual tasks at scale.

We clear up any issues in the testing phase, so once we are ready to deploy it is straightforward.

The solution itself is free unless we want to add the support option but we have to pay for the bots we use. There are two types of payment options: monthly or quarterly licenses for the bot agents. 

Between Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Blue Prism I find Automation Anywhere to be the best with UiPath a close second.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

Upgrading Automation Anywhere is easy.

We use Automation Anywhere in multiple projects and multiple teams.

Maintenance is required for updating bots or if changes are made by the developers.

We have five to six people working around the clock who are responsible for the bot maintenance.

We sell Automation Anywhere to customers who want to automate their processes within the hospitality industry.

Our customers can deploy Automation Anywhere both on-premises and in the cloud.

It is easy to learn and use Automation Anywhere.

Learning to automate using the solution for simple processes in HR and IT is easy. For areas such as finance, the training takes a few months and requires a technical person to train the team.

Integrating with co-pilot is straightforward when using SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, or other international systems. However, challenges arise when integrating with in-house systems.

Co-pilot helps increase productivity for our customers.

We often integrate SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft with Automation Anywhere. There are no issues with the integrations as long as we configure everything properly.

Automation Anywhere enables our customers to achieve savings of over 60 percent in time and money. While employees may take breaks and vacations, their automated processes continue to operate seamlessly without interruption, ensuring a consistent flow of work.

The ability to automate renewals of government licenses four times a year is valuable.

The marketing for Automation Anywhere has room for improvement.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for three years.

Automation Anywhere can provide automation to scale as long as the organization has the budget for it.

The technical support is great.

Positive

I use both UiPath and Automation Anywhere. UiPath has a more aggressive marketing strategy and a larger market share. However, our banking, insurance, and high-level customers prefer Automation Anywhere over UiPath.

The deployment time depends on the number of processes being automated.

Despite being less expensive than UiPath, Automation Anywhere remains cost-prohibitive for many small and medium-sized businesses.

I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.

Our customers are all enterprise-level. 

Automation Anywhere does not require ongoing maintenance and offers 24/7 support if any issue arises.

We use Automation Anywhere to automate websites and extract data from them.

Automation Anywhere helped us automate human tasks.

The learning curve is quite shallow.

Automation Anywhere has helped our organization by working around the clock, allowing us to rely on robots instead of humans. We no longer have errors, or if we do have some problems, we are informed. It is easy to implement and monitor the processing part of the software.

Cloud-based Automation Anywhere provides automation at scale with ease.

The integration of RPA bots, APIs, business applications, and documents in Automation Anywhere is good.

Automation Anywhere has helped our organization increase our automation consumption.

The best features are the ease of use, the short learning curve, and the good support from our local partner.

The quality and speed of Automation Anywhere's support needs significant improvement. We are not satisfied with the quality of support.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for two years.

It is stable.

Automation Anywhere is scalable.

The technical support is not good. They are slow and the level of support is poor.

Neutral

We tried using Blue Prism for one of our projects but ran into a lot of complications when we tried to implement it ourselves. We found Automation Anywhere much easier to implement.

We had an enablement package, which we could start using because Automation Anywhere turned it on automatically. We did not need to set it up ourselves, as it was only for bots running in our environment. It was not difficult.

The price for Automation Anywhere is reasonable.

We also evaluated UiPath, which has similar quality and features to Automation Anywhere. However, we chose Automation Anywhere because we had someone in our organization who was familiar with it. Blue Prism is significantly inferior to both UiPath and Automation Anywhere.

I would give Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

API is our first choice whenever possible, but it is not always feasible, depending on the use case. Sometimes, we need to perform additional process steps beyond simply calling an API. In such cases, we may consider using an RPA tool, such as Automation Anywhere, especially if we do not have an API.

Typical maintenance is required. If we get new versions of bots, we need to update Automation Anywhere. However, the cloud services are maintained by Automation Anywhere itself, so we don't have to worry about that.

I recommend looking at IQ Bots, a very good and easy-to-use intelligent document-processing feature. I also advise taking the quick training available online and trying to build a simple but real process on their own. There is also a community edition that anyone can use, so it's easy to start with that to try out Automation Anywhere.

We are a biotechnology company. We are in healthcare. We receive samples, and we need to do some of the entries. We did a PoC through Automation Anywhere. Our objective was to improve accuracy and reduce manpower.

