Automation Anywhere Reviews

I am a customer of Automation Anywhere and I work in a company where we use Automation Anywhere.

My usual use cases for Automation Anywhere involve managing our inspections for customers, as I'm in a company where we deal with safety issues and safety solutions. So, we have customers and we had a problem to manage their inspections. Initially, we used a traditional way using spreadsheets to manually track those inspections and track the safety equipment, for example, fire extinguishers. It was slow, and actually, often, we could get mistakes. For example, some inspections could be delayed. Sometimes we could miss them. Customers could even miss the reminders because we used a traditional way using spreadsheets. Our staff and employees could spend a lot of time processing this data, maybe updating files, maybe processing inspection reports, all done manually. We had to come on board and see how we can fix that, so we opted for an automation software and decided to go with Automation Anywhere. Specifically for us, we set up a bot with a feature called Control Room where we set bots and workflows. We connected it to our database, the email systems, and also the connectors, mainly with Salesforce. After that, we set up the rules for when inspections should happen and what action these bots are going to take. These bots now check the system. For example, if it finds equipment due for inspection, it can create automatically a service request for a client and send reminders saying "Please, next week, your inspection is due." After the inspection, the bots collect the report, update our records, and even generate invoices to our clients. That is how we use Automation Anywhere.

The most valuable features of Automation Anywhere that I have found are the Control Room for bots, which I really appreciate, and Copilot. I appreciate Automation Anywhere because it is scalable; I have worked with software such as SAS and have not found a software where you can scale it up without redesigning the process and the setup process. Another thing I appreciate is that it has reduced our manual work, handling repetitive tasks such as data entry, reporting, and reminders for us.

The flexibility of Automation Anywhere's truly universal orchestration in integrating with different systems and models has been great for us. Because we are new to the mission tools, we had our data scattered; for instance, our data is in Salesforce and Oracle Analytics. Automation Anywhere has smooth integration with those apps, and we are very fortunate that about ninety percent of our apps are supported, integrating particularly well with Salesforce, where our client data and service requests are managed.

I think Automation Anywhere could be improved by addressing the learning curve, as it is a little complex to start using it, especially for people new to automation tools. I recommend creating more documentation and tutorials, possibly on YouTube, showing how to set up bots and rules. We had a problem at the beginning, but it was later fixed by the technical support team; initially, the bots made correct decisions, but then, at times, a bot would trigger two service requests for a customer or miss an inspection that was due. That is where I think improvements could be made.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for the past nine months.

I assess Automation Anywhere as good and stable.

I find centralized governance across agents and assistants beneficial for maintaining consistency and compliance because it allows us to see all the workflows and how the bot processes work. For example, it shows how bots get data from app connectors, how they connect to client emails, and how they trigger alerts, such as "Hey, today at this time, your inspection is going to be done." I really appreciate how it is centralized in a way that it provides room for managing all our bots; initially, we had one bot handling service requests, and now we have around eight bots that we can monitor all at once.

My experience with communicating with the technical support of Automation Anywhere has been very positive. We had a lot of contact during the setup process, and it was helpful and responsive. If I were to give it a rating, I would say nine out of ten because we encountered issues, such as bots missing inspections and triggering two service requests, and the support helped us set up the rules and workflows for bots. It has been responsive and helpful.

Before Automation Anywhere, we evaluated other options; we were between Automation Anywhere and UIPath and also considered Microsoft Power Automate. During our selection process, UIPath was also a strong competitor.

I chose Automation Anywhere because it aligns well with our governance needs; the Control Room provides synchronized management, unlike UIPath. It is good at role-based access control, allowing us to set who can see and manage specific functions. Given the compliance requirements of our industry, Automation Anywhere was a better choice compared to UIPath.

From my perspective, the initial setup process was a bit simple because we were about to set it up, especially since the technical support team helped us greatly. We integrated our customer database and email system by connecting using app connectors such as Salesforce, Zoho Analytics, and Zoho Mail. After that, we started designing workflows, determining when bots should trigger actions based on connected data. Our first bot was set up for service requests, and generally, the setup was straightforward, particularly because of the assistance from the technical support team, especially in mitigating initial issues.

From my perspective, while Automation Anywhere is not the cheapest tool, it is cost-effective because the processes that Automation Anywhere automates can be handled by multiple employees, eliminating the need to hire more headcounts.

I am not familiar with Automation Anywhere's deterministic and agentic blended execution feature.

For AI projects, we do not use Automation Anywhere, but the only AI we experience is with Copilot. Copilot helps us in initial setup; instead of building everything manually, we can describe processes in plain English, and Copilot suggests workflows that align with our business. It now even recommends improvements for bots and helps explain processes to new hires. We use Automation Anywhere primarily to automate our inspection work processes.

I participated in the initial setup of Automation Anywhere.

I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.

My use cases include technical service, finance, and IT ops.

What I appreciate the most about Automation Anywhere is its ease of use. The ease of use helps my company by allowing us to roll out automations quickly.

The main challenge I was looking to solve with the agentic process automation, is that we don't have any agentic process automation yet. In the age of agentic AI, probably the biggest challenges for me and my company are determining which direction to head and settling on the right path. Automation Anywhere can help me with that. It depends on the price point; currently, the pricing is a bit high. I am just on the RPA. I have not had a chance to try out the AI agent studio feature of Automation Anywhere yet.

AI governance is very important for my company in general. It is important due to safeguards, making sure that there are appropriate guardrails in place so it does not give proprietary information outside the company.

