Given the rapid growth that robotic process automation leader UiPath Inc. has shown over the last few years, it's no wonder that the small robotics process automation pond isn't enough for the company to swim in. Instead, it wants to be the big fish in the expanding enterprise automation lake. I covered last year's Forward IV conference, where UiPath cemented its leadership position in RPA, while looking to expand into the platform-centric enterprise automation space. At that time, its vision was ahead of its product execution in a clear example of growing pains for the recently public company. In spite of UiPath's slowing growth (a common phenomenon as companies mature), this year's Forward 5 conference doubled in size from last year's pandemic-constrained Forward IV – and the increased excitement among customers, partners and UiPath employees was palpable.

WNS (Holdings) Limited a leading provider of global Business Process Management (BPM) services, today announced it has acquired Vuram, a global leader in enterprise automation services. Vuram helps companies accelerate digital transformation by aligning, automating, and optimizing processes using a combination of low-code software applications and intelligent automation platforms. By integrating these technologies into core business operations, Vuram is able to drive end-to-end enterprise automation and the creation of custom, scalable BPM solutions. These solutions include the ability to extract, collect, and categorize data using OCR and AI-based document processing, develop rule-based processing engines and ML-based augmentation, and leverage advanced analytics to improve decision-making. Vuram has also created customizable, low-code, "plug and play" solutions across front, middle, and back-office functions, including industry-specific solutions for the Banking/Financial Services, Insurance, and Healthcare verticals.

UiPath Inc. has always been an unconventional company. It started with humble beginnings as essentially a software development shop. It then caught lightning in a bottle with its computer vision technology and simplification mantra, creating easy-to-deploy software robots for bespoke departments to automate mundane tasks. The company grew rapidly and was able to go public earlier this year. Consistent with its out-of-the-ordinary approach, while other firms are shutting down travel and physical events, UiPath is moving ahead with Forward IV, its annual user conference next week -- with a live audience at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. It's also "fast forwarding" as a company, determined to lead the charge beyond robotic process automation point tools and execute on a more all-encompassing enterprise automation agenda.

There's a lot of hype about chatbots these days and how they can turn your company. Marketers at technology companies promote the importance of chatbots at engineering conferences and company consultants. A suite of technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), cloud, automatic speech recognition, natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning technologies enable chatbots to appear to behave like humans. It engages in human-like conversational interactions through voice and text that can be installed in a variety of devices, including mobile phones, web browsers, and chat platforms. The potential benefits of the chatbot for enterprises are significant in their ability to provide services to a range of users and groups including both customers and employees.