Automation Anywhere Inc., the robotic process automation software provider, today announced an expanded portfolio of artificial intelligence capabilities.

Unveiled at the company’s Imagine 2023 event, the new capabilities include a generative AI Autopilot that enables automation across every team, system and business process. The company said today’s updates are all about accelerating business productivity, and will allow it to deliver on its mission of helping organizations build a digital workforce.

In its pitch, Automation Anywhere says generative AI, which has become the hottest technology trend this year with the rise of chatbots such as ChatGPT, is the perfect solution for companies looking to address productivity gaps. It also believes that its platform is ideally placed to help organizations unlock the potential of generative AI to transform numerous business processes.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Mihir Shukla said the combination of AI and intelligent automation represents a transformational technology shift. “Every company, every team, every individual will be able to re-imagine their work and automate the processes that hold them back,” he said. “Great people, empowered with AI and intelligent automation, will be absolutely transformative to their organizations as they increase their productivity, creativity and accelerate the business.”

As an example of this, Automation Anywhere announced the upcoming availability of two new copilots that will launch in the first half of next year.

The Automation Autopilot is said to streamline the development of new automations for business processes. Teams will be able to move from process discovery to automation in a matter of seconds. For instance, teams can use it to build automations that streamline customer service requests and automatically generate reports that showcase both the time they have saved and the return on investment they have made.

Meanwhile, Automation Co-Pilot for Automaters is a new offering that’s accessible to both citizen and professional developers. It can be used to create customized automations using natural language commands, lowering the barrier to adoption. It was announced in spring, and now it gains new features including a recorder with generative AI capability that enables automations to deal with application changes, plus a test automation tool that automatically generates test cases based on existing automations. In addition, natural language automation is said to transform ideas into personalized automations and suggest next actions.

Two earlier innovations – the Automation Co-Pilot for Business Users and Document Automation, both announced in June — are available now and bring new features to the table.

The company said its Automation Co-Pilot for Business Users enables users to embed automation into every business application, putting generative AI at every employee’s fingertips as and when they need it. Users can now automate workflows in platforms such as Salesforce, Workday, Genesys, ServiceNow, SAP, Microsoft Teams and other popular business applications.

As for Document Automation, it leverages generative AI to quickly understand, extract and summarize data. With its launch today, it also supports the quick processing of unstructured and semi-structured documents, so it can be expanded to many more use cases, such as supply chain contracts, logistics and more, the company said.

A completely new addition to Automation Anywhere’s portfolio is the Automation AI Governance & Tools offering, which can help companies lacking in experienced data scientists and developers to build automations that have guardrails in place and are fully compliant.

Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller said many enterprises are finding it difficult to start implementing generative AI. “Simplification of this process is the key to adoption,” he said. “Innovation usually comes from startups and today it is Anyscale’s turn, with new offerings that make it easier to access LLMs through APIs via its Endpoints offering.”

Finally, Automation Anywhere said it’s expanding its Pathfinder Community with the addition of a new generative AI group, a generative AI skills booster series and expert guidance on hyperscaling with AI, to help customers gain more expertise on the subject.

Image: Automation Anywhere