HCLSoftware said Monday it intends to acquire Robotiq.ai, a Croatian provider of robotic process automation software. The proposed deal would give HCL’s AI-agent platform a way to carry out work inside enterprise applications. The companies expect closing in November, but no price was disclosed and the transaction has not completed.
The proposed combination joins two different technologies. An AI agent can interpret a request and decide what to do next. Robotic process automation, or RPA, can perform repetitive actions inside an application, such as entering information, moving a request between systems or following a defined workflow.
RPA still has a place in an AI rollout
Many large businesses rely on older software that was not designed to connect easily with modern tools. An application programming interface, or API, is a structured way for software systems to exchange information and trigger actions. Some enterprise systems have no suitable API, while others expose only part of the work an employee needs to complete.
RPA can interact with the screens and fields people use. That makes it suitable for work such as moving approved data from one system to another or processing a routine insurance or banking workflow.
HCLSoftware said Robotiq.ai would add that execution layer to HCL UnO Agentic, its platform for coordinating AI-driven workflows. The company says Robotiq.ai is used by banks, insurers and telecom groups. Those customer and product-capability descriptions remain company statements.
From recommendation to action
An AI assistant that drafts an answer cannot automatically update a customer record, submit a payment request or finish a process in a legacy application. Pairing an agent with RPA could let a company use AI for language-heavy steps, then use controlled automation for repetitive activity.
The combination also introduces operational risk. A wrong instruction, weak access controls or a badly configured workflow can spread an error across several systems quickly. Audit trails, permission controls and human review are central to any deployment that carries out business processes.
Buyers will judge the combined product on control
Enterprise customers are moving past AI demonstrations and asking what software can complete reliably, how it is governed and what it costs to run. An automation also has to handle exceptions, not just the common route through a workflow.
We recently examined how AI agents are changing software pricing. A product that completes more work may move billing toward usage instead of the number of employees holding licenses.
For HCLSoftware, the proposed deal is an effort to connect new AI interfaces to the enterprise applications that still run daily operations. Customers will see whether it delivers less manual work without reducing their control after the products are integrated.
