Automation Anywhere Reviews

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.

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.

We implement Automation Anywhere for our customers or for our clients, but we also use it internally for our own processes too.

We're in a growth phase, so this solution helps us scale and standarize processes so we can do more with less. 

The low-code platform is pretty easy to learn, especially if you have come from a technical background. Then you can build quite a few powerful automations with it already with the traditional RPA in terms of the flexibility it gives you. 

There are additional features, such as document automation, that expand the scope in terms of what you can use it for. It's a great multi-tool. Every piece of it works really great. 

For us, the features of Automation Anywhere help us scale our automations and standardize our processes. We are able to do more with less, and that's been the key for us in terms of using the platform.

In our automation processes, we are utilizing the AI Agent Studio mostly in our training. We haven't fully rolled out any live automations yet. That's something we'll implement very soon. The integration features of Automation Anywhere are flexible in terms of what you can connect to. You can bring it over lens or use what's available, which gives a lot of flexibility in terms of how you can use the platform.

We have explored the autopilot capability of IQ Bot AI, and it's maturing. We are keeping an eye on it to determine if it can speed up the development work for us. We are definitely curious and will continue to explore as the product evolves.

We utilize Automation Anywhere's CoE Center of Excellence Manager. Its impact on visibility in the automation lifecycle is actually very important. It shows the complete lifecycle of opportunities, from what's in pipeline to what's been deployed, and how those deployments are performing in production.

In the age of agentic AI, it's allowing us to imagine what comes next.

My impression of the AI governance features in maintaining compliance and data integrity in our company so far is positive. Though we haven't rolled out anything actively yet, from what I see, it gives quite a granular level of control in terms of what can be done and how different outputs can be controlled. AI governance is very important to our company, and while the AI Agent Studio's compliance feature might not be as mature, there are security requirements around keeping our customer data safe and secure.

The availability of material in terms of more technical documentation could be improved, particularly in-depth information about how things can be done. I'm not saying it's not available at this time, but there's always scope in terms of playbooks, especially with APA coming out, as things can be done differently than traditional methods. It would be beneficial to have standardized playbooks that we can use to understand change management, position this to our leadership, and demonstrate the art of what's possible. Some playbooks of that kind, especially on the execution level, would be nice.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for about five years.

Before adopting Automation Anywhere, we haven't really used other solutions. 

What I appreciate the most about Automation Anywhere is that it's pretty flexible in terms of standing it up. You don't have to have a whole lot of infrastructure setup that's required for it.

It has not yet influenced our automation programs and we're not really tracking the level of return on investments.

My experience with the pricing, the setup costs, and the licensing of the Automation Anywhere platform is that it's pretty competitive.

We do test different solutions to see how they are in the market. They don't necessarily have with Automation Anywhere offers. 

Automation Anywhere helps us overcome operational challenges. Especially with what's been announced recently, the solution expands a lot more beyond what was typically possible so far. I'm looking forward to checking it out in practice and seeing how much we can push the platform. 

We've just started with APA, so we don't have anything rolled out yet, however, we are looking forward to actively using it.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. Within any solution, there is always room for improvement. They seem to be going through a maturity phase. The foundation is strong. 

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.

Through Automation Anywhere RPA, we have been able to save thousands of hours of AP invoice processing each year.

Automation Anywhere RPA has enabled a lot of our employees to have their valuable time freed up to do other things, ranging from the Treasury department, the Revenue department, General and Cost Accounting. We had lots of manual processes, no automation whatsoever, and the automations are able to automate those things, such as document processing, PDFs, and ERP system navigation, enabling our employees to focus on other things that require more critical thinking and decision making.

As far as what could be improved with Automation Anywhere, I think they have a really wonderful product. There have been things in the past that I have asked them to improve or submitted a ticket to them to improve, and I've seen results from that. 

They have implemented something that makes the product better. 

If there was anything that I would ask for improvement on, there were times in the past where through submitting a ticket for support, it seemed that some of the engineers who were helping me did not understand the product that they were supporting. That felt difficult because I felt I was almost explaining the product to the company. But again, isolated and for the most part, it's been a really good experience.

Before we implemented Automation Anywhere, we were not using any automation or RPA solution back in 2018.

Their support team is really great, and they also have a really robust online community, the Pathfinder Community, where developers and automation leaders can go and have discussions, submit use cases or issues, and get support from others as well. I have also had Automation Anywhere staff respond and reach out to me through a Pathfinder community post that I've made. Their ticketing system is also good, and they recently implemented an artificial intelligence agent in their email responses that has helped guide the ticket through the escalation process.

