The Rise of the Autonomous Enterprise

We’re experiencing a dramatic new revolution with AI and automation, far more transformative than past economic shifts. History is a guide, and it says those who adapt and move quickly will thrive. Waiting for more proof of the value driven by AI and automation is not an option; it’s inviting failure.

Today is the day to join the hundreds of other enterprises—some of them your competitors—that have already embraced agentic process automation (APA) to soar beyond expectations. Leaders who choose to wait will remember this time, but not fondly.

The next dot-com moment: The rise of the autonomous enterprise

We all learned about the Industrial Revolution in school, where humanity transitioned from an agricultural economy to one dominated by new machines, materials, and energy sources. That transformation stretched from the mid-1700s through the mid-1800s—a century of progress that shifted the world.

The dot-com boom was arguably a more transformational economic and cultural shift. It ushered in an era of email and e-commerce, SaaS and social media, smartphones and smart homes. Remarkably, the dot-com boom took about five years. Even stretching the duration from the birth of the internet in 1983 through to today, it’s been barely 40 years.

Now, AI and automation are fueling an even bigger transformation. In fact, the core innovations of the dot-com boom—SaaS, point solutions, big data—are already on their deathbeds, weakened by the frustrations of siloed data, shadow IT, and ballooning costs.

This is the era of the autonomous enterprise, where AI isn’t just assisting—it’s executing. Agentic process automation (APA) is the framework that makes this possible. It orchestrates AI agents to move beyond simple tasks, solving complex problems, making decisions, and driving entire workflows across systems, data, and departments. With APA, businesses don’t just automate—they operate autonomously.

Organizations that embrace APA now will gain a decisive competitive advantage, setting the pace for their industries. Those that hesitate will soon find themselves unable to compete.

AI needs automation and orchestration to drive real impact

For many technology vendors, the bulk of AI’s value is sold as a vision to be realized far off in the future, while the immediate value of AI comes from tackling small, simple, discrete tasks. The AI-driven solutions that get the most attention merely provide basic support on a website, offer personalized product suggestions on an e-commerce platform, or help a sales rep draft a customized email to a prospect.

Unfortunately, automation and AI solutions like those can only manage about 30% of a complex process. Basically, just the simple stuff. The remaining 70% requires a human to jump between applications, copy and paste data, and search for information, all manually. This bottleneck limits AI’s impact and forces enterprises to settle for fragmented, inefficient workflows.

Most enterprises run on thousands of applications, many of which don’t communicate with each other. To unlock AI’s full value, businesses need automation and orchestration to connect systems, streamline processes, and ensure AI is working at scale—not in silos.

Agentic process automation: The fastest path to an autonomous enterprise

Combining AI and automation is nothing new—we’ve been doing it for a decade. Today, AI agents—autonomous, AI-powered assistants—handle intricate cognitive tasks, including making decisions in real time. AI agents can review financial documents to assist auditors, monitor equipment to predict issues and initiate maintenance, and analyze medical images to improve the identification of abnormalities.

But, for success at the enterprise level, AI agents require integrations with thousands of applications spanning multiple vendors and departments. It’s impractical to manage those integrations and use cases individually.

That’s where agentic process automation (APA) comes in.

How APA makes enterprise AI work

Agentic process automation (APA) orchestrates AI agents, automation, and people to execute complex, mission-critical business processes with autonomy, real-time optimization, and built-in governance. It enables AI agents to:

Navigate workflows independently: Moving beyond single-use AI, APA ensures AI agents work end-to-end across business processes.
Adapt to unpredictable environments: AI agents don’t just react; they analyze, reason, and solve problems dynamically.
Make context-aware decisions: APA gives AI agents the ability to interpret data in real time, ensuring accuracy and compliance.
Work together at scale: Instead of scattered, disconnected AI tools, APA coordinates AI agents into an enterprise-wide workforce.

For example, while a single AI agent can review financial records for auditing, an orchestrated team of AI agents can automate the entire process—matching invoices to purchase orders, processing payments, generating reports, automating approvals, archiving documents, and preparing pre-audit briefs.

Agentic process automation delivers on the promise of AI

Where traditional AI and automation handle only 30% of a complex process, APA automates up to 80% of work—bridging the gap between simple AI tasks and full enterprise autonomy. It connects data across systems, eliminates costly inefficiencies, and transforms customer experiences.

With APA, enterprises don’t just automate some tasks. They create self-operating business processes that drive revenue, efficiency, and long-term competitive advantage.

This is the real promise of AI in the enterprise—not just assistance, but true autonomy. And APA is the only way to get there.

Bridging the gap to autonomy

It’s easy to understand how agentic process automation (APA) will transform your organization and lift it above the competition. However, shifting to an autonomous enterprise isn’t just about technology—it’s about leadership, strategy, and execution. While APA is the key enabler, success starts with understanding where you are today and securing C-suite buy-in to move forward.

Ask yourself these three critical questions:

How autonomous is your enterprise today? Are you automating only simple tasks, or are you leveraging AI to orchestrate entire workflows?
Is your CEO ready to lead the charge? The shift to autonomy requires bold leadership and a commitment to automation at the highest level.
Is your CFO ready to invest in agentic process automation? Scaling automation requires financial backing to unlock its full potential across departments.

Your goal should be to automate as much as possible, in every department, regardless of complexity. However, your CEO must be the champion who makes automation the key to organizational success. And, with the right resources, it will be your organization leading the way through this, and the next, economic revolution.

The autonomous enterprise is already here—and leading companies know it

Automation Anywhere was the first to launch agentic process automation (APA) and remains the only company delivering it at scale. We’re not pointing down the road or talking about the AI of tomorrow. APA is here now, and it’s delivering hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits to top enterprises in banking, healthcare, and manufacturing.

Here’s how leading companies are putting APA to work:

Petrobras, an energy company in Brazil, used agentic process automation to decipher thousands of annual tax code changes, recompute taxes, and, in just three weeks, saved over $100 million.
Boston Children’s Hospital uses agentic process automation to reduce complex pre- and post-visit administrative work, which can consume 25% of a physician’s time, improving physician well-being and giving them more time to focus on the patient experience.
KeyBank used agentic process automation to automate nearly 300 processes across its operations to improve business efficiency.
PNC Bank automated hundreds of processes at over 10,000 branches, with agentic process automation now assisting bank staff and helping customers to reduce wait times.

These organizations—and many others—aren’t waiting to see how AI and automation evolve. They’re already leading the next economic transformation.

Request a live demo and see how APA works for your enterprise.