I utilize Automation Anywhere Center of Excellence manager or CoE manager. My impression of its impact on visibility in the automation lifecycle is so-so; it has good points and bad points, and I have discussed with Automation Anywhere several of the other shortfalls as well as the positives.

We are using the cloud-based nature of Automation Anywhere CoE manager in managing our automation pipeline. I use it to track the progress of various ideas, the solicitation of ideas from our population of managers, as well as to track a couple of projects against our initial goals. We do use document automation in our current processes, yet not in production as we are in the process of one project that's being developed right now.

One way Automation Anywhere can be improved is in ticketing; I have a couple of tickets that have been outstanding for a while, and the support staff have closed tickets without checking with me first, which has been a sore spot.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for five months.

I used Microsoft Power Automate before choosing Automation Anywhere.

My experience with the deployment has been very good. 

My experience with the pricing, the setup costs, and the licensing of the platform has been good with the bots, as well as the support package, but the price points on the agentic side and AI side are rather high.

I did consider other solutions before choosing this one, including UiPath. I went with Automation Anywhere because it was a coin toss between the two, but Automation Anywhere had a better price point.

I switched to Automation Anywhere since it is a better product. 

From one to ten, I would rate Automation Anywhere probably about an eight.

I use Automation Anywhere for automating bank processes, mostly those which are repetitive. For example, when entering client data, processing invoices, generating reports, and transferring data between different systems. It is very effective for tasks involving data entry, generating reports, and routine checks, which would otherwise be done by many individuals.

What I appreciate about Automation Anywhere is that it saves a lot of time because tasks that would have taken days or weeks can be executed in very few hours. It significantly reduces errors that used to occur with human execution. It is very easy to integrate with day-to-day applications, especially emails, spreadsheets, and other business apps. Automation Co-Pilot also helps increase productivity by around 80% and reduces processing time and errors. It has a positive effect by freeing up staff, reducing costs, and enhancing productivity as it scales with the growing needs of our clients.

Automation Anywhere needs to improve the startup time, as it tends to lag at the beginning of the day. If they could reduce this lag, it would enhance its performance.

I have used Automation Anywhere for quite a long time, about two years.

Automation Anywhere is very stable because when you execute commands, the software does what it is supposed to do consistently without any lags. Issues may occur depending on network connectivity, but the tool itself is stable.

Automation Anywhere is highly scalable as it adapts to increasing demands on a small or large scale. I initially started on a small scale to test deployment, and I increased the number of bots as it adapted without major setbacks.

The customer care support is very good because the team is knowledgeable about banking-related issues and provides solutions promptly. Simple issues are sorted out quickly unless the problem is more complex.

Initially, I used Fortra Automate, which is mostly for job scheduling and system level options, but I switched to Automation Anywhere for report generating and processing invoices, based on recommendations from larger institutions.

The setup of Automation Anywhere is a bit more complex compared to that of Fortra Automate, with more permissions and a longer learning curve for bot creation using Bot Creator and uploading to the Control Room.

The technical people and implementation team provided training for both technical and non-technical users, making it easier to use Automation Anywhere.

The return on investment is excellent as I have saved thousands of hours per month, reducing manual errors and generating more reports.

The pricing is fair during purchase because the work Automation Anywhere does justifies the cost. Most of the higher costs came from staff training and system design.

Automation Anywhere was chosen due to recommendations from sister banks and institutions for its advanced features and scalability over Fortra Automate.

Anyone who wants to use Automation Anywhere should purchase and start using it immediately upon consideration. Plan workflows properly and integrate the software into the system architecture. Ensure the team, both technical and non-technical, is well-trained, so the software is used effectively and minimizes errors. I gave this review a rating of 9.

My use cases for it are twofold: we are automation partners, so we use it for customer delivery, and we also use it internally for many data entry tasks and intelligent processing of information, including PDF contracts and so forth.

We saw the benefits conceptually with the RPA, knowing it should work, however, we realized how helpful it is after about a year when we had a few smaller projects internally. We found that it works effectively for us and is trouble-free, though we occasionally need to tweak it due to operating system updates.

One of the things I appreciate the most about Automation Anywhere is that it's in the cloud, so when we are on-site on a project, we collect a lot of data, hand it to this bot, and it runs the function. By the time we reach our destination, whether we move from San Francisco to New York, it's equivalent to 20 people's work in six hours, utilizing quite a few attended or unattended bots.

The licensing model could be a lot less complex, mainly due to their different structures, which are not straightforward. The learning curve, especially for advanced automation, is complex and often requires a software developer, and sometimes there is less documentation, making it harder to navigate.

The challenge comes when we need to move data, such as when we build something in Excel and transfer it to Google Sheets, as the code changes, however, we aim for efficiency, and that advanced automation can be somewhat lackluster.

Our experience with Automation Co-pilot is mixed; it's still in its nascency and not as mature as projected. It relies on the underlying platform, meaning it works fairly on Windows 11. That said, has issues when using it on AWS Cloud, leading to confusion since there are many moving parts with the co-pilot that make troubleshooting challenging.

I have been using Automation Anywhere since 2016 and am still using it currently.

With the newer version, stability is questionable, particularly when a lot of heavy lifting is needed. Still, performance is solid once optimized since the RPA completes its tasks effectively.

Scalability entirely depends on how you design the process automation; it can be run concurrently or in a single-threaded manner, and AI tools can handle all forms of threaded processes without any issues.