We didn't have anything in place before adopting Automation Anywhere.

For others who are looking for an RPA solution and considering Automation Anywhere, I would encourage you to choose Automation Anywhere if you are hoping to have any level of citizen development involved. 

They make it very easy for anyone to learn and pick up the skills required to develop bots. Beyond citizen development, I think that they have a very reliable platform that is very robust in functionality. 

They can integrate with many applications, and they make it very easy to create automations that scale and are able to automate a wide array of business processes.

When we were looking to implement an RPA solution, one of the other prospective vendors that we looked at was UiPath. One thing that stood out to our company was how approachable Automation Anywhere was compared to UiPath, which seemed to be more developer focused and more technical focused, not as low-code as Automation Anywhere. 

With Automation Anywhere, you could come from anywhere, any level of experience, and any industry. You can learn from their Automation Anywhere University and become a bot developer, which is what we did, since all of our team is composed of accountants who are in the industry first and technical second. Automation Anywhere really provided a solution that let us make that work.

I don't have the exact figures regarding the hours we reduced, but I can say that it is thousands of hours. It's less clear in other departments whether we have seen benefits, as it's more focused on quality of life and relieving pain points. 

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Automation Anywhere as a nine, really because I believe that they're a very fantastic RPA company. Any company has bumps and bruises, but with Automation Anywhere, it's been a very reliable solution that has been able to achieve anything that we need. 

It's been easy to learn for developers who want to pick it up and easy to manage from a Control Room perspective on the back end. As a company, I just really think that they do a very good job at delivering on the customer's needs.

Our main use cases when using Automation Anywhere involve a lot of end-to-end processing with a human in the loop. With the GenAI features and capabilities, we are now exploring and extending or expanding our use cases further.

We haven't done anything with AI agents just yet. We've just tapped into the GenAI aspect. We're excited to explore AI agents and how they can impact our existing and new processes. We have ideas, but we haven't delved down that path just yet.

The biggest challenge for our company is getting the correct information from an end-user regarding what they're trying to accomplish. Getting that information from one point to another is our biggest challenge. We're excited about the generative aspect of it because we know that it can listen to the end-user, pull relevant information or regenerate what it needs to, and provide it back to them as an assistant. We're excited for this capability.

We haven't tapped into AI agents, but everything else with the platform has absolutely helped, such as its basic RPA capabilities, Co-pilot, and human in the loop. It's definitely made our work jobs a lot easier because of those capabilities, and the same thing is with our end-users.

Automation Anywhere has helped us to achieve our automation goals. It's made our lives significantly easier to be able to tap into that environment with the ease of development and the ease of use. It's made things much simpler, much quicker to develop, and scale up.

We utilize Document Automation in our current processes. That was one of our biggest draws to Automation Anywhere when we first invested. We looked at a bunch of different IDP tools initially before Document Automation. Automation Anywhere had the IQ Bot tool. That's what we first invested in, and then we were excited when they did the upgrade to Document Automation. The capabilities there are a lot easier to use out of the box. It's a lot easier to scale, and there are AI benefits to it.

Document Automation has absolutely impacted our efficiency and productivity. We had one process specifically that drew us to this use case and then expanded it much further out, where we're essentially inputting invoices that don't go through our normal procurement system. It used to go through our AP team for manual input. It used to take a full person's time a year to do that. We're saving essentially a full FTE through Document Automation. That was our first use case with it, and we have a couple of others in various other accounting operations and tax bases that save significant hours. We also have some hard dollar savings along with it. It has had a huge impact so far, and we see it being a huge impact going forward.

We've used a couple of different tools, and it just has the best end-user experience. Among everything we've tried, it's the easiest one to pick up from the product perspective. They're doing everything right.

What I appreciate the most about Automation Anywhere is that the end-user experience is superior to any of the other tools on the market that we've looked at. We've shifted platforms a couple of times, and Automation Anywhere is the one that stuck based on end-user experience, the ease of development, and trainability with the tool.

Automation Anywhere has definitely made a significant impact in terms of hours saved to scale up. We've had to re-platform a couple of processes from other tools to Automation Anywhere. We are doing the exact same process, but the hours saved have been more because of the end-user experience and ease of development. The time it takes to get it up to scale has been a lot quicker than everything else. It has made a significant improvement for new and existing processes that we've shifted over.