We were able to 100% achieve our objectives. There was an increase in accuracy, and there was also a reduction in manpower. The bot reduced the manpower required. We could reduce nearly 40 members through this project in Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere has helped our organization increase its automation consumption. Earlier, we did not have any automation for the labs to increase accuracy and reduce manpower. We have now achieved the same with Automation Anywhere. We have done about 60% automation. We have used it only for the lab. We are planning to use it for the marketing team, call center, and all other departments.

It improves accuracy and reduces manpower. It is easy to learn. We trained our lab people, and they were able to achieve accuracy with the technical knowledge. 

I would like it to have AI and ML capabilities.

The support can also be better. It can be faster.

I have been working with Automation Anywhere for the past two years.

There is 99.5% stability. It is very stable.

It is scalable. With a robust infrastructure, if the sample size increases, we can scale on an on-demand basis.

We plan to increase its usage. We are planning for the lab expansion. During the lab expansion, we will also increase the licenses.

After the execution, we need to have service and support. Sometimes, there is a lag in the support. We are running labs 24/7, but when we raise a ticket, they are able to call and fix the same only on the next business day. For this reason, we have planned high availability for the RPA bots in the case of any incident. We are managing through that, and we have also highlighted the concern about the service and support. They also plan to work on it.

Neutral

We did not use any other solution.

The initial setup was handled by the business owner and IT. It was done by our partner. It requires technical skills. We need to have a workflow. If we have a clear workflow, we can easily implement the same with the partner.

We provided hands-on training for Automation Anywhere through our partner. In the first phase, it took us at least three months to train the lab operations team and other teams supporting the project. We parallelly created a document for the initial phase. All the people who are now being onboarded use that document. They are able to support the bots without any additional training.

We did the implementation with the help of our partner. They first understood the workflow of the healthcare sector and our architecture. After that, they planned the solution for us. It took them a minimum of one month to understand all those things, and then we did the PoC.

They have also done the integration with the lab software. It took them nearly four to six months for integration and report generation.

In the first year, we got 20% to 30% ROI. In the second or third year, we got the complete amount that we invested. There is also an improvement in the business because of data accuracy.

It is not cheap, but we are able to get an ROI. I would rate it a seven out of ten in terms of pricing.

There are no costs in addition to licensing, but we had to pay our partner for one-time implementation.

We also did a PoC with UiPath and other solutions. We chose Automation Anywhere because we could get significant ROI with Automation Anywhere. Its accuracy and costs were better than others. We have purchased the bot with Orchestrator.

You need to have a good partner to assess the performance and get the best solution. 

Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

We use Automation Anywhere in the finance domain for tasks such as data reconciliation, data identification, and aviation operations.

We implemented Automation Anywhere to address our outstanding invoices, purchase orders, and quotations from multiple vendors. We utilized the IQ Bot feature, which is integrated into the OCR system.

For technical individuals, Automation Anywhere is easy to use.

The learning curve is favorable for non-technical staff, as it typically takes between two to four weeks before they can start automating with Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere's capability to deliver automation at scale is commendable. We possess the ability to scale up to multiple users across organizations. In fact, I have successfully executed this RPA using a report containing one Lakh operations, which is equivalent to one hundred thousand.

Automation Anywhere has helped our organization increase its automation consumption. We were able to showcase the use cases and case studies we have completed to market our abilities and services.

IQ Bot is the most valuable integrated feature of Automation Anywhere.

For business users, the solution is complex and could be made more user-friendly.

It is not easy to integrate APIs with Automation Anywhere without a good knowledge of APIs.

The pricing of Automation Anywhere is higher compared to other solutions on the market, such as Microsoft Power Automate and UiPath, and it has room for improvement.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for five years.

Automation Anywhere is stable. We can rely on it without encountering any issues.

Automation Anywhere is highly scalable.

The quality of technical support relies on the partnership we maintain with Automation Anywhere. Gold partners receive excellent service. As long as we maintain this relationship with Automation Anywhere, we can expect consistently good service. However, if the partnership is not in place, it may take some time, but we will still receive some answers eventually.

Positive

We still use multiple RPAs depending on the customers' requirements, including UiPath and Microsoft Power Automate.

UiPath has the ability to integrate with other products, whereas Automation Anywhere has limitations in integrating with APIs and other OCR tools.

We will see a return on investment eventually, but we need to be patient in order to realize the potential that Automation Anywhere offers three years down the line.

The price for Automation Anywhere is high. I would rate the cost an eight out of ten, with ten being the highest cost.

I would rate Automation Anywhere eight out of ten. The integrations and pricing model are areas that need improvement. However, Automation Anywhere is a very effective tool, offering its own internal solutions. Automation Anywhere eliminates the need to rely on any other third-party solutions, which is a significant advantage.

