Market Overview
The global robotic process automation market was valued at $2,182 million in 2021, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 32.3% during 2021–2030. The key factors responsible for the growth of the market include the ease of handling business processes, higher efficiency, and enhancedcustomer experienceoffered by RPA solutions.
Moreover, the rising integration of the latest technologies and the surging demand for virtual workforces is aiding the market growth, as RPA offers several key advantages, the most significant one is lower overhead costs. It eliminates the expenses of supporting and hiring employees, as well as safety costs, transportation and travel expenses, in-office insurance, retention costs, and the costs of outsourcing employees and using external experts.
Owing to the customer service-related issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic, several companies shifted to bots, or software robots to continue operations despite the restrictions. Due to this, significant growth was observed in the market for RPA during the pandemic. In addition, governments and companies have been leveraging RPA robots to track patients, optimize supply chains, assist students and teachers in online classes, and respond to the increasing demand for online shopping.
Automated Solution Contributes Majority of Revenue
The automated solution category accounted for the largest revenue share, of around 48%, in 2021 and is further expected to dominate the market during the predicted period. This is ascribed to the increasing efforts of enterprises to automate their basic operations and processes, such as customer query handling, data entry, scanned document uploading, and information verification, for automatic approvals and rejections.Moreover, these solutions allow firms to save their operating expenses by automating high-volume, repetitive processes with a 0% error rate.
Furthermore, the decision support and management category will witness significant growth in the coming years. This can be because it enables bots to make decisions and follow business rules with more accuracy, without translating into additional costs for organizations. Such bots can be used for automating order processing and payment, procurement, monitoring inventory levels, and tracking shipments, which further contributes to the market growth in this category.
Rule-Based Operation Dominates the Market
The rule-based operation category accounted for a larger revenue share, of around 62%, in 2021, and it is further expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period. This is due to the rule-based software’s efficient execution of repetitive activities without the need for human intervention or expertise. In addition, this solution uses pre-defined inputs to run corporate applications, leveraging the existing user interfaces. Additionally, its rising application areas, such as office tasks, including invoice processing, data entry, and data collection from multiple apps; and customer service and IT support, further drive the demand for rule-based software.
Whereas, the knowledge-based operation category will register substantial growth in the coming years. With the help of knowledge-based RPA, machines take care of operations that require human judgment or expertise, on their own, as it utilizes advanced technologies, such as AI, deep learning, cognitive computing, big data, and natural user interface, combined with higher computing power and stronger connectivity. Moreover, its capabilities of operating in unregulated domains and processing unstructured data make it more popular in the robotic process automation market in the coming years.
Partnerships Among Software Vendors and Service Providers Are a Key Industry Trend
Partnerships among software vendors and service providers are a key trend that has been observed in the RPA market in recent years. The adoption of RPA in several business processes is resulting in an increasing number of strategic partnerships among RPA system integrators, cloud service providers, and other service providers. For instance, in July 2021, UiPath Inc. announced a partnership with TSANet Inc., to fast-track interactions with other vendors for resolving multi-party integration issues. With this partnership, the company would leverage other vendors' engineering and customer success teams to shorten the time it takes to resolve issues for mutual customers.
Furthermore, in July 2021, Kofax Inc. partnered with CoForce LLC to help educational organizations deploy RPA software to mechanize the time-consuming, myriad manual, and expensive workflows that are common in the education sector, thus allowing cost-efficient and more streamlined operations.
| Report Attribute | Details |
Historical Years | 2017-2021 |
Forecast Years | 2022-2030 |
Market Size in 2021 | $2,182 Million |
Revenue Forecast in 2030 | $27,098 Million |
Growth Rate | 32.3% CAGR |
Report Scope | Market Trends, Drivers, and Restraints; Revenue Estimation and Forecast; Segmentation Analysis; Impact of COVID-19; Companies’ Strategic Developments; Market Share Analysis of Key Players; Company Profiling |
Segments Covered | By Process; By Operation; By Offering; By Organization; By Vertical; By Region |
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Software Category To Witness Faster Growth
The software category will register faster growth, advancing at a CAGR of 34.9%, during the forecast period. This can be due to the increasing adoption of RPA software across several verticals to drive efficiency and eliminate the wastage of time in business operations through rapid automation of manual, rule-based, and back-office administrative processes.
