RPA robots were added to the register of domestic software

Systems have been added to the classifier of the Russian software registry that allow the development of software robots designed to automate business processes. The Ministry of Digital Development explains the changes as “industry requests.” Market participants, which is estimated at 2.5–12 billion rubles. per year, they believe that it will become easier for them to work with the public sector, small and medium-sized businesses. Customer employees resist the implementation of such solutions, fearing for their jobs.

The Ministry of Digital Development has added four new categories to the classification of domestic software, as follows from the order dated March 11, published on the legal information portal. These include programs for instant exchange of text messages and other files, electronic document management, medical software and robotic process automation (RPA) systems. The document says that we are talking about software that allows you to develop software robots to automate business processes using computer vision, language processing and speech synthesis, as well as recommendation tools and decision support tools.

The Ministry of Digital Development explained to Kommersant that they added the RPA class to the software register due to a “request from the industry.” The ministry noted that support measures for RPA developers were available before: “Copyright holders of software solutions in the RPA class indicated related classes from the section “Organization process management tools” of the classifier when submitting an application.” Until now, each developer included products in those categories that he considered as close as possible, says Pavel Borchenko, managing director of the ROBIN platform: “The lack of an RPA class added difficulties when searching for such systems.”

“The decision to include RPA in the classifier will allow developers of such solutions to receive development grants and preferential loans, as well as participate in government procurement,” says Dmitry Sheverev, head of the frontend development department at SimbirSoft. Primo RPA co-founder Alexey Nikolaev believes that the classification “reflects the level of demand for technology in business and government organizations.”

Director for interaction with government agencies at PIX Robotics Sergei Votyakov sees “great potential in the development of the Russian RPA market” from small and medium-sized businesses, and “more and more projects are appearing in the public sector, including in universities.” RPA has received the status of software related to the field of artificial intelligence, he clarifies, which provides additional tax benefits. According to a study of the Russian market of RPA platforms from the IaaSSaSPaaS portal, the total revenue of the five largest RPA vendors in 2022 amounted to 420 million rubles. According to Alexey Nikolaev, in 2023 the income of all developers reached 2.5 billion rubles. Sherpa Robotics CEO Konstantin Artemyev clarified that, according to IDC, the RPA market in the Russian Federation amounted to 8.7 billion rubles. in 2022, and in 2023 it was expected at the level of 12.9 billion rubles: “According to our estimate, the market is 10–12 billion rubles.”

A Kommersant source on the market emphasizes that now in Russia less than 1 thousand companies use RPA, and more than half of the developers’ income is provided by the sale of licenses to companies with a turnover of 50 billion rubles. in year. According to him, market growth depends on the transition from implementation in large companies to implementation in small and medium-sized businesses. When implementing RPA, the problem remains related to employee dissatisfaction, adds Kommersant’s source in the industry: “They are afraid of losing their jobs. However, in reality this does not happen. The big challenge for both vendors and integrators, and the customers themselves, is training.”

Alexey Zhabin, Timofey Kornev