What is RPA? A plain guide to software robots and when to use them

What is RPA? Robotic process automation is software that works a computer the way a person does. A bot opens an application, reads what is on the screen, clicks buttons and types into fields, following steps someone has recorded or built for it. No physical robot is involved.

Many of the guides on this search come from companies that sell RPA. We don't sell it. We build business automation and integrations, and RPA is one of three routes we weigh, alongside APIs and AI. This guide covers all three and how to choose.

What RPA is

An RPA bot works on what IBM calls the presentation layer of an application, the screens people use, so it can automate a system that offers no other way in. Many tools let you record yourself doing the task and turn that into a script the bot replays, as MuleSoft's explainer describes; Microsoft's Power Automate desktop flows also offer drag-and-drop actions. Modern platforms can call APIs too, as IBM's definition notes, but driving the screen is what sets RPA apart.

Bots run in two modes, as Microsoft explains. An attended bot works alongside a person at their computer. An unattended bot works by itself, set off by a trigger or a schedule. SS&C Blue Prism says it introduced the term "robotic process automation" in 2012.

What RPA is good at

RPA earns its place where there is no better way into a system. Good candidates:

• Systems with no API. Old desktop software, green-screen terminal applications, and supplier or government portals that only offer a web form.
• Frequent, rule-based work. MuleSoft's advice is to pick high-volume tasks with stable rules, digital inputs and low exception rates.
• A stopgap. Where an API-led approach isn't possible yet, MuleSoft suggests RPA as a stopgap for temporary access to the system.
• Screens that rarely change. An internal system updated once a year is a far better target than a website its owner redesigns every few months.

Why RPA bots break

Microsoft's introduction to RPA says bots "never get tired or bored and they don't make mistakes". A bot does exactly what it was built to do, which is the problem when the world around it moves. The vendors' own documentation is more candid.

The screen changes

A bot finds a button by a selector: the stored attributes of the element and of the elements that contain it. UiPath's documentation says finding elements by their position on screen "can be unreliable", and that some applications, such as some web apps, have changing layouts and attribute values that its Studio "cannot predict". Rename a field or move a menu, and the bot can lose its way.

The machine is different

Microsoft warns that an unattended run may use a different screen resolution from the one the flow was built on, which can cause errors when an element isn't found, "or even in interacting with the wrong element"; its fix is to set the resolution for unattended runs. A bot that stops is a nuisance. A bot that types into the wrong box is worse.

Logins

Bots sign in with stored usernames and passwords, so a changed password stops them. Many services also ask for a second factor: the NCSC's guidance for corporate online services includes mandating strong multi-factor authentication for access to sensitive data, and a bot has no phone to approve the prompt. Power Automate also needs a machine with every user signed out before an unattended flow can run, and warns that someone logging in during a run might make it fail.

Timing

A person waits for a slow page without thinking about it. A bot has to be told how long to wait. Power Automate's wait actions ask whether to wait indefinitely or fail after a set time, so a slow Monday morning or an unexpected pop-up can stop a bot that ran fine all week.

None of this makes RPA a bad choice, but it makes upkeep part of the price. SS&C Blue Prism calls bot maintenance "a required operational practice", and UiPath's top plan includes "self-healing UI automation". When vendors build features to repair broken bots, budget for bots breaking.

RPA vs API integration vs AI

An API is the door a system provides for other software: documented requests to read or write records, with an error message when something is wrong. AI, here, means models that read unstructured input, such as an email or a scanned invoice, and work out what it says. IBM puts the difference simply: "RPA is process-driven, whereas AI is data-driven".

Our own Add to CRM, a Chrome extension that adds a person from LinkedIn, Gmail or Outlook to any of 29 CRMs in one click, takes the API route. The user connects their CRM by signing in to it or pasting an API key, and our server reads and writes each record through the CRM's own interface for apps, not its screens. Even on LinkedIn the extension doesn't scrape the page: it works from the page's address. That route still needs looking after: each CRM has its own sign-in, field types, limits and quirks. Sign-ins renew themselves, a failed connection is diagnosed from the CRM's own error, and a bulk add stops after five identical failures instead of repeating one fault down a whole list.

RPA vs AI

IBM describes RPA as "doing" tasks and AI as the "thinking". RPA follows rules exactly and can't make sense of anything it wasn't told about: a supplier who sends an invoice in a new layout stops it. AI can read that invoice, but it works in probabilities, so it will sometimes be wrong and needs a person checking the cases that matter.

The vendors now pitch the two as one. UiPath calls RPA "the execution layer for agentic automation", with AI agents deciding and robots carrying the decisions out. That inherits both sets of weaknesses: an AI that can misread, driving screens that can change. Where the target system has an API, we would rather the AI's output went through it. AI automation is at its best reading messy input and handing clean data on; for documents, see our guide to intelligent document processing.

The main RPA products

Four names come up most. Each is described from its own pages, with prices as of October 2026.

• UiPath. Automations are built in UiPath Studio, which finds screen elements using selectors, and run by robots. Its pricing page lists a free Community plan, a Basic plan starting at $25 a month with a limit of two robots, and Standard and Enterprise plans priced by its sales team. It says an updated Basic plan is coming soon.
• Microsoft Power Automate desktop flows. Microsoft's RPA for Windows, able to drive web pages, desktop applications and terminal emulators. On Microsoft's UK pricing page, attended desktop flows come with Power Automate Premium at £11.50 per user per month. Unattended flows need Power Automate Process at £115.30 per bot per month, or Hosted Process, with a virtual machine Microsoft manages, at £165.30. All are paid yearly and exclude VAT, and each unattended bot runs one flow at a time.
• Automation Anywhere. Its RPA runs in the cloud, on premises or both, managed from a web-based Control Room. The free Community Edition runs on its Automation 360 cloud platform and is aimed at students and developers; a small business may use it on no more than five machines.
• SS&C Blue Prism. It calls its bots digital workers, and says it built its platform for regulated industries where every action has to be logged, auditable and governed.

We didn't find published list prices for Automation Anywhere or Blue Prism.

When to choose which

1. Simplify first. Map the process and remove steps nobody needs before automating anything. Our guide to process mapping shows how.
2. Use the API if there is one. Ask the supplier and check their developer pages. If both systems are common cloud apps, an off-the-shelf tool may be enough; we compare two in n8n vs Zapier.
3. Use AI for the reading, with a person checking. Decide how many errors you can live with before you start.
4. Use RPA when there is no other door. Keep each bot small, log every run, and decide in advance who fixes it when it fails.
5. Leave judgement and rare work to people. A job that happens twice a month, or needs a conversation, rarely pays back the cost of building and maintaining a bot.

Before you sign an RPA contract, get answers to five questions. Does the system really have no API? How often do its screens change? Does its login need a second factor? Who fixes the bot at seven in the morning when the overnight run failed? And what does one wrong click cost?

If you want a hand

If you aren't sure which route fits a process, we can look at it with you: whether the systems have APIs, where AI would help, and whether a bot is the honest answer. Start a project and tell us about it.