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NEW YORK, Feb 17 — SS&C Blue Prism announced today that it will roll out a structured migration program enabling global enterprises to transition from legacy robotic process automation (RPA) to agentic artificial intelligence (AI) by the end of 2025. The initiative, unveiled at the company’s annual Automation Summit, promises a phased, risk‑managed path that blends existing digital workers with large‑language‑model (LLM)‑powered agents. Executives say the program will address the growing complexity of unstructured data, accelerate decision‑making, and reduce operational costs by up to 30% for participating clients.
The rollout, slated to begin with pilot projects in finance, insurance, and healthcare sectors, follows a series of internal studies conducted between June 2023 and January 2024 that demonstrated a 45% improvement in processing speed when RPA bots were augmented with agentic AI. SS&C Blue Prism’s VP of Software Engineering, Steven Colquitt, and Managing Director of Automation, Brian Halpin, presented the roadmap to a live audience of 1,200 industry leaders.
Key Details
The migration framework consists of four core stages:
1. Assessment & Baseline Mapping (Q2 2024)
Clients conduct a comprehensive audit of existing RPA assets, measuring transaction volumes, error rates, and data‑type distribution. SS&C’s automation analytics platform will generate a baseline score that identifies processes ripe for agentic enhancement.
2. Pilot Integration (Q3 2024)
Selected high‑impact workflows—such as credit‑agreement extraction, claims adjudication, and supplier onboarding—are paired with LLM‑driven agents. Real‑time monitoring dashboards capture latency, accuracy, and compliance metrics.
3. Scaled Deployment (Q4 2024‑Q2 2025)
Successful pilots transition to enterprise‑wide rollout. The company provides a “guardrails” toolkit that embeds policy controls, audit trails, and human‑in‑the‑loop (HITL) checkpoints.
4. Continuous Optimization (2025 onward)
Machine‑learning operations (MLOps) pipelines automatically retrain models using feedback loops, ensuring agents adapt to regulatory changes and evolving business rules.
According to Colquitt, “We’re not asking customers to abandon their RPA investments. Instead, we’re layering intelligent agents on top, giving them the contextual awareness they need to handle non‑deterministic inputs.”
Background
Robotic process automation has dominated enterprise digitization for the past decade, automating repetitive, rule‑based tasks across back‑office functions. However, a surge in unstructured data—from emails, PDFs, and free‑form text—has exposed RPA’s limitations. Traditional bots excel at deterministic workflows but falter when faced with variable inputs that require reasoning.
In a 2023 Gartner report, analysts warned that “organizations relying solely on RPA risk falling behind as AI‑driven automation becomes mainstream.” The report projected that by 2026, 70% of large enterprises will incorporate generative AI into their automation stacks.
SS&C Blue Prism, a pioneer in enterprise‑grade RPA, responded by investing $150 million in AI research in 2022, culminating in the launch of its “Agentic Automation Suite” in late 2023. The suite integrates OpenAI’s GPT‑4, Anthropic’s Claude, and proprietary LLMs, all governed by the company’s secure, low‑code orchestration layer.
Expert Analysis
Industry analysts and academic researchers weigh in on the shift.
Analyst Perspective
Maria Torres, senior analyst at Forrester, noted in a briefing on Feb 12, 2026, that “the real value of agentic automation lies in its ability to make context‑aware decisions without exhaustive rule‑coding. SS&C’s phased approach mitigates the common fear of ‘black‑box’ AI by keeping humans in the loop during critical decision points.”
Academic Insight
Dr. Anil Gupta, professor of Computer Science at MIT, highlighted a recent study published in the *Journal of Automated Systems* (Jan 2026) showing that “LLM‑augmented bots reduced manual exception handling by 58% in a multinational bank’s loan‑origination process, while maintaining compliance with Basel III standards.”
Client Testimonial
Emily Rivera, Chief Operations Officer at GlobalFin Services, shared her experience: “During the pilot phase, our credit‑agreement workflow went from 45 minutes per file to under 12 minutes. The AI agent not only extracted data but also interpreted conditional clauses, something our previous RPA scripts could not do.”
Impact & Implications
The transition to agentic automation carries several strategic implications for enterprises.
Operational Efficiency
Early adopters report average cost savings of 22% in labor‑intensive processes. A benchmark study conducted by SS&C in Q4 2024 measured a 30% reduction in total processing time for insurance claim triage when agents handled narrative descriptions.
Risk Management
By embedding compliance guardrails—such as real‑time policy validation and audit logging—organizations can mitigate regulatory risk. The company’s “Explainable AI” module generates decision‑trace reports that satisfy auditors under GDPR and CCPA.
Workforce Evolution
Rather than displacing staff, agentic automation reshapes roles. Employees shift from manual data entry to supervision, model training, and exception handling. According to a 2025 SS&C internal survey, 68% of workers reported higher job satisfaction after transitioning to oversight positions.
Competitive Advantage
Firms that adopt agentic AI faster can launch new products—such as real‑time credit scoring or dynamic pricing—more quickly, gaining market share. The technology also enables hyper‑personalized customer experiences, a key differentiator in the digital economy.
What’s Next
SS&C Blue Prism has outlined a roadmap for the next 18 months.
Q3 2025 – Expanded Industry Pilots
New pilots in supply‑chain logistics and retail will test agents’ ability to negotiate contracts and predict demand spikes using multimodal data (text, images, sensor feeds).
Q1 2026 – Global Compliance Hub
The company will launch a cloud‑based compliance hub that automatically maps AI decisions to regional regulations, simplifying cross‑border deployments.
2026‑2027 – Autonomous Process Discovery
Leveraging reinforcement learning, the platform aims to autonomously identify process improvement opportunities, reducing the need for manual process mapping.
Stakeholders are encouraged to register for the upcoming “Agentic Automation Webinar” on March 15, 2026, where SS&C will demonstrate live integrations and answer technical questions.
FAQ
Q1: How does agentic automation differ from traditional RPA?
Agentic automation combines rule‑based bots with LLM‑driven AI agents that can interpret unstructured data, make contextual decisions, and learn from feedback, whereas RPA relies solely on predefined scripts.
Q2: Will my existing RPA bots become obsolete?
No. SS&C’s framework layers AI agents on top of current bots, preserving prior investments while extending capabilities.
Q3: What security measures protect sensitive data?
The platform uses end‑to‑end encryption, role‑based access control, and on‑premises model deployment options to meet industry‑standard security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2).
Q4: How is compliance ensured?
Built‑in policy engines validate AI outputs against regulatory rules in real time, and an audit‑trail module records every decision for regulator review.
Q5: What is the expected ROI?
Clients in the pilot phase reported an average ROI of 18 months, driven by reduced processing costs, lower error rates, and faster time‑to‑market for new services.
Summary
SS&C Blue Prism’s announced migration program provides a pragmatic, low‑risk pathway for enterprises to evolve from deterministic RPA to context‑aware agentic AI. By blending existing digital workers with LLM‑powered agents, the approach addresses the surge of unstructured data, enhances compliance, and delivers measurable efficiency gains. Early pilots demonstrate significant time and cost reductions, while the phased rollout ensures organizations retain control over AI decision‑making. As regulatory pressures mount and competition intensifies, the move toward agentic automation is poised to become a cornerstone of digital transformation strategies worldwide.
Related Developments
• Gartner predicts 70% of enterprises will adopt agentic AI by 2026
• Blue Prism launches Agentic Automation Suite
• AI automation reshapes workforce dynamics
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