‘It’s gone from famine to feast’: IT pros discuss UiPath on Tour London
CRN sat down with tech firms to discuss their dynamics with UiPath, as well as the impact of AI on their businesses, and how to improve the relationship
US-based vendor UiPath has recently rebranded itself from an RPA to an AI-first vendor.
Since Daniel Dines, the company’s founder, returned as CEO in 2024 and reshaped the organisation’s offering, the new strategy has so far paid off.
In Q1 this year, revenue stood at $357m (£307.56m), a six per cent year-on-year increase.
During the vendor’s UiPath on Tour London event, partner execs reflected on the changes the company wants to bring to the industry, and how they will impact its network.
CRN sat down with seven IT leaders at the event, to talk about their collaboration with the vendor, whether the new strategy has helped them grow, and what they make of the different announcements.
Bart Scheffer, EMEA vendor business lead, Westcon
Robert Morgan, strategic accounts director, Westcon
Has there been any announcement that surprised you, or anything that you were maybe looking forward to that was addressed?
Scheffer: “One of the most interesting things was Maestro, the orchestrator.
“We saw a live demo today, and I think that’s a great step forward.
“It’s about bringing full end-to-end process visibility to the process owners, but also improving reporting; heat maps, for example, that show where a process is getting stuck.
“Then, using agentic AI, you can go a step further to optimise those processes.
“If you look at traditional RPA, it’s focused on strict, end-to-end flows, processes being automated in a linear way.
“With agentic AI, it’s a different landscape, and one where we expect to grow.”
What’s your relationship with UiPath; are you a long-time partner? And how do you use their technology?
Scheffer: “Since November last year, we’ve been active in the UK, really helping UiPath scale in this market, finding new opportunities, onboarding new partners, and helping those partners communicate the UiPath story.
“We also support their enablement journey, which is not always easy.
“Because UiPath is a very specific technology, you need the right kind of partner to scale it.
“We work closely with the local UiPath channel team, and we’re now working intensively with about 20 partners, helping to bring them up to speed with the technology.”
Morgan: “Currently, about 75 per cent of our UK business is in cybersecurity, so our customer base leans heavily into that space.
“UiPath brings us a new growth opportunity, particularly around RPA, which has market growth expectations of 30 to 40 per cent.
“From a Westcon perspective, we’re able to provide UiPath with opportunities, not only by introducing new partners from our cybersecurity and networking base, but also by offering insights through our Intelligent Demand services.
“These third-party services give projections into IT budget spend and long-term direction for end-user businesses, over the next five to ten years.
“So it’s twofold: we help UiPath work with existing customers and bring them net-new opportunity.
Is there anything UiPath could do to further improve your relationship?
Scheffer: “To be honest, UiPath is really great in that respect - and I’m not just saying that.
“If you look at the enablement materials they provide, such as the UiPath Labs, it’s one of the most comprehensive portfolios out there.
“Across all the IT vendors we work with, very few have such a broad and consistent enablement offering, including testing environments.
“Most vendors have learning tracks, but they’re quite basic. UiPath’s are far more extensive and structured.
“That makes it easier for us to share content with partners, and easier for partners to engage.
“And from a channel team perspective they’re also extremely supportive.
“We work closely with them on opportunities and deals. They’re easy to access, responsive, and collaborative.”
During the event, Ed Challis, UiPath’s head of AI, said ‘80 per cent of organisations state that AI hasn’t yet delivered tangible business value.’ Would you agree? Has AI impacted your profits?
Scheffer: “It all starts with the question: where do you begin your automation journey?
“Right now, the hype is all around agentic AI.
“It’s here, and it’s the future, but many businesses still have plenty of processes that could be automated using basic RPA.
“Sometimes, RPA is dismissed as ‘old’ or ‘not fancy’ anymore, but that’s misleading.
“Agentic AI might be the shiny new thing, but there’s still a lot of value to be unlocked with simpler automation.
“About profitability, it really comes down to starting with the right process.
“The problem is that when people say ‘AI can automate everything,’ it becomes overwhelming. Where do you start?
“You need to be specific: What’s the biggest hurdle right now? What’s the most complained-about or frustrating task in a given department?
“Then you ask: Can we automate it? What’s the benefit in terms of FTE saved, cost savings, etc.?
“That’s how you get value.”
Morgan: “We also heard that security is the number one challenge or hurdle organisations face when deploying AI.
