Topic
7 facts from 4 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2000s
Nilay Patel says robotic process automation has existed since the early 2000s and is meant to solve a major problem for organizations.
“robotic process automation, which has been around since the early 2000s and aims to solve a pretty big problem”
2010s
Phil Fersht says robotic process automation did not scale well and was brittle, although the concept was sound.
“but the problem with RPA was the technology didn't scale well, it was very brittle, but the the concept was there.”
2012
Phil Fersht says robotic process automation stalled because it was handed to the CIO and diluted in the frozen middle of management.
“It would get dumped on the CIO's docket, and it would eventually get dumbed down. Two or three layers into the what we call the frozen middle within the organization, and that's when technology solutions go to die.”
2025
Dines says robotic process automation is an established industry growing at low double-digit rates.
“RPA, it's an established industry right now that grows into like low double digits.”
Undated
Robotic process automation vendors introduced easy-to-use tools that let people build their own workflow automations.
“the robotic process automation vendors introduced tools that were very easy to use, and people could create their own kind of workflow automations.”
Undated
Dines says SaaS software is licensed per user seat, and RPA reduced the seats needed because one account could do work of many users.
“saas software was licensed by user seats. With RPA, you need a lot less user seats”
Undated
Ghodsi said robotic process automation (RPA) was rule-based and never learned, so it had to be given exact rules and rewritten when it made mistakes.
“It wasn't learning ever, so there was like zero learning. It was like, you tell it exactly here are the rules, and if it got something wrong”
Episodes