ServiceNow Inc. is getting into the robotic process automation game.

The cloud automation company announced today it will buy the Indian RPA startup Intellibot for an undisclosed price. It said the deal should close by the end of the second quarter.

ServiceNow, led by its Chief Executive Bill McDermott (pictured), announced the acquisition at a time when RPA is surging in popularity. Enterprises are increasingly looking for ways to automate workflows, and RPA allows them to use robots that can perform numerous repetitive tasks within common business applications.

Josh Kahn, ServiceNow’s senior vice president of Creator Workflow Products, told TechCrunch that the acquisition is part of the company’s broader workflow strategy, following this month’s launch of a new low-code app studio within its flagship Now Platform that enables users without software engineering expertise to create simple apps. Intellibot’s process mining, process automation, chatbot and virtual agent technologies will complement that offering by extending its artificial intelligence and machine learning integrations.

The plan is to build Intellibot’s capabilities natively into the Now Platform to make it easier for customers to integrate RPA with their modern and legacy enterprise systems.

ServiceNow’s acquisition of Intellibot isn’t that much of a surprise, as a number of established enterprise software providers have been moving to add RPA capabilities to their platforms. For example, Microsoft Corp. added new RPA tools to its Power Platform earlier this month, and SAP SE in January acquired a business process automation firm called Siganvio GmbH that it plans to fold into its new “business transformation-as-a-service” offering.

Vadim Tabakman, director of presales at RPA firm Nintex Ltd., told SiliconANGLE that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased demand for automate across enterprises.

“ServiceNow’s acquisition of Intellibot demonstrates the importance of RPA and digital automation in accelerating the future of business,” Tabakman said. “With RPA, businesses enable their people to cut down on menial tasks, do more with less and spend more time on meaningful work. But without vision for digital transformation for the whole enterprise, businesses will fail. Leaders must establish processes that ensure consistency across the organization and deploy easy-to-use automation solutions.”

The acquisition of Intellibot is ServiceNow’s fifth over the last year and a half, following those of Element AI Inc., Loom Systems Ltd., Passage AI Inc. and Sweagle NV. The company said that it’s aiming to create a comprehensive toolbox for enterprises to enable their digital transformation initiatives.

Besides adding to its platform’s capabilities, the acquisition will also help ServiceNow expand its footprint in India. The company said it’s planning to build two new data center facilities in India by this time next year, and will also double its staff in the country over the next three years.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that although ServiceNow’s “workflow everything” mantra is clearly paying off for the company, it still needs to pay attention to alternate forms of automation.

“Given the popularity of robotic process automation to power next generation applications, ServiceNow had to account for the trend,” Mueller said. “The acquisition of Intellibot adds both RPA capabilities and talent. It’s a smart acquisition by the company as it also allows for more global talent capture on the product development side.”

Meanwhile, ServiceNow’s new rivals in the RPA market are not standing still. Earlier today, RPA market leader UiPath Inc. announced that it’s buying a company called Cloud Elements Inc., which sells tools to help companies connect their internal business applications through application programming interfaces. And just this week, Camunda Services GmbH, which develops open-source RPA tools, announced it had raised $100 million in a private equity-led funding round.

Photo: ServiceNow