RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
RPA is software that mimics human clicking in a user interface — typically used to integrate against legacy systems without an API.
Also known as: robotic process automation, process bot
RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is software that mimics human action in a user interface — clicks buttons, fills out forms, copies data between systems. RPA is useful where legacy systems lack an API but you still need to automate a workflow. It is a stopgap solution: often more brittle than API-based integration, but quicker to set up. RPA and AI overlap and complement each other — RPA fetches data from an old interface, while AI interprets what the data means and what should be done with it.
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Related terms
- AI integration — AI integration is the process of wiring language models, RAG, or predictive models directly into a business's existing systems and workflows.
- AI agent — An AI agent is software that sets goals, plans steps, and acts autonomously to achieve them — without continuous human oversight.