BRIEF
Hungarian corporate life and the automation market—including platform vendors and developers, consultants, and user IT organizations—have been buzzing with the organizational integration of artificial intelligence solutions and the introduction of innovative AI Proof of Concepts, universally raising the question in the past year: do other automation technologies, including the equally transformative Robotic Process Automation (RPA), have relevance in the coming years and in the long term?
Noémi Tihanyi's (Head of Digitalization & Robotization, Clarity Consulting) study explores the trends and challenges of the automation market and answers what role robotic process automation is expected to play in the life of future enterprises. The aim of the study is to provide a compass for decision-makers to build an integrated, AI-powered automation ecosystem.
INTRODUCTION – The AI era and the automation dilemma
Spectacular breakthroughs in artificial intelligence dominate professional and business discourse. At the same time, a less visible but equally significant transformation is taking place in the background: the increasingly turbulent automation of operational processes. While AI brings new capabilities to organizations, certain automation technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), have been quietly, stably, and measurably generating business value for years.
For a long time, the question was whether AI will replace already established and often growing automation techniques (even the growing transformative RPA technology) in the coming years, and whether organizations still at a low level of digitalization will skip previous technological steps and start their digital journey with artificial intelligence? Of course, the question is much more nuanced than that.
Automation trends and technologies
Market data shows that automation —including process automation, RPA, AI, and other modern automation technologies— is no longer an experimental area, but has become a strategic part of business operations.
Market maturity
The vast majority of organizations view process automation as a source of strategic advantage:
98% of organizations view process automation as a source of strategic advantage.
Among large enterprises, the use of RPA is already commonplace (~80% of them already use RPA in some form).
Technological directions
The shift towards modern automation solutions is clearly indicated by the increasing prevalence of cloud-based implementations: by 2025, the share of cloud-first RPA deployments has increased significantly.
Intelligent automation—the combination of RPA and AI—is spreading rapidly: forecasts suggest that the annual growth of RPA and AI integration could reach nearly 45% in the coming years, as more and more organizations use AI capabilities to handle unstructured data and automate complex processes.
The RPA as a Service (RPAaaS) model is strengthening: market forecasts predict that by 2025, ~20% of global RPA solutions will be sold as a service.
Traditional, commercial RPA frameworks (e.g., UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism) remain major market players, while the rise of open-source and low-code/no-code tools brings a wider technological spectrum into the automation landscape.
Organizational impacts
Professional roles are transforming: fewer traditional "bot developers" and more platform, architecture, and strategy experts are coming to the forefront as the complexity of enterprise automation environments increases.
The automation approaches of corporate segments are also differentiating:
Large enterprises typically build their integrated automation platforms in-house (e.g., their own CoE – Center of Excellence), but often involve external partners for AI integrations and complex solutions.
Medium and small businesses prefer to choose RPAaaS and SaaS automation models, collaborating with external developers and platforms.
Read the full case study here:
The role of RPA in the age of AI