Moreover, the service category accounted for a larger revenue share in 2021, and it is expected to maintain its position during the predicted period as well, advancing with a substantial CAGR. This is attributed to the rising demand for RPA services across different verticals. Additionally, service providers are continuously improving their consulting, advisory, and training services, which are resulting in reducing costs and increasing scalability for users.
Such services can be classified into professional, implementation, and training. Among these, professional services dominate the market. This is because companies such as Accenture PLC and Capgemini SE offer professional services for RPA strategy applications, including operating model, roadmap, and business case; opportunity identification; vendor selection; pilot advisory; and execution support.
SMEs Category To Witness Higher Growth Rate
The SMEs category is projected to register faster growth in the robotic process automation market during 2022–2030. This can be attributed to the surging adoption of RPA solutions by SMEs to become more productive, transform manual business processes, and handle more data with a smaller workforce. Moreover, because of the improved operational performance and lower costs of RPA, the technology is becoming more common in SMEs.
Surge in Demand for Virtual Workforce Drives the Industry
The growing digitization rate has been encouraging organizations to adopt the best practices that are cost-effective and can help them in offering services to their customers in a timely manner. A virtual workforce is a part of digital transformation that aims to automate business processes to save both time and cost. It is also one of the biggest technology disruptors that allow employees to focus actively on tasks requiring human intervention, for better decision-making. Establishing a virtual workforce holds several key advantages, including reduced wages; if a company has a virtual workforce, the expenditure in supporting and hiring employees, outsourcing the work, and consulting external experts is eliminated.
Essentially, RPA enables enterprises to form a virtual workforce capable of working on routine and mundane tasks with high efficiency, thus eliminating the need for human intervention. It offers scalability, besides reducing the operational cost by as much as 50%, as the virtual workforce has the capability to work round the clock. Unlike humans, who can only work for limited hours with a fixed number of leaves on an annual basis, RPA systems work continuously, thus resulting in a lower overall production cost and higher customer satisfaction. Thus, the surging demand for virtual workforce solutions to automate mundane and repetitive tasks would drive the RPA market growth.
Retail and Consumer Goods Sector To Record Fastest Growth
The retail and consumer goods category is expected to grow at the highest rate in the market during the forecast period, based on vertical. This can be because these solutions offer several benefits to players operating in the retail andconsumergoods industry, such as savings on unnecessary spending on resources and improvements in revenue cycle management. It also allows retailers to adjust pricing, production, and inventory faster.
APAC Market To Grow at the Highest Rate
Geographically, the APAC market is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period, advancing at a CAGR of 36.9%. This can be ascribed to the rising internet penetration, surging awareness of automation, rapid economic growth, and growing IT service industry in the region. Furthermore, the rising disposable income in several developing countries is substantially increasing the adoption of these solutions in APAC.
On the other hand, North America generated the highest revenue in 2021 and is expected to maintain its dominance in the coming years as well, owing to the high penetration of process management and automation solutions across the U.S. and Canada. Furthermore, the presence of a large number of companies that offer offshore customer services, coupled with the availability of major vendors, results in a high market share.
Key Players in the Robotic Process Automation Market Are:
- 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
Market Size Breakdown by Segment
The study uncovers the biggest trends and opportunities in the market, along with offering segmentation analysis at the granular level for the period 2017 to 2030.
Based on Process
- Automated Solution
- Decision Support and Management
- Interaction Solution
Based on Operation
- Rule-Based
- Knowledge-Based
Based on Offering
- Service
- Professional
- Implementation
- Training
- Software
Based on Organization
- Large Enterprises
- SMEs
Based on Vertical
- BFSI
- Telecom and IT
- Retail and Consumer Goods
- Manufacturing
- Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals
Geographical Analysis
- North America
- U.S.
- Canada
- Europe
- Germany
- France
- U.K.
- Italy
- Spain
- Asia-Pacific
- China
- India
- Japan
- Australia
- Latin America
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Middle East and Africa
- Saudi Arabia
- South Africa
