UiPath Inc.’s annual conference was back in person in Las Vegas this week, after skipping a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic — and it’s a very different world as the automation market leader returned with its Forward IV conference.

But the pandemic has actually led to some good news for automation adoption. In 2019, UiPath was looking at a $30 billion total addressable market. Today, it’s estimated to be $60 billion or more, according to Dave Vellante, co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, who along with co-host Lisa Martin discussed the Day 1 event keynote address.

“They threw out a stat [in the keynote] today that 2% of processes are automated,” Vellante said. “That says to me that anything digital is going to be automated, which is hundreds of billions of dollars of market opportunity.”

During their analysis of the Day 1 keynote, Vellante and Martin discussed UiPath’s opportunities and market strategy, whether Microsoft’s advances into the automation market are a threat to the company and the evolution of industry conferences. (* Disclosure below.) 

UiPath expected to maintain its market lead, despite stock value dip

After a strong opening performance, UiPath’s stock has been on a downward trend. This is because “the Street doesn’t fully understand this company,” according to Vellante.

Company founder Daniel Dines is both a Silicon Valley outsider and an untested leader of a public corporation. Plus, the company made quarterly growth predictions that were too conservative for the Street, according to Vellante, who profiled UiPath in this week’s Breaking Analysis column.

But with annual recurring revenue growth of 60% and a lot of loyal customers, Vellante is “not concerned” about the company’s post-IPO stock dip. “It’s not a sprint; it’s a long-term play,” he said. “These guys are the leaders, and they’re moving away from the pack.”

The automation market can be split into the companies that serve automation within their stack and “pure-play” companies, such as UiPath, that specialize in automation horizontally across all these software stacks, according to Vellante. That makes UiPath “less of a head-to-head competitor with Microsoft,” he said. As for a threat from rival Automation Anywhere Inc., UiPath is “growing faster than Automation Anywhere from what we can tell, and it’s still the leader in that horizontal play,” Vellante added.

This vision of “how do we take a broader automation agenda and drive automation throughout the entire organization” is UiPath’s differentiator and the area in which the company is expected to make announcements during the conference, according to Vellante.

“UiPath has to show that is actually what’s happening with customers and that they have the portfolio to deliver,” he said.

Here’s the complete video analysis, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of UiPath Forward IV. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the UiPath’s Forward IV conference. Neither UiPath, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: UiPath Inc.