Why robotic process automation adoption is on the rise

Robotic process automation (RPA) -- a technology that enables software robots to replicate the actions of human workers for tasks such as data entry -- has the potential to dramatically change the way companies approach many of their key business processes. Georgia Tech researchers have created an artificial skin that could give robots a better sense of touch. It also can greatly boost the efficiency of the legacy applications that support those processes, so it should not be surprising that the technology is seeing a rapid adoption rate. "RPA tools are not as sophisticated as the larger market but play a very important role," said Frances Karamouzis, research vice president and analyst at Gartner. One of the benefits of most of the RPA products on the market is that they are quite heterogeneous across lots of other software applications, she says.