What does UIPath do?
UIPath helps people automate rote manual tasks like updating spreadsheets and creating documents.
Last updated: March 3, 2025
The TL;DR
UIPath helps people automate rote, repetitive manual tasks like updating spreadsheets, creating documents, and sending emails.
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Work that we do tends to be repetitive and manual – pretty much anything with a process like forms, compliance, etc.
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Traditional approaches to automation use exposed APIs from software to hack together scripts – but many apps don’t have those APIs available
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UIPath literally records the work you do (click here, scroll there) and then lets you replay it, automatically, whenever you want
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You can also build basic forms, workflows based on conditions, make HTTP requests – pretty much anything
UIPath is definitely enterprise-first (just check out their website), and it’s working – they went public at a $35B valuation in April 2021.
Companies Mentioned
The core UIPath product: automating manual stuff
The main value proposition of UIPath – and their core product – is the ability to record your manual tasks, save them as a process, and replay them whenever you want, instantly. Here’s their app for recording tasks (UIPath Studio):
You can read a basic tutorial on how to do recordings here. And beyond recording, you can also build workflows visually by choosing available apps and options and chaining them together on certain conditions.
UIPath also lets you do other important stuff, like automatically filling out forms, using business logic like loops and conditions, and working with external data like APIs.
How automation generally works
Automation is the buzziest of buzzwords, so it’s worth getting into what it actually means, and more importantly, how people (developers?) tend to make it happen.
Software (well, most software) is built on top of APIs. T...