Robotic process automation (RPA)
Automation that mimics a human user's interactions with software, such as clicks and keystrokes, to perform repetitive, rule-based tasks.
In more detail
RPA automates by imitating a person operating software: it clicks buttons, types into fields, and moves data between applications through their interfaces. It shines on high-volume, stable, rule-based tasks, especially with legacy systems that expose no API, because it can drive them the same way a person does.
Its well-known weakness is brittleness. Because it depends on the interface staying put, a screen redesign or an unexpected pop-up can break a bot, and RPA has no judgment for cases outside its script. Adding an AI layer to interpret input and handle variance is how RPA has evolved to cover more than the rigid happy path.
Where this shows up at Ceven
Ceven favors direct API connections across 1,000+ tools over screen-mimicking, which avoids much of RPA's brittleness, and reserves screen-driven access for the systems that offer nothing better. Where classic RPA has no judgment, Ceven's AI steps handle the variance, and human-approval gates cover the decisions RPA would simply not know how to make.