I don't have an example of how Automation Anywhere can be improved. This definitely isn't a negative. One thing I loved about Automation Anywhere compared to some of the other tools out on the market is that there are constant improvements and constant updates, and they're letting us know of those. Anytime we see a challenge and bring it to the attention of the team, they always let us know that it is on the roadmap for future releases. A lot of the issues that we've had, we've been able to wait a little bit of time, and whatever problem they're trying to fix has been deployed in future releases.

We've had some technical difficulties connecting, but that's more on our environment and how we have the machines and everything set up. It's not specific to Automation Anywhere. However, it's pricier than some of the other tools. 

We are coming up to year four.

We were using one of their competitors. We started our automation journey about seven years ago with a consulting partner that helped us pick the right tool for us. At the time, Automation Anywhere was still on the market, but they weren't one of the leaders that they are now. Over time, that solution has been very helpful for us, but it never progressed the way Automation Anywhere has. There wasn't a leap and bounds progress in terms of investments in the tool and the new capabilities and features. That's what drew us to the Document Automation or IQ Bot. The other tool we were using did not have the same success rate, ease of development, and user experience. We looked at Automation Anywhere, amongst two or three others. Automation Anywhere was by far the best of those tools. While we were using that, we explored the RPA and other features. RE before it became Co-pilot and other functionalities drew us to it. We started investing more heavily in Automation Anywhere, and now it's our primary automation tool.

Our team has specifically only used Automation Anywhere and one other tool. Other businesses may have used it, but they don't have the same structure set up that we do now. We are the automation team within our organization, so we're the ones who are doing it on a consistent basis. If any other team has done it, it hasn't been problematic.

For the most part, it's been fairly seamless. The biggest struggle on our end seemed to be with just the technical connections. It's just how we have the infrastructure set up. We're housing an on-prem solution. We're exploring the cloud and shifting there because I know it'll be easier management from our side. There'll be fewer technical issues. It will be a lot easier to get newer updates from the tool itself. That's one thing that we're looking into now.

It's unique compared to certain other tools that we've used. It's somewhat pricier than some of the other tools that we've used, and the breakout between the different applications is also somewhat costly. If they can make it a little more cost-effective or bundle packages a little bit more, that would be beneficial.

AI governance is very important in my company and in general. Before we even tapped into the AI infrastructure, that was one thing we made sure was set up beforehand. We have a whole AI governance policy and a committee. Anytime there's an AI project, it needs to go through that committee. They need to understand all the data that's going to be processed through it, what tools we're going to be using, and what the project is as a whole. It needs to get approval before we can build it out.

We had an AI committee and a governance structure in place before we delved into the AI space. All of our data is in a secure cloud. We can't have anything touching the public environment, just based on the sensitivity of the data that we have. It's very secure and strong as a governance structure.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten. I don't think anything is a perfect ten. There's always room for improvement. Out of everything that we explored and learned, and used previously, it's made a huge impact. We're excited for what's to come, and we're definitely going to be using it for a long time.

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.

We are using Automation Anywhere majorly for automation, automating web applications or desktop applications.

The best features of Automation Anywhere include the user interface, which is quite easy to use now compared to its previous versions that were more difficult. The interface is user-friendly, and all code is visible during coding, showing what is going ahead and what follows in the code. This is not available in other RPA tools such as UiPath, which makes it a standout feature.

Additionally, Automation Anywhere is robust and the support is good. We get connected with the support team whenever required.

Co-Pilot is used for the processes involving human input while automating tasks. In the context of Automation Anywhere, it allows us to create various forms to facilitate this interaction. By incorporating user feedback during the automation process, we can streamline operations effectively. Overall, using Co-Pilot is straightforward and user-friendly, making it easy to build automations based on the forms we create.

There are several areas for improvement in Automation Anywhere that have been suggested by my team and colleagues during their Imagine event. They need work on WLM and when handshaking with their own application, as there is significant wiring required from a developer perspective. The WLM could be much easier and more understandable. It should be more accessible to developers because in the WLM, if a solution is developed, it cannot be tested in the dev environment. Testing must be done in the runner environment.

From a developer's perspective, there are fewer integration facilities, particularly AI integrations, compared to other tools. The pricing could also be improved.

Automation Anywhere has been in use for about nine years.

The stability of Automation Anywhere can be rated a nine out of ten. It is good.

