In today’s fast-paced business environment, waiting months for IT to implement process improvements isn’t just frustrating—it’s a competitive disadvantage. This reality has fueled one of the most significant shifts in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) landscape: its democratization and the rise of citizen developers.
No longer confined to the domain of technical specialists, RPA is increasingly accessible to business users who understand their processes intimately but lack traditional coding expertise. This transformation is reshaping how organizations approach automation and who gets to participate in the digital transformation journey.
From Code-Heavy to Click-Friendly: The Evolution of RPA
When RPA first emerged as a mainstream technology in the early 2010s, implementing even simple automations required significant technical skills. Early RPA developers needed to understand programming concepts, integration methods, and often had to write custom code to handle exceptions or complex scenarios.
“The first generation of RPA tools effectively transferred the coding burden from traditional developers to a new class of RPA developers,” explains Sarah Johnson, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. “They made automation more accessible than custom development but still required technical expertise that most business users simply didn’t have.”
This technical barrier created bottlenecks, with business units submitting automation requests to centralized RPA teams that quickly became overwhelmed. The result? Long backlogs, frustrated users, and automation benefits limited to a small subset of processes deemed high-priority by IT.
The Driving Forces Behind Democratization
Several converging factors have accelerated the push toward more accessible RPA platforms:
Technological Advancements
The most visible driver has been the evolution of RPA platforms themselves. Modern RPA tools have embraced:
- Intuitive visual designers that use familiar drag-and-drop interfaces
- AI-assisted development that suggests next steps or automatically identifies automation opportunities
- Pre-built components for common tasks like reading emails or processing invoices
- Natural language instructions that can be converted into automation steps
“Today’s RPA platforms are increasingly designed with business users in mind,” notes Miguel Torres, CTO of Automation Anywhere. “The goal is to make building a bot as intuitive as creating a PowerPoint presentation or an Excel formula.”
Business Imperatives
Market pressures have also played a crucial role:
- Digital transformation acceleration due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- IT talent shortages making centralized automation teams unsustainable
- Competitive pressure to increase operational agility and efficiency
- The Great Resignation forcing organizations to do more with fewer staff
According to Gartner, organizations that enable business-led automation initiatives complete 30% more automation projects annually than those relying solely on centralized IT teams.
Changing Workforce Expectations
Today’s employees increasingly expect technology that empowers rather than constrains them:
- Digital natives comfortable with technology and eager to solve their own problems
- Growing technical literacy across all business functions
- Desire for meaningful work by eliminating repetitive tasks
“Workers don’t want to be robotic themselves, performing the same tedious tasks day after day,” says Dr. Leslie Roberts, author of “The Future of Work in an Automated World.” “When you give them the tools to automate those tasks, you’re not just improving efficiency—you’re improving job satisfaction and unleashing creativity.”
The Benefits of Putting Automation in Business Users’ Hands
Organizations that have successfully democratized RPA report significant advantages:
Accelerated Automation Delivery
When business users can build their own automations, implementation timelines shrink dramatically. A 2023 Deloitte survey found that organizations with mature citizen developer programs deployed automation solutions 4x faster than those relying solely on centralized resources.
Domain Expertise Built In
No one understands a process better than the people who perform it daily. When these experts can directly translate their knowledge into automations, the results are more accurate and comprehensive. “The best person to automate a finance process isn’t necessarily a developer—it’s a finance professional who understands all the nuances, exceptions, and business rules,” explains Jason Williams, Digital Transformation Leader at Ernst & Young. “Democratized RPA tools give these subject matter experts a voice in automation design.”
Reduced IT Backlogs
By enabling business users to handle simpler automation use cases, IT departments can focus on more complex, high-value initiatives that truly require their expertise.
Broader Automation Coverage
When limited to centralized teams, organizations typically focus automation efforts on high-volume, high-value processes. Democratization enables the automation of the “long tail” of smaller processes that, collectively, represent enormous efficiency potential.
Real-World Success Stories
The benefits of democratized RPA aren’t theoretical—they’re being realized across industries today:
Financial Services: From Months to Minutes
A global bank implemented a citizen developer program that reduced automation development time from 3-4 months to just 2-3 weeks. More importantly, it expanded their automation portfolio from 50 processes to over 500 in just 18 months. “We discovered that our operations teams had hundreds of ideas for automation that never made it through our prioritization process,” says Maria Chen, the bank’s Head of Intelligent Automation. “By giving them tools to implement these ideas themselves, we unlocked tremendous value that was previously invisible to IT.”
Healthcare: Frontline Innovation
A healthcare network trained nurse managers and administrative staff to develop their own automations, resulting in over 120 new bots that collectively save 15,000 staff hours monthly. These range from simple data entry automation to complex patient scheduling optimizations. Dr. Robert Patel, the network’s Chief Digital Officer, notes: “Healthcare professionals became healthcare innovators. They’re not just suggesting improvements anymore—they’re implementing them directly, which creates a powerful sense of ownership.”