“That aligns with our experience; security is one of our strongest portfolio areas.
“Looking ahead, we’re excited about exploring integrations between UiPath and tools like CrowdStrike, for example.
“There’s a lot of potential to help customers position automation and AI in ways that address C-level concerns about security and risk.
“It’s a challenge, but it’s also a strategic opportunity.”
Gooty Agraharam, global automation lead, Cognizant
Has there been any announcement that surprised you, or anything that you were maybe looking forward to that was addressed?
“The event pushes forward the agentic journey from where UiPath comes; from their heritage in RPA, through intelligent automation, and now into the full steam of agentic AI automation.
“It’s well constructed in terms of demos, client journeys, and most importantly, helping customers understand how UiPath is differentiated from the many tools out there.
“In terms of announcements, I wasn’t expecting anything major, but the Maestro announcement is a big game changer.
“UiPath is moving from automation into orchestration, before reaching agentification, which is kind of a Nirvana phase, maybe another 18 months away.
“Maestro arrives at a very interesting time, bringing together bots, agents, and humans to deliver orchestration.
“It’s a beautiful name, it evokes a symphony, bringing it all together.
“We believe that we are among their top three partners globally. And it works both ways: Cognizant is among UiPath’s top three SI partners in hyperautomation, and UiPath is one of Cognizant’s top three partners in the same space. I can say that with pride.”
What’s your relationship with UiPath; are you a long-time partner? And how do you use their technology?
“We’ve had a strategic partnership for almost ten years.
“We use UiPath in two major ways:
“First, internally, for Cognizant’s own BPO operations - which are very large.
“While we don’t always segment our services publicly, our BPO has more than 90,000 people out of our 336,300 employees.
“That’s part of our $20bn (£14.7bn) revenue business.
“Second, we work with over 100s of clients using UiPath not through BPO, but as professional services - helping them adopt and integrate UiPath solutions.
“This can involve consulting, AI adoption, and project-based work.
“So, one side is operations (internal use), and the other is change (external services).
“We also work across all domains, globally.
“North America is a large part of our business, but APAC is also a cornerstone for a lot of our UiPath work.
“Sector-wise: financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, life sciences; we span the spectrum.”
Is there anything UiPath could do to further improve your relationship?
“One consistent feedback we’ve given them, and taken ourselves, is around focus.
“UiPath, being large and with a wide landscape, sometimes spreads too thin.
“We’ve advised them that instead of being ‘inch deep and mile wide’, they should focus more deeply on certain clients.
“That feedback has been taken on board, although there was initial resistance.
“Now, they are focusing more on going deeper with clients instead of just expanding licence bases.
“Shallow engagement means low stickiness and easy replacement.
“We’re in our clients’ ecosystems for a long time, and our advice to UiPath was ‘stick longer, go deeper, and build domain depth, that’s where the real value lies.’”
During the event, Ed Challis, UiPath’s head of AI, said ‘80 per cent of organisations state that AI hasn’t yet delivered tangible business value.’ Would you agree? Has AI impacted your business profits?
“I partly agree and partly disagree.
“What has delivered value so far is automation in processes.
“That has ROI - most use cases show value within 12 months.
“What hasn’t delivered value (yet) is the new phase of automation; AI-led automation.
“So if you separate the two:
- Basic automation delivers five to 15 per cent incremental value.
- AI promises 50 to 80 per cent value but hasn’t delivered that yet.
“It’s not that AI failed, it’s that expectations were inflated.
“The whole system - tool providers, vendors, and buyers - set the wrong benchmarks.
“There’s also been ‘AI washing’ or ‘agent washing’ going on.
“People taking a workflow, adding a tiny bit of ML or AI, and calling it GenAI or agentic AI.
“That’s not real transformation; agentic AI is not just adding AI to a workflow, it’s about fundamentally reengineering the way you manage data, process, and human interaction.”
Denise Castaneda, associate director of business performance improvement, Protiviti
Has there been any announcement that surprised you, or anything that you were maybe looking forward to that was addressed?
“They’ve been talking a lot about Maestro, and it’s great to see them push that a bit more.
“Seeing a BPM tool that includes automation is really exciting.
“That’s something that’s been missing from the market for quite some time.
“A lot of our clients just want to understand their processes visually from end to end and see how to orchestrate that.
“This is finally the tool I’ve been waiting for.”