For organizations interested in utilizing API automation, there are several tools available in the market. Additionally, numerous BPM tools can be employed for API integration. However, if they require desktop automation or process automation, Automation Anywhere is a recommended tool.

Our IT department maintains the solution. We maintain the bots once a quarter for one hour.

In the banking, financial services, and manufacturing domains it is used for process automation and OCR.

For example, it is used by banks for large-scale reconciliation. A group of companies often has multiple bank accounts. We have to do the reconciliation with multiple currencies. On a daily basis, there can be more than 10,000 transactions.

We have implemented Automation Co-Pilot in our organization. Suppose a business head needs to check the details about a customer, such as order history, payment clearance time, how many invoices have been sent, and how many of them have cleared on time. They may also need information about how many projects they have executed with that customer, how many of their resources have been used, and how long that customer has been associated with their organization. I get all this information in one portal by using Automation Co-pilot.

It is talking with Monday.com, our CRM, as well as with our in-house project management tool, and SAP, where I get all the account details. It gets all the information needed and more, such as how many times we had discussions with the customer about multiple projects, and which salesperson is assigned to that customer. All the details required for business management are presented on one page, using Co-Pilot.

An example of how Automation Co-Pilot has affected our productivity is that in India the taxation system differs from that in the UK. Everything is on a government portal. If I want to deal with new customers and need data about their previous taxation, I obtain all the details from the government portal using Co-Pilot.

We also use Co-Pilot for customer support. We are the number-one partner in India for Tableau and data analytics and we have many projects where we provide Tableau support. We've configured Co-Pilot to gather all the necessary background information from our support system about a customer who raises a ticket. This information is displayed on one screen from our project management systems, repositories, and accounts. All the details are presented in our ticketing software, Jira. Based on this information, we understand the customer's scenario, and what kind of dashboards and RPA processes they have implemented. Initially, a customer support ticket is opened by a chatbot, not a human. The chatbot communicates with the customer and registers the ticket. A bot then opens the ticket and triggers Co-Pilot to gather all the details. With all the details collected, a bot will then assign that ticket to a specific person. This process, which used to require three people, is now done completely by bots.

Another benefit is around approval processes. You can build one using Automation Anywhere Co-Pilot when multiple levels of approvals are involved. Initially, we didn't have an approval process. Multiple people were in approvals. Now, with all the details in a ticket, when it is resolved, it is approved by the manager. That wasn't integrated into Jira, so we automated that in Co-Pilot. A solution should be verified by a senior person. Now, when tickets are approved, it helps us provide a good customer experience and customers will renew their contracts.

And in banking, where you have thousands of loan applications each day, assessing each application involves getting the applicant's credit score and details from multiple portals and government websites. Making a decision for one applicant used to take half an hour. But by using Co-Pilot, the decision-making time is reduced to just five or 10 minutes. It is genuinely helping people speed up operations and decision-making processes.

It has also helped us increase automation. Every day we are sending the "overdue" report to everyone in sales because they do the recoveries. The salespeople update all the details in the database and a reminder is automatically sent to the customer as well as the salesperson if the payment has not cleared within the payment terms. Initially, there were three people generating the reports and sending them to Salesforce, updating SAP, et cetera. Now, there's only one person who is handling the exceptions, because there are exceptions that are not handled by the bot.

Now, our salespeople are focusing more on business opportunities and not worrying about payments. Most of the time, payments are taken care of by the bot.

After we implemented that process, we then implemented vendor invoice processing, customer invoice processing, customer payments, PO processing, and bank reconciliation. We have implemented multiple processes.

The most valuable feature, which was launched last year, is Automation Co-Pilot. Microsoft has a co-pilot, but it's only for Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. But Automation Anywhere offers a co-pilot that is suitable for Salesforce, Genesys, Atlassian, and other contact center and standard applications. This is a game-changing feature for Automation Anywhere compared to the market. We are also getting good responses from customers about this product.

Automation Anywhere is easy to use. In my experience with more than 100 customers, coding is not a big deal nor is writing the bot. Understanding the process and providing optimized workflow, and fitting RPA properly for their processes are important.

In terms of the learning curve, Automation Anywhere provides detailed resources through their portal, including instructor-led training, prerecorded sessions, and exams. When training my team, I initially recommend that they go to the Automation Anywhere University. Then, for two days, I provide high-level training, covering the use cases and overall process. We then give simple use cases to the team and they are ready to implement them. Within three months, I have trained a team of over 20.

