The surge in the demand for virtual workforces, increased work efficiency offered by robotic process automation (RPA), and need for enhanced customer experiences are the major growth drivers for the global robotic process automation market. Moreover, RPA helps organizations speed up processes, enhance quality and productivity, and improve services, while reducing costs. Due to the aforementioned factors, the industry is projected to generate $45,982.0 million revenue in 2030, advancing at a CAGR of 36.3% during 2020–2030.
The COVID-19 pandemic has benefited the robotic process automation market as many industries, such as healthcare, financial services, and the public sector, are rapidly implementing these solutions to help people cope with the financial, health, and practical challenges. Across the world, RPA and broader digitalization are helping organizations tackle this global pandemic. For instance, in the U.S., the RPA team at the General Services Administration has developed a national COVID-19 bot to speed up the collection of infection count data in counties where it manages federal buildings. Moreover, several leading RPA vendors have donated licenses and the available resources to organizations that are at the front in the fight against COVID-19, for public benefit.
The robotic process automation market is bifurcated into rule-based and knowledge-based, under the operation segment. Between the two, the rule-based bifurcation dominated the market in 2020, and it is expected to maintain its position during the forecast period (2021–2030). This can be attributed to the advantages associated with rule-based automation such as efficient execution of repeatable tasks that do not require human intervention or expertise. Additionally, rule-based RPA operates enterprise applications through the existing user interfaces, on the basis of pre-defined inputs.
Moreover, the market for robotic process automation is categorized into banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), telecom and information technology (IT), retail and consumer goods, manufacturing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and others, based on vertical. Among these, the retail and consumer goods category is projected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. Integrating data and information has become easier due to the deployment of these solutions, thus giving the retail and consumer goods industry more time to focus on providing the best possible services. It also enables retailers to make faster changes to price, production, and inventory.
Geographically, the North American region held the largest share of the robotic process automation market in 2020, and it is expected to maintain its position in the forecast period. This is mainly attributed to the developed IT infrastructure, high investment, and rapid adoption of advanced technologies in the region.
Whereas, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) market for robotic process automation is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period due to the increasing IT infrastructure investment and growing awareness on automation in the region.
Players in the global robotic process automation industry are extensively involved in partnerships and product launches to gain a significant position. For instance, in April 2020, Automation Anywhere Inc. launched artificial intelligence (AI)-powered bots, called Payroll Protection Program (PPP) bots, to help banks automate loan applications for small companies, under the $2.2-trillion U.S. coronavirus stimulus package. The bots robotically extract application data, enter the information into the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) loan origination portal, and update the loan processing status accordingly.
Similarly, in March 2020, Blue Prism Limited announced a partnership with SailPoint Technologies Holdings Inc., a U.S.-based enterprise identity management solution provider. Blue Prism Limited is integrating its connected RPA platform with SailPoint Technologies Holdings Inc.’s enterprise identity management platform to help organizations control and maintain the credentials of digital workers, including those that meet the defined separation of duties (SoD) policies.
Major players operating in the robotic process automation market include NICE Ltd., Pegasystems Inc., Automation Anywhere Inc., Blue Prism Limited, Celaton Ltd., Redwood International Business Group B.V., IPsoft Incorporated, UiPath Inc., Xerox Corporation, IBM Corporation, Kofax Inc., Kryon System Ltd., and WorkFusion Inc.