I have contacted their technical support. The quality of support is good; they go the extra mile to address problems. Speed-wise, it varies since most staff operates from India. I've been impressed with their response times, sometimes within three to four hours, suitable for customers in the Pacific time zone, and I find the US staff to be very good. I would rate the support a seven out of ten.

Business users find Automation Anywhere manageable to use; since 2016, it has evolved from an engineering tool filled with tech jargon until around mid-2020 to a platform that is much more business-friendly and closer to the customer's mindset, though in comparison to UiPath, there's still progress to be made since it fundamentally operates an engineering company.

The biggest differences from UiPath lie in the designer; UiPath has an easier designer to start with, almost straightforward for selling. However, as you consume UiPath, the costs can add up, while Automation Anywhere does not articulate long-term efficiency. From a product design perspective, Automation Anywhere presents more complexity, especially regarding communication and the number of moving parts.

The initial deployment is not difficult at all for someone doing it for the first time.

Usually, one person or maybe two is required for deployment; while the automation can be built by one person, working with an internal application Microsoft CE or HubSpot through API calls typically requires at least two people to integrate effectively.

Maintenance is not required on the end-user's part, though if it is an attended setup, some monitoring may be necessary because VMs can become unavailable if used for other reasons, leading to a single-threaded heavy load process that runs for an hour but sits idle the remaining 23 hours.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten overall.

I have used it for multiple use cases across various domains. I started with automating use cases in the utility industry, such as customer billing and processing meter readings. Those were the initial use cases for which I used it. Currently, I am using it for a transport company in the U.S., where we process their invoice documents, perform three-way matching, manage their supply chain records, and handle daily billing bots. All these implementations have been successful.

For the transport company, we have identified a use case. Their ticketing team is manually processing all the incidents that occur during that day. We are now collecting all the documents and information about previously resolved tickets. We are creating a knowledge base out of it, and we will use that along with the AI agents that Automation Anywhere has. We will create an AI agent that will help take care of tickets by learning from the knowledge base. We are working on the PoC, and within the next quarter, we will be able to implement that.

We have implemented a Generative AI solution using Automation Anywhere and ChatGPT for email management. We implemented it for semantic analysis and sentiment analysis. One of our clients wanted us to create a bot that automatically fetches all the reviews from all of the social media platforms, including Twitter, and create a knowledge base within their own platform or database, whether the review is positive, negative, or neutral. For that, we leveraged the ChatGPT plugin along with Automation Anywhere. We created a bot that reads all their reviews, does semantic and sentiment analysis, and accurately describes them as positive, negative, or neutral.

We have not yet used Automation Co-Pilot, but we plan to implement several use cases. One use case involves integrating AI agents with Automation Co-Pilot for conversational AI. Users can input queries, and AI agents will run prompts to fetch required details directly in Automation Co-Pilot. This is particularly beneficial when the process SMEs need to verify post-bot run actions and address any data issues. Currently, the RPA support team is asked to rerun bots. We aim to enable SMEs to prompt bots for reruns, reducing response time from different time zones from five to six hours to immediate actions, significantly boosting productivity.

By implementing Automation Anywhere, we wanted to reduce the manual effort required for various processes for the clients. Previously, the client's accounting team had to collect all the bills, and based on the vendor, upload those to a particular portal. They daily receive bills for more than 250 vendors. We have now automated the process. There is no manual intervention. Earlier, this effort used to take more than 300 hours per month with more than ten people, whereas now, it does not take more than 50 hours per month, and they have only five people.

We have done integrations with Oracle NetSuite and Google APIs. We have done automation with ChatGPT and Claude AI. We are now leveraging Document Automation along with AI agents. We have also done integration with Anthropic. The integration is quite smooth and seamless. 

Document Automation is a game changer. Earlier, with IQ Bot, we achieved partial automation—around 80% of the process was automated. With GenAI and Google Vision OCR now integrated into Document Automation, end-to-end automation is achievable, even with unstructured documents.

The AI agent automation is noteworthy. Everyone is moving from RPA to agentic process automation. I had a chance to delve deeper into it at the Imagine event in Bangalore in 2024, where I engaged hands-on with AI agents. We are exploring use cases to create our own AI agents, which is exciting.

The generative recorder and BPMN converter features are also impressive. If we have recorded the complete process flowchart in the .BPMN file, uploading this file into Automation Anywhere results in a complete bot framework, reducing development efforts by 30%.

Additionally, the generative recorder's ability to handle changes in web portal elements ensures process continuity and notifies developers of updates, aiding in environmental change understanding. If any element changes on the existing web portal on which the bot is currently working, the generative recorder can record and capture the action. The bot will automatically understand at the run time that the particular object has changed, and it will automatically take actions to complete the process and ensure that it does not fail because of that one change.

AI agents need further improvements. AI agent technology in agentic process automation is still evolving. We have only scratched the surface, and there are many potential use cases yet to be explored. As technology advances, I believe it will enable us to implement more comprehensive automation solutions.

Document Automation has issues related to speed. When I compare Document Automation with IQ Bot, IQ Bot is faster than Document Automation. My understanding is that they are still evolving Document Automation, and this issue of slowness will be resolved in the upcoming .35 version, so we are good with that.

They are working on signature identification and validations for handwritten documents. Currently, we are able to extract data out of scanned but digital images, but there is still scope for improvement for handwritten documents.

I started using Automation Anywhere in 2015, so it has been over eight years.

It is stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a ten out of ten for scalability.

Our clients are small to medium organizations. We have seven people working with Automation Anywhere.