I hire people who have worked with other technologies but who want to shift to RPA. They already have knowledge of processes and their logic is strong. Others don't know about logic or how to apply algorithms.

I'm impressed with the solution's OCR and document automation because I've worked with multiple OCRs and Automation Anywhere has built in most of the document formats so you can easily get results. You can easily and quickly extract data from a PDF and it's faster than other tools.

I would like to see a low-code/no-code platform, similar to Zoho Creator or Joget, for process building, so that we can build applications within Automation Anywhere itself. Right now, we need some kind of portal that supports these types of activities. We would like to give a 360-degree solution to our customers without needing to get help from other technologies, like Joget to build processes, or Java to build custom portals.

If Automation Anywhere included these features, I would be able to include all these processes. There are features in place in Automation Anywhere right now, in AARI and Co-Pilot, but they have limitations. They do not match the development capabilities of platforms like Joget or other applications like that.

I'd like to see the stabilization of Co-Pilot and integration with multiple products. Right now, it is integrated with Genesys and Salesforce, among others. In the future, I will require integration with SAP Oracle, Atlassian, and Service Now. The contact center vertical is important and ticketing comes into the picture. We can build integration with Atlassian, but I have to do the coding and use extensions on everyone's laptops. Integration of Co-Pilot with Atlassian and other products will help the user.

For instance, if a big bank wants to automate loan application management with Co-Pilot and I need to use their CRM, if the CRM is not supported they won't do the project. And if a bank has over 3,000 loan agents, I have to install the extensions and integrations on each of their laptops. Instead, I could add one line of code inside Atlassian and get all the results automatically on everyone's laptops. This would save a lot of time for both developers and customers.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than four years.

Technical support is related to the product only. We receive good support from them because they respond within one hour. They even have chat support.

Customer environments aren't the same. Sometimes they block the reverse proxy or other things. That's when I need help from Automation Anywhere because they are the product experts, while we are implementation experts. If we have an issue with the product, we get help from Automation Anywhere. 

For example, if there is a problem with communication between the server and client and the bot is down, I need to contact Automation Anywhere to resolve the issue. We reach out to Automation Anywhere for these kinds of problems, but we handle process-related or implementation-related issues ourselves.

Positive

I worked with UiPath for about two to three months.

Co-Pilot is not free. It has a user-based cost. If I have 100 users, I need to purchase 100 licenses. But for practice purposes, you can get the Community Edition where you can understand all the details for implementing Co-Pilot.

The pricing is reasonable.

Automation Anywhere is the only RPA tool that is developed using something other than .NET technology. If you go for UiPath, Blue Prism, AutomationEdge, or Pega, they are all built on .NET, and only support Windows. But Automation Anywhere is developed on Java and Python entirely, and is totally web-based. Other tools are desktop-based. That means I can install their server on Linux too. Most banks and many other enterprise organizations require servers on Linux, not Windows. That's an advantage for Automation Anywhere.

We are working with one of the top-three banks in India. They have a policy that all servers have to be Linux servers. Because of that, UiPath and other tools were eliminated in the first stage of the deal.

We did build our own product related to OCR but not RPA, but Automation Anywhere is the biggest product. We also looked at Power Automate, but cost was a factor. Power Automate charges per process, not per bot. For example, it doesn't take more than 10 minutes to close the last month's General Ledger. One of our customers was paying $600 per month for this process with Power Automate. He went with Automation Anywhere, where he only had to pay $3,000 to $4,000 in total for an unattended bot, which was able to help 24/7.

And to get all the components in UiPath that are similar to what you have in Automation Anywhere, a customer would pay more than $37,000, while an Automation Anywhere customer would only pay $25,000. That is a game-changer.

As for using an API integration instead of RPA, API is faster than desktop automation, but it depends on the scenario. If you want to work with standard applications like SAP or Oracle, you can use APIs or desktop automation. I faced an issue with one of my customers who said that to do an API ABAP integration for SAP automation, he would have to pay for automation and ABAP development. I suggested he not pay for ABAP and just do desktop automation. What will be cost-effective depends on the scenario and the automation.

If a customer has to spend $10,000 on ABAP and another $30,000 to $40,000 for Automation Anywhere, they will kick us out. But if we go with Automation Anywhere and there is no need for ABAP, and instead we'll do desktop automation, the customer will be much happier because they are saving costs.

I have replaced existing portals for multiple customers. For one of my customers in Dubai, when we came into the picture, multiple things were not in their portal. They had developed the portal in-house. We started by understanding all the requirements. Before we started with RPA, we redeveloped the portal and then applied RPA OCR and pushed the data where it needed to go.