Manufacturing: Shop Floor Automation Experts
A manufacturing company created a “Digital Workforce Champions” program, training production supervisors and quality control specialists to identify and implement automation opportunities. “Our frontline workers now see robots as tools they control, not as threats to their jobs,” explains Operations Director Thomas Garcia. “They’re constantly finding creative ways to automate the most frustrating parts of their day.”
Challenges and Best Practices
While the benefits are compelling, democratizing RPA isn’t without challenges:
Governance and Security
More automations built by more people means more potential for security issues or inefficient design:
- Quality control: Ensuring automations follow best practices
- Access management: Determining who can automate what
- Environment separation: Development, testing, and production controls
- Sensitive data handling: Preventing data leakage or misuse
“The key is creating guardrails, not roadblocks,” advises Priya Sharma, Global Head of Intelligent Automation at KPMG. “You need governance that enables safe innovation rather than preventing it entirely.”
Training and Enablement
Successful citizen developer programs invest heavily in:
- Tiered training programs for different skill levels
- Automation champions who mentor others
- Communities of practice to share knowledge
- Clear documentation and design standards
Megan Davis, UiPath’s Chief Evangelist, emphasizes: “Technology is just one piece of the puzzle. Without proper training and support, even the most user-friendly RPA tool will fail to deliver on its democratization promise.”
Balancing Freedom with Control
Organizations must navigate the tension between enabling innovation and maintaining control:
- Too restrictive: Limits adoption and creativity
- Too permissive: Risks security issues and redundant efforts
Most successful programs use a hybrid approach with:
- Clear process selection criteria for citizen development
- Centralized review for certain categories of automations
- Reusable components created by experts but available to all
- Automation catalogs to prevent duplicate efforts
The Evolving RPA Ecosystem
The trend toward democratization is reshaping the entire RPA market:
Vendor Approaches
Major RPA vendors have embraced democratization, though with different emphases:
- Microsoft Power Automate: Leveraging Office 365 integration and familiarity
- UiPath: Expanding from technical excellence to business accessibility
- Automation Anywhere: AI-assisted development and natural language interfaces
- SS&C Blue Prism: Enterprise governance with increasing accessibility
“The battle for RPA market share will increasingly be fought on the grounds of user experience and accessibility,” predicts Michael Chang, Senior Director at IDC. “Technical capabilities remain important, but the ability to engage business users directly has become a critical differentiator.”
Complementary Technologies
The democratization of RPA doesn’t happen in isolation—it’s enabled by and connected to other emerging technologies:
- Process mining and discovery tools that automatically identify automation opportunities
- AI and machine learning capabilities that handle unstructured data and make decisions
- Low-code application platforms that extend RPA capabilities into full applications
- Integrated automation platforms that combine multiple automation technologies
Implementation Roadmap: Your Path to Democratized RPA
Ready to empower business users with automation capabilities? Here’s a practical roadmap:
1. Start with the Right Foundation
- Technology selection: Choose platforms designed for business users
- Executive sponsorship: Secure leadership buy-in for culture change
- Success metrics: Define how you’ll measure democratization impact
2. Build Your Center of Excellence (CoE)
An effective CoE for democratized RPA typically includes:
- Governance framework: Policies, standards, and security controls
- Training program: Both technical and process design skills
- Support structure: How citizen developers get help when needed
- Component library: Reusable automation building blocks
“The most successful Centers of Excellence evolve from gatekeepers to enablers,” observes Thomas Jenkins, Global Intelligent Automation Leader at PwC. “They focus less on controlling every automation and more on creating an environment where secure, efficient automation can flourish.”
3. Select the Right Initial Use Cases
Not all processes are suitable for citizen developers. Start with:
- Medium complexity: Not too simple or too complex
- Limited system integrations: Fewer connection points mean fewer complications
- Clear business value: Visible benefits build momentum
- Enthusiastic process owners: Champions who will evangelize success
4. Scale Strategically
As your program matures:
- Expand training: Move from pilot group to broader audience
- Recognize success: Celebrate and reward automation innovations
- Measure and adjust: Track key metrics and refine your approach
- Create communities: Foster knowledge sharing and collaboration
The Future of Work: Automation for All
The democratization of RPA represents more than a technological shift—it’s a fundamental rethinking of who participates in digital transformation. As RPA platforms continue to evolve, the technical barriers will continue to fall. Natural language processing, AI assistance, and increasingly intuitive interfaces will make building automations as common a business skill as using spreadsheets or creating presentations.
“We’re moving toward a future where automation is simply part of everyone’s toolkit,” says Dr. Alicia Thornton, Future of Work researcher at MIT. “Just as digital literacy became essential in the past decades, automation literacy will be a core competency for the workforce of tomorrow.” Organizations that embrace this shift—empowering their people with the tools to automate their own work—will gain not just efficiency but agility, innovation, and employee engagement. Those that cling to centralized, IT-driven automation models risk falling behind in an increasingly competitive landscape.
The question is no longer whether to democratize RPA, but how quickly and effectively you can put the power of automation into the hands of those who know your business best.