I would rate their support a nine out of ten.

Positive

We have completed several migration projects, moving existing bots from platforms like Blue Prism, UiPath, and Power Automate to Automation Anywhere. This was due to limitations with these platforms, such as Power Automate's compatibility issues with legacy systems, which resulted in partial automation.

Customers seeking end-to-end automation have found Automation Anywhere to be the best tool. We analyzed all bots and processes to determine that Automation Anywhere met all requirements. We converted their process documents and redeveloped bots in Automation Anywhere, resulting in successful end-to-end automation. 

Licensing costs for Blue Prism and UiPath are higher compared to Automation Anywhere, making the latter's ROI more appealing. 

Automation Anywhere is currently leading with GenAI and AI solutions. UiPath is also good, but they are still defining its market position. They are a bit confused about whether they want to project themselves as market leaders in AI, RPA, or agentic process automation. Automation Anywhere has already released five to six features directly connected with AI, not just for the customers but for the developers. Blue Prism recently came out with the cloud version. They are still exploring how they can leverage more AI into their platform. Power Automate works great with Microsoft products, but it fails badly outside the Microsoft ecosystem.

Automation Anywhere has enhanced a lot since we first started using it. At the time, it had the client/server architecture. It was not on the cloud. We had to manually install Automation Anywhere on each and every desktop. In 2019, they shifted to the cloud, so we just have to install the bot agent on any computer we want to use as a device. It does not matter whether it is a bot creator or a bot runner. That has improved the installation setup and reduced the configuration time by 80%. Previously, we had to manually install the client and control room and configure them. That was a tedious task, whereas now, because of the cloud, its deployment is very simple and user-friendly, and it has reduced the earlier effort by 80%.

Almost all clients use cloud deployment, but a Korean client has an on-premises setup because they are very diligent about the data. Cloud deployment is easier than on-premise deployment.

Cloud deployments typically take a few hours, around four to five hours. On-premises deployments can take up to two or three business days due to customer environment restrictions and infrastructure limitations. If conditions are optimal, the setup can be completed in one day. For the cloud, deployment time is much shorter, taking only about four to five hours.

The updates happen automatically for cloud deployments, whereas for on-premises setups, we have to download the new release files from the portal and manually do the updates.

In terms of bot maintenance, currently, our team is working for three customers, and there are 105 bots. Our team of seven people is handling these 105 bots. We are doing 24/7 service and daily spend four to five hours on average for bot monitoring and support.

We have one person for the cloud deployment. For on-premises, we have two to three people.

It is not cheap, with costs ranging between 700 to 800 dollars per month. While Power Automate is cheaper at 15 dollars per month, Automation Anywhere offers superior features, user-friendliness, and smoothness. Many customers are transitioning from UiPath and Blue Prism to Automation Anywhere, acknowledging its value. 

The pricing is justified and on-point. There are bulk packages that include licenses, Automation Co-Pilot, and Document Automation. Both Automation Anywhere and partners like us offer discounts.

For non-technical users, I would recommend the citizen developer program on Automation Anywhere University. They have a training portal where people can register themselves and do the learning paths. There is a learning path for new developers or people who do not have much technical knowledge but want to start their automation journey. They can go ahead and do that citizen development training and complete that learning path to understand it in a better way.

It takes about six months to learn it and start using it. The best part about the training is that you can also do hands-on training along with it. You can simultaneously learn and implement it. Six months is a good enough time to get your basics cleared and start your automation journey.

I would highly recommend Automation Anywhere, but the recommendation depends on the customer's specific requirements. For example, for automating tasks strictly within the Microsoft ecosystem, Power Automate will suit. However, for incorporating third-party applications like Oracle NetSuite, I would recommend Automation Anywhere due to its broader capabilities beyond Microsoft applications. Automation Anywhere easily accommodates diverse market use cases to meet customer requirements and scale effectively.

Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for several years now. Overall, I have been working in my current field for about a decade.

Automation Co-Pilot, which was previously known as AARI, enhances workflow efficiency, and I use it regularly. Automation Co-Pilot has helped free up my people to work on other projects, saving us a lot of time. Automation Anywhere integrates well into our existing workflows, APIs, and business applications.

There are still some areas lacking enhancements in Automation Anywhere, and they can improve in integration capabilities. Nothing is perfect, and I would like to see them add better AI integrations in future releases. They can definitely do better by addressing the integration with other software.

Regarding AI integrations with Claude and Gemini, they need to ensure robust security measures alongside these advancements. Currently, there are some vulnerabilities in security that need attention in Automation Anywhere. I require them to enhance their security protocols for better data protection. I would like to see better security from Automation Anywhere.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for several years now.

Stability is generally good, with occasional lagging that we can manage.

Automation Anywhere is highly scalable and adapts well to growing needs.

I have not contacted the technical support or customer support for Automation Anywhere.

I have used some alternatives that provide similar functionalities as Automation Anywhere.

The initial deployment of Automation Anywhere was relatively easy for my team.

For this deployment, we needed a small team of about three people, as it is not a one-person task. It took my team about three weeks to fully deploy Automation Anywhere in our company.

I spend about two hours a week maintaining bots for Automation Anywhere.

The pricing for Automation Anywhere is competitive, but it varies based on the features and services selected.

I have tried upgrading Automation Anywhere, and it was a smooth process.

If anyone is looking for an efficient automation tool, I definitely recommend Automation Anywhere because it is very helpful, even for non-technical people. Training non-technical employees on how to use Automation Anywhere takes about a day. After all of that, it does require some ongoing maintenance on our end. I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

I use Automation Anywhere for various things, especially in most cases, like automating most of my tasks because I'm always having multiple tasks such as email deliveries and so on. It helps me to automate all those tasks.

Being something we use daily also helps us with document management and file automation. It simplifies all our file management. It is easier to navigate because we are used to it. It helps us with editing, scanning, extracting some data, and so on. It's something that we use commonly in our organization.

I use Copilot, previously known as AARI, and it's not bad, as it is good for that in-app natural language experience, finding the running automations, and then the tasks at hand. It's not a bad one and simplifies our work.

Automation has helped us improve productivity in that it first of all saves time. With that, of course, that improves things, and we can now do other tasks. On top of that, because of the automation, at least we are able to eliminate those human errors, maybe missing out on something. It is really good for improving our productivity and has helped us a lot.

I'm just a user, an end-user of Automation Anywhere. I have no affiliations. For improvement, perhaps what I can say is that sometimes I get challenges with the customer support team. When I contact them, they are sometimes busy, and I get delays in replies. They always reply, but at a later hour on some days, although of course, some days they are responsive.

I started using it earlier in June last year, but it's not that I had some stopover and then again just resumed recently.

I wouldn't complain about the stability of Automation Anywhere. It's stable. There's nothing that crashes or any abrupt shutdowns. It's always consistent.

The scalability is also good. It's a good one.

The quality of the support is a good one, but it's just those delays when we need immediate help. I would rate it a seven out of ten. It's not bad and good, but there are only delays when they are replying and they take some time. Not every day, but of course, some days.

Positive

I had used Blue Prism for a short time, but I didn't have a good experience, so I had to change.

The learning curve of Automation Anywhere was a steep one. It was hard to get used to the software initially, but then after some time, I was okay with everything. Initially, the deployment was a little bit tricky to get used to, but with time, we are now okay. Initially, it was a little bit complex.

I have an estimate for how long it took to deploy it. I estimated around two to three months.

It being a decision made by our big IT team, everyone also has their other reasons why we had to switch from Blue Prism to this one.

Both are good, but personally I would prefer Automation Anywhere. It's much easier for me, easier to navigate, no coding is required, simple to use, and pricing is fair.

I got the link on the platform of Automation Anywhere. It was an invite through a form.

Currently, I have no specific feature I would demand in Automation Anywhere. Of course, I would be happy if they added any other feature that would make my work easier. Although I'm not certain of which one, but at the moment, everything is okay with it. If they can also make any additions, it would be good.

Currently, it does not require any maintenance on my end.

I have no major complaint about the integration of Automation Anywhere into my workflows, APIs, and business applications. The integrations are always okay. I have no major problems. It integrates easily with our systems. It has no main challenges.

Upgrading Automation Anywhere to a new version is now easier because I've done it multiple times, so it is easy. No problem with it. It is okay.

The pricing of Automation Anywhere is, I think, not bad and a fair one. It's not so expensive, but of course, it is worth the cost. It is good pricing.

Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten because it's something that I really depend on. File transfers, managing my tasks, automating, managing, monitoring the event logs, that automated monitoring of all our server logins, then also detecting any problems in the process and errors, and so on.

My main use cases for Automation Anywhere include enterprise use cases in travel, banking, and supply chain. It's used for automating back-office business processes that simplify the work of day-to-day business operations.

The AI Agent Studio plays a crucial role in our automation processes as we use it to create autonomous agents, specifically back-office autonomous agents. We use it to automate processes where AI agents call the RPA bots for automation. The bots will call, and the agents will be calling the bots for the action part, while decision-making is done by AI agents. Wherever decision-making is involved, the agents take the lead. If there are pure actions to be performed, an AI agent will call an RPA bot. If there is any knowledge discovery or details to be searched, then it uses context routing or a RAG index. Finally, whatever an AI agent has done goes through a human in the loop for final verification by a human reviewer. This is a business process and AI agents are new, so we have introduced human verification for any actions done by AI agents. It goes through a human review before actually being performed in core enterprise systems such as SAP, ERP systems, booking systems, or insurance claim systems.

The main challenge or objective I was looking to solve with agentic process automation is related to tasks which cannot be purely rule-based automation, such as reading emails or going through content which is more unstructured in nature. When referring to unstructured nature, it could be contract documents, mortgage documents, reading mail messages, or chat messages. In all those areas, we cannot employ RPA bots to perform the automation because RPA bots tend to expect the data to be in a more predictable, deterministic, and more structured form or a semi-structured form.

The Autopilot capability of Automation Anywhere has been more useful in semi-autonomous processes where I need to discover information from enterprise documents, such as policy documents or more enterprise-related documents. Autopilot is particularly useful for back-office teams because it provides more reliable and precise responses compared to traditional search methods. It is useful for teams in their day-to-day processes where they have to refer to information from enterprise documents, guidelines, or fetch information from SOPs.

The AI Agent Studio compliance feature effectively meets our needs by providing a trust layer that enables us to define which LLMs to use, the level of creativity that we can allow, and creative decisions we can allow it to take. It determines what gets revealed to the model provider versus what doesn't, including whether PII and PHI data is revealed or concealed. It also supports potential tokenization of sensitive data. The guardrail modules are beneficial; if the tool doesn't return the expected response, then it raises an error, alarm, or warning. These configurable settings within APA, in the control room, are a good way to start in order to pursue use cases that we couldn't pursue earlier, which were completely manual.