People develop their portals according to their convenience, but they don't know the standard processes and how to implement them. When they have to provide reports to management, or they have to do an audit, or they have to check details of particular transactions, they don't get the details from their existing portal or process. We standardize their process and then we implement RPA. If their process is not standardized, RPA will be a failure for the customer.

A simple process, from requirement gathering to production, takes about one month. Solutions don't require more than two or three people. For smaller projects, we don't assign a dedicated project manager. Instead, we use a shared project manager. The business analyst is also shared, because the costs of these roles need to be recovered. If the cost isn't recovered, there's no need for us to assign this role. The business analyst will do the final testing of the project because they're involved from the initial phase of the project.

The time spent maintaining bots depends on the bots, the situation, and the customer. A critical process might have 40-plus unattended bots and might take two resources during business hours for project support and monitoring. But I recommend support on an hourly basis.

An enterprise with multiple licenses should have at least one dedicated support person. That resource will provide reports to management. For instance, when discussing future projects, management will require all the information to approve the budget. We can present all the information: the number of transactions over the last month, and how much time or money was saved. Support will also provide training to business users if required. When AARI is part of the picture, we have to train people.

I'm currently using Automation Anywhere for automating Excel, database, and document automation. The use cases are mostly related to the accounts and finance department.

The infrastructure that Automation Anywhere has created is really simple. Compared to other tools such as Power Automate, it is more user-friendly and faster. The benefits of Automation Anywhere, along with my experience automating with Python, make it easier to automate Excel and UI-based automation tasks.

They can provide more features for desktop application automation. They don't have extensive capabilities for automating desktop applications. While we can automate desktop applications using paths, it is not very accurate. I haven't used AARI extensively, but I have created one or two processes that have AARI infrastructure. I have used forms for those processes.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for 4.5 years.

Besides Automation Anywhere, I have used Power Automate. The cost of Power Automate is significantly lower compared to Automation Anywhere, which is one advantage. However, regarding proficiency and overall functionality, Automation Anywhere is much better.

The setup process in Automation Anywhere is really easy. While I haven't worked extensively on moving from development to production in Power Automate, with Automation Anywhere, we just need to import the bot and export it into the production environment. The process typically takes 10 to 15 minutes.

While I don't know the exact figures, Automation Anywhere is approximately 10 times more expensive than Power Automate, possibly even more. I have a general idea of the cost for one runner machine, but I don't have exact information about their charging structure.

They have comprehensive videos related to each action in Automation Anywhere. They have created entire videos and classes on the Automation Anywhere University website, which serves as a direct learning resource. Performance with Automation Anywhere is really good and much better than Power Automate. On a scale of 1-10, I rate Automation Anywhere an 8.

We have used Automation Anywhere across industries such as banking, finance, health care, and manufacturing, mainly for back office automation. We have used it for traditional reconciliations, invoice processing, purchase order processing, currency exchange, data scraping from a portal, and pulling and pushing data between multiple applications, including integrations such as SAP, Navision, and Oracle. On the front office side, customer service engagements where the customer agent is on call and takes a query are another use case, allowing agents to submit queries into the system and receive responses based on a generative AI model.

We've utilized Automation Anywhere in some front office use cases as well as in certain agent tasks. For users who have processes with numerous manual interventions, Automation Anywhere has introduced the Co-Pilot feature, which provides a chat-like interface for interaction between user queries and backend systems. For instance, in a PO processing scenario where invoice data has been extracted, you can place a form in the process to view the extracted data. If you need to make any changes, you can easily update it on the front end. After that, the data can be sent for approval or posted in a system like SAP or Oracle. This feature brings significant advantages to attended automation.

Previously, before the full implementation of Co-Pilot, we relied on unattended automation. In that situation, the bot would send us an Excel file, asking us to check the PO details, which we would then update and send back to the bot. However, if I weren't available at that time, the file could get overlooked. There were often delays of one to two hours before I checked the file and sent it back. With the integration of the Co-Pilot feature for attended automation, data appears directly on our screen, eliminating the need to wait for an email or worry about missed emails. This integration has significantly saved us time within the operations team.

Additionally, by streamlining these manual processes, we were able to redirect our efforts toward more effective brainstorming sessions. We could discuss what the bot could do and explore further applications of attended or unattended automation. By saving one or two hours, we were able to engage in these discussions with business users—who are responsible for the initial automation—allowing us to gain insight into how the technology and processes work. As a result, more use cases emerged during this brainstorming, as users recognized the capabilities of the attended feature and how it could facilitate additional automation. Overall, this approach has enhanced our efficiency, as automation handles data quickly and accurately, minimizing errors in our processes.

