Agentic and robotic vision: How UiPath is changing automation

Thanks to emerging technological trends and innovations that emphasize automation, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, an agentic and robotic vision has become top of mind for enterprises.  

UiPath Inc. is revolutionizing productivity with AI and automation, using intelligent agents and autonomous systems that make independent decisions to boost efficiency and innovation, according to Graham Sheldon (pictured), chief product officer of UiPath.

UiPath’s Graham Sheldon talks to theCUBE about what UiPath’s agentic and robotic vision has in store.

“In the past, our robots were really good at some of the left-brain thinking, the things that are rules-based, deterministic,” Sheldon stated. “It’s those kinds of more variable tasks, the more creative things, the more adaptive things that generative AI is really good at and the advent of agents as a way to bring that to life in an enterprise gives you that right brain. Now you need both. You need robots and agents working together, which is why we believe the future is both agentic and robotic, and UiPath is going to make that a reality.”

Sheldon spoke with theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante and co-host Rebecca Knight at UiPath Forward 2024, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed UiPath’s agentic and robotic vision. (* Disclosure below.)

Demystifying the agentic and robotic vision

Making developers’ lives easier is important since it enhances productivity, innovation and overall business success. UiPath Autopilot makes this a reality because it leverages AI and gen AI to streamline various automation tasks for developers and business users, according to Sheldon. 

“The PC was a really good example where it democratized what was being done on mainframes,” he stated. “I think one of the things that UiPath aims to do with our agentic vision and roadmap is to do the same for some of this generative AI technology and make it a little easier for both the developers and the citizen developers and even business end users through things like AutoPilot to make that accessible to more and more people. It drives productivity, but it also changes people’s lives in a real material way.”

Despite having access to all sorts of gen AI tools, developers and business users still have to figure out what are the right ways. As a result, UiPath Agent Builder fits into the picture as one of the latest features designed to simplify the creation of domain-specific knowledge agents because it allows developers to create API integrations and tailor automation activities using low-code tools, Sheldon pointed out.

“We’re really trying to democratize these tools for citizen developers, for business end users and for professional developers as well,” he stated. “In the Agent Builder experience today, we’ve tried to encode and make it easy for people to express the instructions you give to the agent. That experience and also Autopilot business end users is going to make it possible for anybody to build agents that are either reactive, like conversational ones, or proactive ones that work independently and make those dynamic decisions that’s really going to drive productivity for everybody.”

UiPath’s new stack will feature innovations such as an experience layer aimed at improving user interaction. This layer will simplify complex tasks and create smooth, personalized experiences, advancing the automation narrative, according to Sheldon.

“Let me walk you through the stack as it’s going to exist in the future,” he said. “In the experience layer, we can start to do more proactive things and we can do things with more than just text, so images and video and things like that. In that experience layer, we will have co-pilots in different experiences, autopilots and agents that help you do work across them. That’s one of the main differences that UiPath sets itself apart by being able to really connect different data silos, different systems of record, systems of engagement.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of UiPath Forward 2024: 

(* Disclosure: UiPath Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither UiPath nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE