If you’re looking to adopt AI right now, you’ll likely have heard the term ‘AI agents’. These systems can complete complex tasks autonomously, without user input.
But no doubt some of the audience will be thinking: “haven’t we heard this before?” Indeed, robotic process automation and software robots have been available since the turn of the century, completing multi-step, repetitive tasks for businesses without human oversight.
How have we evolved from robots to agents? And how can both be used by businesses to boost their productivity?
In this episode, in association with UiPath, Jane and Rory are joined by Edward Challis, head of AI strategy at UiPath, to discuss the foundational role robotic process automation has played in getting us to advances such as AI agents, and how both fit together in the modern enterprise.
Highlights
“I think people tend to think about the chat style, supervised agents more than the more autonomous, back-office agents. But I think more value will be delivered by those more back-office autonomous agents ultimately, in the long run, than in the front office.”
“So wherever that data sits within your organization, yes, we can integrate with that. We can allow you to build automations in a way that's safe and compliant, and to do that at scale in an enterprise is in the DNA of this business.”
“What we're going to see is enterprise-wide adoption and that's, I think, where we're really going to start to be a key critical component for unlocking a lot of value here. Unless businesses can adopt these tools and sponsor them and put them behind their transformation initiatives, that prevents a lot of value from being unlocked.”
Footnotes
- ‘DIY’ agent platforms are big tech’s latest gambit to drive AI adoption
- Enterprises are worried about agentic AI security risks – Gartner says the answer is just adding more AI agents
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