AI governance is very important in my organization, and the AI Agent Studio compliance feature effectively meets these needs. APA helped achieve automation goals, but it's evolving. We have tried simple and medium use cases, and there are more complex, cumbersome use cases yet to be picked up. For now, the complex tasks that we could not pursue through RPA, we are able to do with APA.

Automation Anywhere adapts well to customers' needs. Customers are migrating or willing to pursue more complex use cases requiring AI capabilities, and their platform supports the needs for more complex implementations.

The robotic capabilities are most valuable. The different screen scraping capabilities have been in use for a long time. Their agentic capabilities and AI capabilities have brought many new advancements and features. Their Autopilot, semi-autonomous agents, and autonomous agents have added numerous new features and capabilities. I would rate them high on these features because they have innovated and kept their platform more centered and relevant in the market by introducing these AI and agentic capabilities.

Automation Anywhere is a good platform with extensive capabilities. Their roadmap is promising, especially the AI roadmap. They have good AI capabilities, autonomous agents, semi-autonomous agents, knowledge agents, RAG capabilities, and AI engineering capabilities for faster development.

Regarding improvement areas for Automation Anywhere, they already have strong AI agentic capabilities. The autonomous agents and semi-autonomous agents have decent capabilities, and I don't see any gaps with the way it's been designed. We tried creating agents, autonomous, and semi-autonomous agents with Automation Anywhere, and it is working fine. We see good capabilities and faster time to implement. It has good low-code implementation capabilities, so we are able to perform implementations faster using the agentic AI stack in Automation Anywhere. The architecture and pro-code support for pro-code agents are areas that could use improvement, which they don't have currently.

I have been working with Automation Anywhere for five to six years.

Regarding stability and reliability, Automation Anywhere is good.

For automation at scale, it's a reliable platform. I can implement a large number of automations, and the platform performs well. I don't see any issues with stability or scalability; both are satisfactory. I can scale it in terms of hundreds of bots and configure hundreds of parallel robots easily.

I often communicate with the technical support of Automation Anywhere, and their technical support teams are excellent. They provide great support. Especially if you are a premium partner or a gold partner, you have a very good support option, including a partner success manager assigned to you with good SLA deadlines within which your query is resolved.

Positive

I have participated in the initial setup of Automation Anywhere as they are providing a SaaS cloud model, so the setup is quite easy now. 

In the initial setup, you don't have to invest much effort because they now have a complete AI SaaS module, and even the A360 has a SaaS module. You can subscribe to it and just have things connected. There could be some plugins or certain settings for the local studio, or another local robot which might require certain add-ons and dependency packages. But it's more of an initial effort investment; once you set things up, it works fine.

They offer both on-prem and SaaS cloud solutions, but on-prem may require more effort in setup. SaaS cloud is easier to utilize and configure. Nowadays, most customers are migrating to cloud options, which come with various benefits and ease of setup, including commitments in provisioning servers. Multiple benefits are available, and many customers, including those in the Middle East, are migrating towards cloud setups.

It's affordable because the subscription allows you to use a certain number of tokens from the LLM provider. You only pay for the tokens you actually utilize, and you won't pay more than that. This applies regardless of which service you are subscribed to, whether it's Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, or any other provider.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

I work in an automation Center of Excellence in health care, and I utilize it for everything and anything that is appropriate in health care. We have approximately 41,000 hours worth of automation that operates and handles tasks ranging from assisting with HR operations, such as leave of absence, to medication monitoring and much more. Our portfolio is quite expanded.

We are also jumping into the Co-Pilot world because we want to start embedding it into Teams, SailPoint, and some of the other tools. 

We are also looking at a unique use case. We have discharges, and there are certain types of prescriptions that are just extremely specialized as part of discharge. We have medication contracts. One of the things that we have going on in our organization is a buddy system and then an official request. The buddy system is essentially prescription denial appeals. We would like to use AI to search our contracts to figure out what is the standard for these medications and what are the denials and appeals that we can have prewritten and ready to go.

It was a response to COVID that prompted us to dive into scalable tools. We needed scalability and the ability to perform 10,000 or 1,000 or 200 tasks at any moment. No other software that we have had could provide such scalability and is built in a modular way.

It is unique and almost invisible. You do not realize its impact until you discuss it with users who provide positive feedback. We build automation, support it, and deploy it. When we meet with our users later, they have such good feedback about how impactful these things are to their path. For a nurse, not having to repeat a task 10,000 times has made a significant difference. Especially during COVID, it was truly helpful on the front line. Now, I also employ it with other powerful medication tools.

I was personally able to see its benefits as soon as I jumped into software. It was one of the most impactful and amazing tools for my day-to-day life because, at any point in time, I could design something, modularly build it, and deploy it. It can handle such amazing tasks, including things like templates and design and all other materials that we have for communications or activities, and produce them for me automatically. For me, personally, it made a huge impact right from the get-go, but as an organization, we definitely had to learn how to make choices on our use cases.

It has absolutely saved us time and costs. The whole point of the software is to develop something that at least on a use case basis provides value. We have many years of learning how to do our program. Over time, we have also been using it for other things, such as compliance. We have definitely evolved from just saving time or money to using this solution for everything we can use it for.

I have just built my first Co-Pilot, and it is significant in how that part functions. I am also exploring the API task tools, which appear to be quite significant, but for the most part, the forms and the capability to integrate data from other software represent the specialty.