What’s your relationship with UiPath; are you a long-time partner? And how do you use their technology?
“We’ve been working with UiPath as a partner for about eight years.
“One of our team members who leads the Intelligent Automation practice was actually one of the first people to get trained on RPA, back when you had to attend in-person sessions and learn from the UiPath team directly.
“We’ve been involved since the early days - initially just learning the tool and figuring out how to help our clients.
“Over the years, the partnership has matured; back then, it was mainly RPA, as now UiPath is constantly introducing new, innovative products for clients.
“For a couple years now, we’re jointly going to market, working together on client-specific solutions; it genuinely feels like one team, even though we’re two separate organisations.”
Is there anything UiPath could do to further improve your relationship?
“There’s always room for improvement. I tell that to my consultants all the time!
“UiPath has some really innovative tools coming out, but when I speak to business leads, I often have to translate that into simpler terms.
“Tech people understand it. My whole career has basically been translating ‘tech speak’ into business language.
“What we need help with is demystifying some of the tech, making it clearer and more accessible, especially for non-technical stakeholders.
“That’s part of our job too, of course, but better support from UiPath in crafting that messaging earlier would help a lot.
“When something new comes out, we’re often educating clients about what’s possible, but we’re also figuring things out ourselves at the same time.
“More help with that early explanation and education piece would go a long way.”
During the event, Ed Challis, UiPath’s head of AI, said ‘80 per cent of organisations state that AI hasn’t yet delivered tangible business value.’ Would you agree? Has AI impacted your business profits?
“AI has definitely impacted us.
“Many of our clients are asking about it: where and how they can use it. Internally, we’ve invested in our own AI tools. We even have our own internal ProGPT platform.
“We’ve built AI tools to support our clients as well.
“It’s impacted our ways of working and how we engage.
“We’ve been adopting it over the last two years or so, but there’s still so much more to learn and explore.
“We’re seeing impact across the board: in client conversations, internal tools, and delivery.
“But it’s not just about building things, it’s about governance and compliance too.”
Tom Abbott, founder and CRO, TQA
Ben Park, SVP of technology, TQA
Has there been any announcement that surprised you, or anything that you were maybe looking forward to that was addressed?
Abbott: “Because we were one of the early adopters in the programme for GenAI, we got early access to a lot of this information.
“The event was really more of a re-release of things we’ve been using for the last four or five months.”
What’s your relationship with UiPath; are you a long-time partner? And how do you use their technology?
Park: “We launched our business in 2020, which was really the peak of demand for RPA, so we came in as a registered partner.
“As the relationship evolved, we became one of the 15 diamond partners.
“The majority of our business is centred around supporting the implementation and strategy of this technology.
“Our partnership spans two geographies: the UK & Ireland (our second-biggest region), and the US (our largest).
“We work with UiPath across multiple streams: resale, managed service environments, agents and automation at scale, and implementation services.
“We collaborate with UiPath on sales enablement, technology enablement, partner enablement; it’s a company-wide rollout programme.
“It’s our largest and most profitable partnership.”
Abbott: “It’s evolved a lot.
“When we started, we were focused on business process automation - RPA really appealed to business users.
“So back then, we typically sold to VP-level leaders: heads of finance, HR; departmental leads solving specific challenges.
“Now, with GenAI and long-running workflows across multiple departments, we’re engaging more with IT, innovation leaders, and executive stakeholders.
“We’ve moved from departmental VP buyers to C-suite-level buyers who are looking at transformation across the business.
“Innovation teams are a sweet spot; they’re often the ones trying to connect siloed departments and drive broader change.”
Park: “With agentic AI, we’re now speaking with front and middle-office leaders; like CMOs.
“Because you design agents around personas rather than processes, the focus shifts from automating people out of the business to empowering them.
“Agents are about accelerating productivity; doing more, faster, smarter. That naturally fits front-office functions like sales and marketing.
“For example, sales agents can provide client insights in real time; marketing agents can provide segment insights and act autonomously. “
Is there anything UiPath could do to further improve your relationship?
Park: “Honestly, UiPath has gone above and beyond to empower and enable partners - especially smaller senior partners like us.
“We get a lot of attention.
“If anything, they might be doing too much!
“There’s a constant stream of training, enablement, workshops; it’s almost an overhead trying to get our staff into all of them.
“It’s gone from famine to feast, and absorbing it all is a challenge. But that’s a good problem to have.
