The market for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is growing like a tropical storm. The compound annual growth rate between 2016 and 2022 is estimated at approximately 30%[i]. Forrester Research projected that the market would reach a value of $2.9 billion in 2021[ii]. In this melting pot of changing platforms and applications, the only constant is the division between attended and unattended RPA systems, although “autonomous” might be a more fitting term. It is worth taking a closer look at what these two categories of solutions are and how they differ, because as is often the case in life,
distinguishing between concepts is more important than simply being able to define them. Perhaps a new entity or a new quality is already emerging from these two categories?
What is attended RPA?
The class of programs operating within attended RPA includes a set of bots whose normal functioning requires decision-making and/or interaction with a user. They act as a virtual assistant that begins its activity upon a supervisor’s signal and occasionally expects input data necessary to continue the task for which it was designed. This means they are involved in handling processes that cannot be fully automated from start to finish. They are often found in
marketing and sales team operations, customer service, help desks, or call centers. A request to change a bank customer’s address serves as a good illustration. Such an action may require multiple clicks across different applications, which unnecessarily consumes an employee’s time and attention. A bot will do it faster, better, and more accurately, while the human can focus on identifying other customer needs during that time. In a call center, a bot supervised by an agent handling a call can search for customer data in other applications and, after aggregation, display it on the current screen. Thus, the employee is relieved of the need to switch between different systems, gaining time to analyze data and actually solve the caller’s problem. Consequently, an employee assisted by a software bot they launch and supervise increases their productivity and improves work quality. Resources freed from tedious and repetitive tasks can be utilized for other high-margin activities. In a typical configuration, attended RPA bots are run on employee workstations, although versions with bots running on local servers or in the cloud are also encountered.
What is unattended RPA?
Bots in the unattended RPA class operate autonomously, independent of the user for whom they perform tasks. Figuratively speaking, they operate in a “set it and forget it” mode. They are launched in batch mode, according to schedules prepared by administrators, or through the logic of the process flow being handled. Such autonomous robots operate in both real and virtual environments, primarily handling back-office processes where large datasets are collected, sorted, analyzed, and processed. Unattended bots are perfect for handling processes that can be fully automated from start to finish, allowing for only minimal human interaction. This could include inventory management, order processing, or payment handling. Thanks to centralization, it is easy to plan bot usage, change their functions and operations in real-time, manage workloads, and report on their productivity. Data collected from monitoring their work facilitates audits and compliance with formal legal requirements related to processing sensitive data. Unattended RPA solutions are easily scalable, have virtually unlimited capacity, and eliminate issues with variable workloads, removing the need to hire additional staff.
Cloud computing Continuous operation is ideal for healthcare, telecommunications, hospitality, and industrial sectors that require uninterrupted and precise manufacturing processes. Similar to Attended RPA, autonomous bots can also run on local servers and workstations. The benefits of using unattended bots are clear: they reduce operational costs and increase productivity while minimizing errors. Eliminating repetitive, manual tasks improves the work environment and overall employee satisfaction. Customers also benefit, as the overall quality of service is significantly enhanced.
Attended vs. Unattended RPA
To differentiate between attended and unattended RPA, one must first identify their specific use cases. Attended RPA works for front-office employees and teams, acting as virtual assistants, while Unattended RPA bots function autonomously to support back-office processes. A key differentiator is human interaction: attended RPA requires constant attention, as someone must trigger the bot and provide necessary data when needed. In the case of unattended bots, such interaction is essentially unnecessary. They operate independently based on defined schedules and process logic. This highlights another criterion: the method of activation—on-demand by a user or independently. Consequently, attended bots work during the same hours as employees, while unattended bots run non-stop unless otherwise configured by administrators. Their deployment environments also differ; attended RPA bots are more commonly found on workstations, while unattended bots typically run on servers and in the cloud. Significant differences between the two also exist in terms of development and deployment costs. Attended bots are relatively simple and inexpensive to deploy quickly, but they offer less flexibility for scaling and expanding their scope. Unattended RPA bots require significantly higher investment in licenses and implementation, but they substantially increase the efficiency of the supported business process. Comparing the benefits of both types of process automation reveals more similarities than differences. Regardless of the bot type, both lead to increased productivity, reduced operational costs and error rates, and the liberation of employees from tedious, repetitive, and relatively simple tasks. Ultimately, this is not surprising—these are the
general benefits and advantages of process automation.
Is it possible to combine unattended and attended RPA?
Combining unattended and attended RPA can be described in two words: symbiosis and synergy. While there is nothing stopping you from using these two types of solutions independently, the best business results are achieved by using a single software platform where both Attended and Unattended bots operate simultaneously. The collaboration between these two types of bots allows for the automation of all processes that impact employee productivity and the monetization of improved customer relationships. Combining attended and unattended RPA also enables seamless workload scaling, lower costs, better budget utilization, and improvements in many other operational aspects without interrupting task execution, which reduces the risk of failures and disruptions. As one Forrester Research report shows
[iii], the simultaneous use of both types of robots—hybrid solutions—allows for the expectation of
return on investment at a level of 186%, with a constant headcount and increased employee productivity.
How do hybrid RPA bots work?
Hybrid RPA bots fully support processes that are both automatable and require human interaction, such as Order to Cash or Procure to Pay, by seamlessly integrating front-end and back-end systems. These bots are independent of current screens and utilize rapidly deployable user interfaces integrated with applications via APIs. This allows for quick modifications, as well as the detection, prediction, and prevention of potential issues. Hybrid RPA bots available on the market are based on REST/SOAP solutions (
Simple Object Access Protocol). They are reliable and rarely require modifications; however, if needed, administrators can easily implement necessary functional changes using no-code tools. The simultaneous involvement of humans and robots maximizes the final outcome. One can imagine
an AI-powered chatbot (
Artificial Intelligence) that conducts a conversation with a customer and, when encountering unhandled needs or an unexpected turn in the conversation, calls in a human who joins the process, contributing new ways to solve the problem or maintain the quality of customer interaction. In other applications, hybrid bots can use natural language processing techniques to listen to an employee’s conversation with a customer and provide the employee with an aggregated set of necessary information, such as negotiation support or assistance in resolving the issue reported by the caller. The end result is this: hybrid RPA bots combine the tireless effort, high efficiency, and scalability of robots with human creativity, flexibility, and communication skills, maximizing synergy and optimizing business operations. Consequently, the gap between tasks performed by Attended and Unattended RPA disappears.
[i] https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/robotic-process-automation-market-238229646.html
[ii] https://nuummite.com/attended-and-unattended-rpa-bots-all-you-need-to-know/
[iii] https://www.pega.com/forrester-tei-robotic-process-automation
