Robotic process automation firm UiPath Inc. said today it’s partnering with the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. to bring advanced endpoint security features to its RPA platform.

UiPath is a leader in the RPA industry. It sells software that’s used by companies to reduce costs and operational errors by automating repetitive work.

It relies on artificial intelligence models that learn how employees perform common tasks in business applications. Then, it creates software robots that can replicate those workflows, thereby reducing the need to perform many of those tasks manually.

As for CrowdStrike, its Falcon platform is designed to stop cybersecurity breaches by preventing and responding to both malware and other attacks. It works by analyzing vast amounts of machine-generated operational data from a company’s servers, employee devices and other endpoints, and sending alerts if it finds anything amiss.

UiPath said its partnership with CrowdStrike, announced during its Forward IV event, means it’s the first RPA platform in the world to include built-in endpoint security features. Customers will benefit from “unprecedented capabilities” to correlate events originating from RPA processes in order to hunt for threats, investigate and remediate any problems they find.

The idea is really to ensure RPA is included within an organization’s security posture. UiPath said the main benefit for security teams is that they’ll be able to distinguish more easily between human-initiated processes and those that originate from software bots. That will give teams deeper insights into the organization’s systems, reducing the time and effort required to investigate and respond to any incidents that show up.

Probably the most significant advantage of this partnership though is it will give some organizations more confidence they’re able to build a trusted automation environment. It means they can allow RPAs to access their most critical systems and data with escalated privileges, which is something they may have been wary of allowing before.

“Robots can do lots of good things for enterprises, but the potential exists for things to go wrong too, so it is good to see RPA automation leader UIPath partner with CrowdStrike to make its platform more secure,” said Holger Mueller, an analyst with Constellation Research Inc. “This is a move will likely become an industry standard sooner rather than later.”

CrowdStrike Chief Product Officer Amol Kulkarni said it’s becoming more important than ever to mitigate the risk of, and increase visibility into robot-led activities, because automation is quickly emerging as a core part of many enterprises’ technology stacks.

UiPath announced the findings of a study by International Data Corp. today that seem to emphasize that idea. The study revealed the economic benefits generated by RPA software are expected to grow from $7 billion worldwide in 2021 to $55 billion by 2025.

The study, which was commissioned by UiPath, found much of these benefits will be the result of new job creation. IDC reckons as many as 73 million new jobs will be created globally as a result of increased RPA adoption.

“RPA is extending further across the enterprise to automate more processes, making it a fundamental operational asset that companies must protect,” said Ted Kummert, executive vice president of products and engineering at UiPath.

Photo: UiPath