Before Automation Anywhere, clerical errors were quite prevalent, particularly during the finance team’s year-end or quarter-end book closings. While some team members took longer to complete their tasks, others made mistakes, especially with calculations. To address this, we implemented a bot to handle manual reconciliation and book closing processes, significantly reducing errors and saving time. The bot follows its own logic, which minimizes mistakes unless the logic itself is altered.

It's much easier to integrate with applications using this low-code platform. For example, if you want to connect to an SAP application, you simply need to drag and drop the Automation Anywhere SAP Connect action, enter the credentials, and you’re all set. On the other hand, while Power Automate has an SAP integration, it is still in preview mode, and its functionality is not as extensive. In UiPath, some operations within SAP still require coding knowledge to understand how the actions work and how to retrieve data. In Automation Anywhere, the process is straightforward: just get it set up and go. 

Additionally, they have integrated document automation into their control room, which previously was part of a separate suite called IQ Bot. Now, you simply need to purchase licenses for document automation, and it’s available directly in the control room. In contrast, Power Automate does have a native AI builder, but it tends to be more expensive, and many documents are not easily processable. For UiPath, you need a separate tenant to access document understanding and AI capabilities.

The latest feature I want to highlight is the integration of an agentic component with traditional automation, and I believe it's the best one yet. Unlike Power Automate, which currently lacks this feature, Automation Anywhere has successfully incorporated it. They provide a dedicated portal for creating your own agents using a simple drag-and-drop functionality. Users are guided through prompts to select the agent, formulate their question, provide an answer, and determine the scope of the agent. Once that's done, connecting to the control room is straightforward; you can simply drag in and link your agent. This means that any business user, even those without a strong technology background, can create an AI agent and seamlessly integrate it into their existing business processes to automate tasks. Overall, this recent update is incredibly significant—it’s the best feature I’ve seen compared to other tools, making automation both effective and accessible.

I find Automation Anywhere pretty easy to use for business users without tech skills. I have experience with various automation tools, and when it comes to Automation Anywhere, I find that its user interface is quite straightforward. Every automation tool typically includes drag-and-drop functionality, but Automation Anywhere takes it a step further by being more user-friendly. It operates more as a no-code platform rather than a low-code one. In a low-code setup, users might need to drag and integrate components, like dragging in an Excel command to work with an Excel file. For example, if you're creating a pivot table, you can easily select a pivot action. Similarly, sorting or resizing a column is simplified. What Automation Anywhere does exceptionally well is allowing users—especially those without a technical background—to navigate easily. If you know how to work with Excel or Word, you can simply type commands in plain English. For instance, typing "save Excel" will bring up the corresponding action. If you want to "open Excel" or sort a column, you can easily find those commands. Compared to other platforms like UiPath or Power Automate, which may require some scripting and include more technical terminology for their actions, Automation Anywhere is much more accessible for business users lacking a strong tech background.

As for the learning curve with Automation Anywhere, they offer a structured learning platform, akin to a university model. Their educational content is organized into playlists, specifically tailored for different user types. For instance, there are playlists designed for business users and others for developers. These resources are well-categorized, making it easier for users to find relevant information. If you’re a developer interested in admin controls or support services, you can sign up for the developer track to access this specific content. This organized approach simplifies the learning process and makes it easier to understand how to use the tool effectively.

There is still room for improvement in document automation because sometimes it goes into validation unnecessarily. When inputting the field names for extraction, it occasionally misdirects into validation loops, which should be addressed for better efficiency. Nonetheless, the recent updates have made it more stable than in the past.

I would love to see a native integration of GenAI capability within the Co-Pilot itself in future releases. Currently, we must retrieve details from Co-Pilot, send them to the LLM for a response, and then return the information. I would really appreciate it if this integration happened. It would be a significant enhancement, similar to how Microsoft Power Automate functions as a traditional virtual assistant. Such an integration would be very beneficial because clients often request use cases that are closely related to chatbot functionality. Currently, this aspect is somewhat lacking in Co-Pilot. If it gets integrated, it would offer a considerable advantage.

I have been working with Automation Anywhere for around about five and a half years.

I have not experienced any downtimes, crashes, or stability issues with Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere is indeed scalable; you can add as many licenses and bots as needed. The only consideration is to avoid running multiple bots simultaneously on a single machine, as this would cause them to queue until the first one completes.