One thing I learned with Co-Pilot is that it is very static. For instance, when dealing with tables and their headers, I must program them in a form. If my build changes, I have to return to my form and update the table titles. Features like looping are missing from Co-Pilot. If I want to perform a task five times in a row, I have to rerun Co-Pilot five times just to achieve that. This is an aspect I considered as I explored possible changes and improvements. Other than that, it is among the best software tools and organizations I have worked with. I find it challenging to suggest much beyond continuing the good work and expanding on it.

I first heard about it back in 2021. This will be my fourth year using it.

I had an issue lasting for the better part of three years, and it was quite severe. I never lodged a ticket because whenever we attempted to resolve it internally, the problem temporarily ceased. Each time I ran my Digital Colleagues, I encountered a strange error on my screen, which persisted for a couple of years. However, an update corrected it, and it is no longer an issue. 

The only current challenge involves a discrepancy in table columns. In my support session, we could not figure out why my table was off by one column. I had to have a blank column zero for my table to align correctly. These minor issues aside, the tool now functions more stably. 

Previously, inconsistent search behavior occurred in the ServiceNow search bar. It was puzzling because it worked differently every single time that we searched in that search bar, but that issue has been resolved.

Scalability is the most remarkable feature of this tool for me. For example, we have a recognition system for automation. I designed a template for various achievements by citizen developers, such as completing a class or build. At first, it was not a big deal to just do it yourself because you are only doing a handful of templates, but the last round had 34. Initially, creating a few templates was manageable. With time, however, it escalated from 5 templates to 34. We are now using this tool multiple times weekly for template generation. Eventually, I aim to release it to the entire automation team so that leaders can readily recognize achievements based on team activities. 

Scalability is impressive; whether handling five or a hundred million templates, it remains easy to design and build. The tool's intuitive nature contrasts with other tools, which are less intuitive for building and scaling, explaining my infrequent use of them.

I have contacted their support for technical issues with the software as well as personal build support.

The response is very quick. Within a couple of days, they are communicating and establishing connections to set up solutions. In my case, I meet with my customer relations every Friday. We get prompt responses to any issues I raise. The support is fantastic, even when dealing with complex situations due to the complexity of some of my builds. While not all problems are solved immediately, this is typical for complex tasks.

I very recently had one of the best support help sessions that anyone could have ever asked for. We were doing something really complex in Co-Pilot, and it was something that was completely unique to even our internal development team. They helped me solve that, and they did it in such a great way. It was a ten out of ten for connecting to someone, taking the time, and doing all of the work. However, we have also had some support tickets in the past that have been just okay. It has been a mixed bag on that front. I would rate them an eight out of ten because they do try hard to connect and support us even though we are doing some complex work.

Positive

This predates my time, so I am not fully sure. I do know Microsoft automations were used before transitioning to Automation Anywhere. Selecting a vendor was a part of the process when we started the program, and Automation Anywhere was chosen.

The decision for the software had already been made. I was only involved in meetings to discuss how we were going to deploy programs, design things, and create standards. 

I believe it took six months from deciding to go live with the software to deploying automations. It did not exceed six months to get everything up and running, though there might have been a year of planning. Once I was set for launch with everything in place, the transition from purchased to used tenants happened swiftly, possibly in less than six months.

Initially, I used strategic resourcing for implementation. At the time, I had an engineer, a technical lead, a technical developer, and an architect—four individuals in total—who implemented all my environments. Four environments were set up, following designs, standards, and rules. This setup involved comprehensive program design, focusing on transitioning and using different control rooms and establishing standards.

We support the entire tool, and we support the automations which require lots of maintenance and support. That is only due to user design or systems changes or some of the elements that are out there. We have a whole support program that goes along with our automations. As for the tool itself, it is just like any other software tool. It is certainly more stable than something like Microsoft where you constantly have to go back and correct issues or incidents. Our incidents are with bots, not with the software.

My job involves citizen development. I work in the field of helping people connect to this technology and use it. In terms of ease of use, the software is not hard to use, but things are presented to users in a new way than what they are used to. I had to make people start with basic programs and learn how to do a simple process. It is a little bit of an advanced tool. It is easy to understand for me and I love it, but it is definitely a step above entry. Before I instituted an entry course, the learning curve was a little bit steeper. We would have individuals coming to our four-day course and then come through and do lots of support. When we taught them the basics of how the automation software works and then brought them into this advanced tool, it was very quick for them. Our results were much better, and we have those individuals building regularly.

In terms of integration, what was interesting to learn was that everything requires a configuration. For an organization like ours, it involved figuring out how we should branch, how we should grow, and how we should engage other teams to get those configurations implemented so that packages will work as intended. That was an interesting learning curve for us. We had to adjust how we train, talk about packages, and use the software to make sure that we had the right integrations and setups. A great example is ServiceNow. They have the packages for ServiceNow built in. If you have all the access to the information and all the things you need, you are in good shape to have some really awesome automation. If one of those pieces is not in place, you have to think a little bit about how you are going to access that.

Automation Anywhere is a ten out of ten. The company is impressive, especially with its new initiatives like Agentic AI. In five years, it is going to be amazing to witness their advancements, particularly as AI continues to play a significant role.

I have been using Automation Anywhere to automate repetitive tasks across various domains and organizations. We have developed a lot of automations in domains like finance, HR, and supply chains on a daily basis. Basically, we create bots using Automation Anywhere that replicate human actions. 