“Where they could improve: I think we need better feedback loops from the client side.
“We talk to UiPath a lot, but there isn’t a great mechanism yet for sharing what we hear on the ground about agentic tools, pricing models, customer enablement, etc.
“It’s early days, and these things take time, but it’s something we’re starting to discuss.”
Abbott: “One limitation is that UiPath has always been a bit of a black-box tool.
“It is configurable to business processes, but each industry has its own nuances.
“In large industries like financial services or healthcare, there are a lot of SMEs available.
“But when we work in niche sectors, such as large recruitment businesses, it’s harder to find that industry-specific expertise from UiPath.”
During the event, Ed Challis, UiPath’s head of AI, said ‘80 per cent of organisations state that AI hasn’t yet delivered tangible business value.’ Would you agree? Has AI impacted your business profits?
Park: “I’ve heard that stat a few times, and I think it’s broadly true.
“The reason? Most organisations are only dabbling.
“To get a real ROI from AI, you need to apply it to meaningful use cases, which usually require major investment.
“Building an agent that saves a few minutes by compiling a report? That won’t move the needle.
“But building a custom ML model that predicts customer spending? That could have major impact, but it’s complex and expensive.
“The risk is high, and the outcome isn’t guaranteed.
“There’s also fear around security, regulation, especially in the EU.
“Some view AI as cheating. Others worry about job loss or quality issues.
“Without policy and governance, businesses freeze.
“That’s why AI is failing; not because it lacks power, but because of fear, lack of strategy, and timid execution.
Abbott: We’re a services business, 90 per cent of what we do is client delivery.
“Our board is always pushing us to be more efficient, for ourselves and for our clients.
“We’ve started using AI to make our own development cycles faster and more cost-effective.
“Operationally, it’s now a strong mandate; we need to keep lean and scale through smart use of tools.
“In order to survive and thrive, we have to embrace AI at scale and share those learnings with our customers.”
Aneesh Gupta, founder and MD, Centelli
Has there been any announcement that surprised you, or anything that you were maybe looking forward to that was addressed?
“Everything announced was already on the roadmap that’s now being executed.
“We’ve been working on some of these solutions with customers as early adopters for a few months.
“As an early adopter, you’re always a bit nervous, wondering if you’re too early, or whether the product might pivot and head in a different direction.
“But when you see it progressing the way it was originally laid out, it gives you confidence.”
What’s your relationship with UiPath; are you a long-time partner? And how do you use their technology?
“We’ve been exclusively working with UiPath for seven years.
“There’s no perfect tool out there, and trying to find perfection or work with multiple vendors doing the same thing just splits your focus.
“Before partnering with UiPath, we spent a year evaluating other products, and we chose UiPath because it gave us the most confidence in delivering value to our customers.
“Since then, we’ve been all-in.
“At one point, we did a bit of Power Automate work, but we’ve since pulled back; the Microsoft ecosystem is obviously massive and attractive, but we just couldn’t stand behind the product.
“UiPath’s innovation is more coherent, their roadmap is more aligned with long-term needs, and it allows us to plan better.”
Is there anything UiPath could do to further improve your relationship?
“There’s always room for improvement.
“It would be helpful to have a more structured, organisation-level approach to going to market together.
“We have a great working relationship with UiPath and we get a lot done, but much of it happens via individuals.
“Some of the onus is on us as well; we know there are processes and support mechanisms we could better align with, and we need to be more structured to fit into UiPath’s broader machinery as a larger organisation.
“No partnership is perfect, but we’re working through it.”
During the event, Ed Challis, UiPath’s head of AI, said ‘80 per cent of organisations state that AI hasn’t yet delivered tangible business value.’ Would you agree? Has AI impacted your business profits?
“That’s actually a broader challenge, even beyond AI.
“Even with automation, we often see the same issue.
“The benefits are hard to measure because we’re taking work away from people—and humans tend to expand work to fill available time.
“You’ll never meet anyone in a business who, when asked if they’re busy, says ‘No.’
“We’ve seen this with many clients; after automation is delivered and results are generated, it’s still up to the client to convert those results into tangible business value.
“And that’s where they struggle.
“As an organisation, we deliver results, but we tell customers it’s on them to convert those results into business value.
“Where we do see more obvious, tangible value is in cases where we’re automating something that didn’t exist before, such as new revenue opportunities.
“If we’re automating existing work, it might be harder to isolate the business impact.”