We had a lot of questions during our initial phase. For non-fatal issues, such as development problems related to actions or agents, they typically respond within a day. At first, when you create a support case, the portal recommends relevant articles that address similar issues. If you find a solution in those articles, you won’t need to wait for a support ticket response, as the information is already available. If it is indeed a development issue, a response is expected within a day. For fatal production issues, you can expect a response within an hour.

Positive

I have worked with UiPath and Power Automate. As compared to UiPath, the implementation is very easy with Automation Anywhere. In terms of going into production, it is much simpler compared to Power Automate and UiPath. With UiPath, you need to transfer it to an environment and handle various moving parts, pushing it to a pipeline, and so on. However, with Automation Anywhere, you simply deploy it to a public workspace, and it runs very efficiently.

I also find that workload management in Automation Anywhere is superior to Power Automate. While Power Automate does have its workflows, they are not as efficient as those in Automation Anywhere. The three major advantages of Automation Anywhere are its workflows, deployment process, and the overall ease of use and user interface it offers.

When we talk about RPA automation, the terms "no-code" and "low-code" come to mind. With Automation Anywhere, it truly is a no-code solution. In contrast, with UiPath and Power Automate, you need at least some understanding of coding. For instance, with UiPath, familiarity with C# or VB is essential, as their layout depends on that knowledge. Similarly, with Power Automate, a foundational understanding of logical programming is necessary. However, with Automation Anywhere, you only need to learn how the tool works to create your automation bots. 

On the downside, UiPath is a more stable tool, mainly due to its recording functionality, which includes both web and desktop recorders. Sometimes, in Automation Anywhere, the recording process takes longer when capturing tasks on websites or applications, and there can be internal errors. In contrast, UI Path provides a fast and smooth recording experience. Power Automate also boasts a good web and desktop recorder, an area where Automation Anywhere needs improvement. Aside from the recording challenges, Automation Anywhere has been working quite well for me compared to other tools.

I have worked with both the cloud as well as on-prem versions. In Automation Anywhere, setting up an on-premise environment is quite straightforward, similar to installing MS Office or MS Excel on your system. You simply need to specify the location where the software will reside and configure the database connection. The installation process takes care of everything else, including registry keys, making it quite simple to set up. In contrast, if you're opting for a cloud-based solution, there’s no setup required on your part. Automation Anywhere provides a URL that allows you to access the control panel. All the enterprise-level configurations are managed on their side. You only need to connect to a bot agent, which is also available for on-premise setups, from your local machine. Overall, the cloud option is much easier to manage, as everything is handled by Automation Anywhere.

After setup, Automation Anywhere's cloud version does not require any maintenance. Upgrades and patches are managed on their side, only notifying us beforehand of any scheduled downtimes. However, if you use the on-premise version, you need to uninstall the older version and reinstall the new release yourself. 

Bot maintenance in Automation Anywhere is minimal because the packages can be easily selected and handled within the bot creator. Once in production, changes in logic or UI are the only things requiring attention, which typically involves checking components rather than extensive maintenance effort. If you undergo the upgrade phase, you need to check the packages to ensure they are all set to default. This process takes around 10 to 15 minutes. If any packages are not set to default, you must adjust them accordingly before running the upgrade. Overall, it doesn’t take much time.

In Automation Anywhere, upgrading is similar to reinstalling the Control Room. You need to stop the services, then uninstall and reinstall the software. Since the database is already established, when you install a newer version, it automatically creates new tables in the SQL database, which then run smoothly on their own. Therefore, the upgrade process is essentially just a reinstallation.

Initially, we experienced a small amount of savings due to high licensing costs and streamlined processes. However, as we entered an accelerated phase with more use cases, we realized greater efficiencies. For instance, we had four people performing a repetitive task every day. With the bot taking over this task, we were able to reassign those four employees to different departments where human skills were still necessary. We trained them to adapt to their new roles, engaging them in tasks that required brainstorming, idea generation, and collaboration—activities that contribute to their growth. As a result of this transition, we have significantly reduced salaries and payouts in the affected department. Now, 50-60% of our costs go toward licenses, while the remainder contributes to savings. We no longer need to hire externally for new roles; instead, we are training our existing employees and placing them into new departments.

We started with just three or four use cases, which is typical for any company embarking on automation. After successfully implementing these cases and demonstrating reliable output, the return on investment (ROI) began to materialize. Initially, the ROI was modest, but as confidence in the automation system grew, we expanded our use cases, leading to more substantial ROI.

