UiPath Inc. announced today that co-founder Daniel Dines will resign from his role as co-chief executive officer on Jan. 31, 2024.

UiPath’s other co-CEO, Rob Enslin, will become sole chief executive after the leadership change. Dines (pictured), in turn, will move to the role of chief innovation officer. In that capacity, he will oversee the company’s artificial intelligence initiatives and other technology projects.

Dines co-founded UiPath in Bucharest, Romania, nearly two decades ago as DeskOver. The company released its flagship robotic automation platform in 2013. Two years later, DeskOver raised funding from a group of investors that included Accel and rebranded to UiPath.

Daniel Dines led UiPath as sole CEO through the period of rapid growth that followed. By 2021, the year the software maker went public, its annual revenue had surged to more than $600 million. The day before Dines rang the NYSE opening bell to mark UiPath’s stock listing, the company raised $1.34 billion from investors.

The software maker appointed Enslin as co-CEO last April. He joined the company from Google LLC’s cloud unit, where he worked as president of global customer operations. He earlier spent nearly three decades at SAP SE, most recently as the head of its cloud business. 

“In the last year, I’ve increasingly delegated the scaling of our business to Rob,” Dines detailed in a blog post today. “Rob will become sole CEO and I will assume the newly created role of Chief Innovation Officer. As an engineer at heart, this has always been where my true passion lies.”

As chief innovation officer, Dines will lead UiPath’s ongoing effort to integrate generative AI into its namesake RPA platform. In March, the company debuted a tool called Clipboard AI that uses generative models to automate the task of moving data between a company’s systems. Last month, UiPath launched a connector that gives customers access to OpenAI LP’s cutting-edge GPT-4 model. 

“I plan to drive the UiPath innovation agenda to transform enterprise automation by harnessing the next-generation of AI technologies into practical solutions for our customers,” Dines wrote in today’s blog post.

After stepping down from the co-CEO role next January, the executive will continue to serve as UiPath’s board chair. In that capacity, Dines detailed today, “I’ll partner with Rob on strategic decisions and challenge the leadership team to champion our most important ingredient for success and happiness: our culture.”

According to Dave Vellante, Wikibon analyst and co-host of theCUBE, “this is a logical step and is a further sign of Daniel Dines letting go to grow. It will allow him to focus on what he does best as the company enters an era of increased AI awareness. Moreover, Rob Enslin has more than proven he’s the right person to lead the next phase of growth for UiPath. This is a no-brainer.”

The leadership change is scheduled to take place on Jan. 31, 2024, the day UiPath’s current fiscal year ends. In its most recent earnings report, the company projected it would close the year with revenue of $1.267 billion to $1.272 billion. That’s up from $1.059 billion a year earlier. 

Photo: SiliconANGLE