Gartner defines the enterprise conversational AI platform market as the market for software platforms used to build, orchestrate and maintain multiple use cases and modalities of conversational automation. The enterprise conversational AI platform consists of: A capability layer providing runtime capabilities that include: Natural language understanding (NLU), Dialogue management, Channel integration, Back-end integration, Access control for platform users, Life cycle management; A tooling layer geared toward business users that includes: A no-code environment for building and maintaining applications, Analytic tools for understanding dialogue flows, NLU intent and entity tuning tools, A/B flow testing tools.
Gartner defines robotic process automation (RPA) as the software to automate tasks within business and IT processes via software scripts that emulate human interaction with the application UI. RPA enables a manual task to be recorded or programmed into a software script, which users can develop by programming, or by using the RPA platform’s low-code and no-code GUIs. This script can then be deployed and executed into different runtimes. The runtime executable of the deployed script is referred to as a bot, or robot. RPA is used across numerous business functions for tactical task automation. Business and IT users can leverage RPA to: Move data in or out of application systems without human interaction (unattended automation). Scripts are designed to replicate the actions of a human interacting with those systems or documents, which usually do not have available APIs. The goal is to automate and complete a task successfully without human intervention. Typically, unattended automation is triggered by a system and bots executed on a server. Automate tasks with a human in the loop (attended automation). RPA can extract information from systems and related documents, shaping it and preparing it for consumption by a human at the point of need. Typically, attended automation is triggered by a human and bots executed on a local device.
Gartner defines the service orchestration and automation platform (SOAP) market as encompassing solution suites that deliver capabilities enabling organizations to manage workloads, workflows, resource provisioning and data pipelines across their technology landscapes. SOAPs enable infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders to design and implement business services. These platforms combine workflow orchestration, workload automation and resource provisioning across an organization’s hybrid digital infrastructure. Increasingly, they are central to an organization’s ability to deploy workloads and to optimize deployments as a part of cost and availability initiatives. SOAPs expand the role of traditional workload automation by adapting to use cases that deliver and extend into data pipelines, cloud-native infrastructures and application architectures. These tools complement and integrate with DevOps toolchains to provide customer-focused agility, cost savings, operational efficiency and process standardization.