On average, it takes about five to six months to see significant results. The first one to three months are dedicated to setting up the initial infrastructure and developing the bots. By the fourth and fifth months, we typically start to see the ROI.

Our organization's strategy regarding automation focuses on leveraging existing case studies from Automation Anywhere to educate clients on AI's impact and advantages. We demonstrate use cases already implemented to provide a framework for understanding before conducting process discovery exercises for potential new implementations.

My advice for other users looking to implement Automation Anywhere is to prioritize finding a tool that is easy to deploy and works well for business users. Automation Anywhere offers a user-friendly design that allows actions to be executed using layman's terminology, making it accessible for everyone.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.

In the financial industry, Automation Anywhere helps us streamline tasks by automating processes like invoice entry and employee onboarding, along with many other functions.

Businesses leverage Automation Anywhere to streamline their workflows and minimize operational problems.

Automation Anywhere has empowered our clients to achieve greater accuracy, enhanced control over their processes, and liberated employee time for more strategic endeavors.

Automation Anywhere is easy to use even for non-technical people once they receive the training.

Automation Anywhere is considered user-friendly, with the learning curve manageable for beginners. The available resources provide a solid foundation for new users to get started.

It seamlessly integrates with our daily applications, providing a valuable human-like interaction that enhances the automation process.

Co-Pilot improves productivity by automating tasks like reviewing purchase requisitions, which previously required multiple people. It also allows individuals to manage workloads that once demanded multiple people, allowing them to focus on more valuable tasks.

Generative AI stands out in automation, especially for crucial tasks like invoice processing, where it can extract information, or for tasks requiring web research, going beyond simple rule-based automation.

Automation Anywhere offers integration with various Large Language Model applications, and for connecting these external systems, utilizing their API is the best approach.

Automation Anywhere's document automation, powered by IQ Bots and now enhanced with AI, stands out as a particularly valuable feature. This combination allows for seamless integration of a wider range of document types, streamlining our workflows.

Automation Anywhere's current requirement for upfront annual payments limits flexibility for customers. Offering a wider range of payment options, such as monthly installments, would be a welcome improvement.

While Automation Anywhere's current learning materials cater to junior and new users, senior developers require more in-depth content to effectively utilize the platform's full potential.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for six years.

Automation Anywhere's technical support has a prompt response time, with Portuguese-speaking representatives in Brazil. For complex issues, they efficiently escalate tickets to a global team of engineers for further assistance.

Positive

I would rate Automation Anywhere ten out of ten.

I'm a developer supporting my clients with Automation Anywhere. I work at McKarthy Labs. We use Automation Anywhere to provide automated processing to our clients. For example, we might get paid to do automated invoice processing. The bot can extract all the information, complaints, or remarks in that invoice. All of these details will go into an Excel spreadsheet. 

Any repetitive, rule-based task will be appropriate for Automation Anywhere, but a judgment-based task will require some AI to implement. For example, if a user needs to send an email once an invoice is ready, we can check automatically to determine when the invoice is available in the appropriate folder and send the email to the user.   

The developer gathers the requirements, and we prepare our business equipment once approved or assigned. First, we will see which applications are being used and how they could be automated. For example, we might need to automate logging into a Gmail account multiple times.  We'll create it in three phases: 30 percent, 30 percent, and 40 percent. The process can be completed in about a week. Sometimes, it may take longer due to data scalability issues or some required changes in the back end. Some minor changes in the domain may take a little more time. 

Since we started using Automation, we have automated more and more tasks. We are gradually expanding the capacity. It has helped them save time and money. The automation copilot has helped our workers save time, freeing them up for other work. I have a co-pilot based on SQL database connectivity. It pulls the required information tables. Automation Anywhere's AI is excellent for automating any process. 

It's easy for non-technical users to work with Automation Anywhere. There are many options and methods they can use if they want to run a bot. The Automation Copilot is helpful. It will automatically give you all the solutions your bot requires. It's like a dictionary. 

The integration is not always seamless. Sometimes, it takes a while to get everything to communicate and be ready to go into production.

I have used Automation Anywhere for five years.

I rate Automation Anywhere eight out of 10 for scalability. 

I rate Automation Anywhere support 10 out of 10.

Positive

We have used UiPath and Power Automate. It depends on the client's requirements. We use Automation Anywhere if the clients prefer that. 

Automation Anywhere is a little expensive, but it's a good value. I've seen many companies use Power Automate, and the subscription is very low. 

I rate Automation Anywhere eight out of 10.