In terms of scalability, there have been no significant issues. Hundreds of bots have been developed without facing any problems. The scalability can be rated a nine out of ten.

In my current organization, 10 to 15 employees are working with Automation Anywhere. The larger team in other RPA department are using UiPath.

They often provide good solutions, but sometimes they are unable to resolve issues, requiring users to find solutions independently, which can be time-consuming. I would rate their technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

We are using it as a SaaS solution. If we choose an on-premises solution, we receive a bundle that we need to install. This installation can be done on Azure, any cloud service, or on our own server machines. On the other hand, when we opt for a SaaS solution, they create control rooms and set everything up for us. We are only given an access key, or what could be referred to as a license key. By entering this license key, we can directly access the system. We can typically receive the license key quickly, often within a minute, for their cloud version. That's what I know about these solutions.

It requires some maintenance, but they are actively addressing it. They install patches and provide updates for the package versions. As a user of the SaaS solution, we don’t need to worry about these details. However, for the on-premises version, I believe users need to manually implement the solutions. Whenever there are updates or new package versions available, they deliver them to us, and we must install them in the control room.

Upgrading Automation Anywhere is very straightforward. It requires just clicking a button to upgrade multiple components including packages, solutions, control rooms, and the bot engine.

Regarding bot maintenance, if there are no changes in the web application or desktop application and no machine issues, bots can run for three to four years without human intervention.

The time saved by implementing Automation Anywhere depends on the number of applications involved. With fewer applications, it can save up to 40% to 50% of time. However, with complex applications involving multiple pages and interactions, the savings shift toward FTE savings, with time savings reducing to 10% or 20%. Sometimes it may take longer than manual user operations.

The pricing of Automation Anywhere is less than UiPath but more than Power Automate, placing it in the mid-range. It can be considered expensive and could potentially be lowered.

When comparing with other automation tools such as Power Automate and UiPath, all tools address similar problem statements but with different approaches. Each has unique features and limitations.

Technical skills are essential for RPA. If you know any programming language and have some technical understanding, you will find it easier to get into RPA. However, if you lack knowledge of programming languages, it may be challenging for you. Learning RPA involves keeping up with new features and updates, so we are continuously learning the platform. It took me about one to two months to fully understand how to complete a process on my own.

I would rate it a six out of ten. They can refine their pricing and improve the handshaking features and integrations. 

We have a lot of use cases for Automation Anywhere. We have some use cases at the customer experience department, we have some for the HR team, and we have more than a few for our billing department. We have quite a few across our different business units.

We have not yet used Agentic AI. One of the main reasons I wanted to come to AA Imagine was to see the demo. What has been stopping us from choosing AI is our company's governance aspect and getting the approvals.

AI governance is quite important for my company in general because I work for a government contracting company. That is one of the challenges that we would need to solve before we integrate any AI capabilities.

What I appreciate the most about Automation Anywhere is how easy it is to use. One thing I noticed in the beginning when we first started using Automation Anywhere was how quickly we were able to learn it. It is very simple and straightforward to use, which is probably the main advantage.

The simplicity of Automation Anywhere has benefited us as we have been able to train our internal employees. It has been very easy to train someone internally versus hiring someone outside of the company.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with Automation Anywhere. The UI is pretty straightforward. However, the customer service could be improved.

I have been using Automation Anywhere in my company for two and a half years.

It can be improved. When we have issues or problems with the software, which is not common, that is one area that could be better. We have had issues in the past where we have had problems with the application, and it has taken a while for someone to get back to us. Overall, we are pretty happy with the application.

Neutral

We were not using another solution prior to Automation Anywhere. This was the first automation tool that we integrated at our company.

My experience with the bot deployment is pretty straightforward. I have an RPA admin who takes care of the deployment. While I cannot speak on his behalf, I would say that the deployment process, from what I know, is pretty straightforward. It is not anything too complicated or complex.

The main challenge we were trying to solve by bringing Automation Anywhere was automating different processes and manual tasks that our employees do. We wanted to help the company save money, and we have been able to do that.

It's justified because we have saved quite a bit of money at the company and many manual hours. Overall, it justifies the cost.

When I joined, my company had already decided on Automation Anywhere. I do not know what other tool they had in mind, but this was the only one.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten. I am happy with the company and my Automation Anywhere journey. There have not been any major issues or problems since we started using it about two and a half years ago. Our leadership at the company is very happy. Our RPA team always gets recognized, and it is because of this tool. This tool has helped us significantly.