Currently, we are working on a business case involving agents who respond to phone calls, providing order dispatch status. The average call time is five to six minutes. By using AI, we are creating a chatbot so that a customer service agent can input details and quickly provide all the customer-related information. This reduces call times from five minutes to one or two minutes, which is something we are currently working on. We are also exploring AI use cases for things that are not structured or rule-based.

Previously, we were using legacy automation methods. We were using different platforms to automate the system by writing scripts. You get the best value from automation when you automate a process end to end. In a business process, multiple applications might be involved in completing the processes. Automation Anywhere provides better integration with applications. We can integrate multiple applications at the frontend or backend and complete our processes. Previously, we could automate only a few parts because of limitations in supporting various technologies, whereas Automation Anywhere helps to integrate all the applications and automate a process end to end.

I have integrated it with SAP, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Jira, Tableau, and a lot of Microsoft platforms. We have also had integrations with database and mainframe applications. The integration is seamless. They have packages for particular applications. If you want to work with Salesforce, they already have a package for Salesforce. You just have to connect Salesforce with a certain set of details and provide the API details. It is seamless and within a second, you get connected, and data starts to be exchanged with the application.

It saves headcounts, improves customer experiences, and provides time and cost savings. In some projects, millions of dollars are saved annually from a single bot. The response time for certain customer scenarios has also been made efficient.

The way it integrates with subsystems is impressive. When automating business processes, there might be multiple systems in use. Automation Anywhere provides various ways to connect, such as by directly using backend APIs or using the frontend. This is incredibly useful.

They are constantly enhancing its capabilities. They have already included support for GenAI, enabling easy LLM training. You can train LLMs without putting in a lot of effort. You can train a model very easily. If you do the same thing manually from scratch, it will take a lot of time and you also cannot be sure of the accuracy. They are enhancing their capabilities in the field of AI to provide efficiency and accuracy.

It is a low-code/no-code platform. If you have a little bit of technical knowledge, you can easily design a bot. It is a basic part of software development. It is easier if you are aware of a few things such as writing up a logic, loop conditions, etc. Someone having the basic knowledge can easily adapt to this tool. It is quite simple and straightforward with drag-and-drop actions. It also provides information about a particular package or action you are going to use in your automation. If you are not familiar with the technology, you can explore Automation Anywhere University where they provide training. For anyone eager to start with it, it is quite easy.

Automation tools have a lot of dependency on the environment, particularly on machines. Reducing this dependency could increase success. The product has entered the GenAI space, so it is easy to implement. It will keep improving over time. However, making the product more lightweight by reducing its dependency on infrastructure could greatly help in the long run.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for the last six years.

The stability rating is a nine out of ten. They are improving stability daily. If you had asked me four or five years ago, I would have rated it four or five, but they have significantly improved. Currently, nine is accurate, but there is always room for improvement.

It is being used globally. We are a global team with a presence in six to seven different countries. We have about 10,000 employees. We have business processes in different countries, and everyone is using it. We have implemented 140 to 150 automations, and a lot of people are involved in developing them.

I would rate it an eight out of ten for scalability.

I would rate them a nine out of ten. They have been kind and supportive. Whenever we need help, we can reach out to them, and they help us out.

Positive

I have worked with major partners like UiPath and Blue Prism prior to Automation Anywhere. I also worked with UiPath last year.

When comparing them from a developer's perspective, I prefer Automation Anywhere. Its canvas is user-friendly with options to switch between code view and list view, which other tools lack. As a developer comfortable with list view coding, transitioning to UiPath without that feature would require adaptation, whereas transitioning from UiPath to Automation Anywhere is smooth due to the flow view or list view option. Automation Anywhere already provides flow view development, simplifying adaptation. I appreciate this flexibility. I am also working on Power Automate, which is generally flow-based. Automation Anywhere offers convenient switching.

In UiPath, if you want to work with Salesforce, the package will not be there by default. You have to import that package, which is not the case with Automation Anywhere. Importing packages, like for Salesforce, is straightforward, and often available to team members. The best feature is having access to packages imported by team members.

It is straightforward. 

When it comes to bot deployment, a bot takes two minutes from one environment to another. Moving code between environments also takes only two minutes. However, there are sanity checks. These checks apply to all tools used in automation. Deploying code takes two minutes. We have automated this process, allowing code transfer from test to production with a single approval click. It is seamless.

Bot maintenance is not a tedious task. Once an update is done, we push that into a test or development to check whether it is impacting our automation. In more than 90% of scenarios, it does not impact. In a few cases, there is some impact with the update.

Before automating a use case, we assess its impact in terms of efficiency, error reduction, and cost savings.

Automation Anywhere has helped achieve around 50% savings in some scenarios. The error rate has been reduced by 80% to 90% in processes. Errors have been successfully eliminated from the process.

In terms of cost, we participated in projects achieving two to three million dollars in annual savings.

If you are a non-technical person, you need to become familiar with basic programming concepts such as conditions, looping, etc. Automation Anywhere is easy to adapt to. The UI is simple. If someone is coming from a different technology and wants to develop something in Automation Anywhere, one or two weeks are enough to get started with it.

We are getting trained on AI, document automation, and the Copilot system at the organization level. We are also exploring a few other business cases for implementing GenAI. We have some unstructured handwritten documents, and we are trying to assess how efficient it would be to automate it and how easily we can create a model for a certain set of documents for extracting the details.

I would surely recommend Automation Anywhere to other users. For business professionals, it automates repetitive tasks and enhances efficiency and cost savings. For technical individuals, it is easy to use and adapt. 

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.