Craig Le Clair

The trend toward automation is not new. The Industrial Revolution started it in the 19th century, but there has never been such rapid automation progress as today. All forms have accelerated, often without understanding their effect. Humans have become choke points in operations, points of disease and legal liability, and friction to smooth digital pathways, […]

Forrester's forthcoming series looks at categories of automation that directly effects frontline service workers and dives into the challenges, successes, and best practice guidance.

I haven’t (yet) eaten her culinary delights, but Raymone Williams gave me a bit of her time to talk robots. She is the owner of the Tastee Spoon, a Caribbean (Jamaican) restaurant and food truck serving up original cuisine in Atlanta. If you’re busy and want to skip the rest of the blog, here’s the […]

Learn how to assess your automation decisions for maximum impact.

Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners  announced it’s intention to acquire robotic process automation (RPA) software company Blue Prism. Subject to shareholder approval, it plans to merge Blue Prism into TIBCO Software, which it already owns. Forrester’s automation team took a look at this potential merger and had the following thoughts. Our consensus is “thumbs-up.” A […]

ServiceNow just announced that it plans to purchase Intellibot and add to its integration and process capabilities. As we predicted in 2020 (graphic below) the major low-code and cloud vendors are starting to move into the robotic process automation (RPA) market. The 2022 snapshot shows cloud low-code vendors such as ServiceNow and specialized domain-focused cloud […]

In less than a year automation moved from a long-term goal to a short-term necessity. Find out what Forrester predicts for the automation market in 2021.

If robotic process automation was not on your company’s roadmap before COVID-19, it likely is now to reduce costs, conduct remote business, and improve resiliency.

Vice President and Principal Analyst Craig Le Clair reviews the three key benefits Microsoft will gain from its acquisition of robotic process automation provider Softomotive.

Appian will acquire native robotic process automation (RPA) capability with the purchase of Jidoka, which will be rebranded “Appian RPA.” It will be an additionally priced feature of the Appian Cloud platform. For 5K a month, enterprises can build as many robots as they need. Relatively small, with 25 employees, Jidoka clients are mostly unattended […]

UiPath has reduced its workforce by several hundred employees.[i] The business has grown at an incredible pace, as have several other providers such as Automation Anywhere. Overall, there is nothing we see that indicates a flattening or slowing of robotic process automation (RPA’s) growth. The layoffs have more to do with the challenges of scaling […]

In the quest to launch invisible robots into the enterprise, some organizations are realizing the Center of Excellence model doesn't cut it. Find out what they're doing instead.

I thought it was about time to post something on the recently published Forrester book, Invisible Robots in the Quiet of the Night. As you might expect, it is full of data from Forrester and others. But it’s also rich with stories of people whom automation has affected both positively and negatively — the machinist, […]

Automation And The Future Of Work Enters The Political Dialogue Andrew Yang is a long shot to make the next round of debates but deserves credit for bringing the conversation about automation and the future of work to the debate stage. To be fair, the impact of AI and automation on work is a difficult […]

Andrew Yang is a long shot to make the next round of debates but deserves credit for bringing the conversation about automation and the future of work to the debate stage. To be fair, the impact of automation on work is a difficult conversation. Conservatives speak to the unemployed at factory gates, coal mines, and […]

Forrester predicted in late 2018 that automation would become the tip of the digital transformation spear in 2019, impacting everything from infrastructure to customers to business models. Now that we’re four months in, we’ve evaluated whether our five specific predictions are on track. We first predicted that 40% of enterprises will have automation centers and […]

IBM and Automation Anywhere  (AA’s) today announced a collaboration (note-not a formal partnership yet) to integrate (AA’s) Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform, used to create software bots to handle repetitive, task-based work, with IBM’s portfolio of digital process automation software, that includes IBM Business Process Manager and Operational Decision Manager. For AA, the partnership is a validation of […]