Revenue among robotic process automation software providers grew 63.1% globally in 2018 to $846 million, making it the fastest-growing enterprise software market, according to Gartner Inc.

In a separate report titled “Introduction to Robotic Process Automation,” Staffing Industry Analysts provides an introduction to the market. The idea of the SIA report on RPA is to give the reader a sense of the capabilities available, an idea of who the main providers are and best practices for firms.

North America represents a 51% share of the robotic process automation market, according to Gartner. Western Europe had a 23% share of the market and Japan had a 12.4% share. The biggest industry adopters of robotic process automation software are banks, insurance companies, telcos and utility companies.

It noted the top five robotic process automation vendors controlled 47% of the market in 2018. 

Those five largest robotic process automation vendors in 2018, according to Gartner, were:

1. UiPath, revenue of $114.8 million
2. Automation Anywhere, revenue of $108.4 million
3. Blue Prism, revenue of $71.0 million
4. NICE, revenue of $61.5 million
5. Pegasystems, revenue of $41.0 million

However, Gartner noted that large software companies such as IBM and Microsoft are now looking to partner with or acquire robotic process automation software providers.

SIA's report looks at what the workforce solutions ecosystem should consider when evaluating the market or putting together a request for proposal. Questions like build or buy and measuring performance in ROI are discussed.

The Institute for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence defines the technology as “The application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.”