Agentifying RPA: The Smart Path to Agent Adoption
In this edition, William Rae, a Senior Consultant at Virtual Operations, explores the concept of Agentifying RPA: a practical approach to unlocking value by adding agentic capabilities to existing intelligent automation. Based in the US, William partners with enterprise organisations to design automation strategies that deliver measurable ROI. With deep experience in both RPA and emerging AI technologies, he shares why the smartest path to adopting AI Agents isn’t to start from scratch - but to evolve what you already have.
As businesses race to implement AI Agents, many fall into the same trap - assuming Agents are a silver bullet that can instantly transform operations. The hype is real, and the promises are compelling: autonomous, context-aware, endlessly scalable systems that can think, learn, and act. But there’s a growing disconnect between ambition and execution.
That’s why we coined a new term: Agentifying.
Rather than starting from scratch, Agentifying means infusing your existing RPA or Intelligent Automation estate with agentic capabilities. This practical, incremental approach helps companies tap into the power of agents without the risk, cost, or complexity of wholesale reinvention.
The Problem with the Current Approach
Too often, businesses approach agent deployment as a standalone strategy: “Let’s build a team of AI Agents to handle customer support, finance, or HR.” But this overlooks the real-world complexity of enterprise operations. Most organisations already have established RPA processes, decision automation, and workflows governed by years of business logic.
What they don’t need is to replace everything. What they do need is to make what they already have more dynamic, resilient, and intelligent.
Agentifying RPA: The Smarter Way
Agentifying is about elevating your existing automations with agentic functions like:
Dynamic decision-making
Natural language interaction
Task orchestration across departments
Adaptive error handling and learning
This approach doesn’t just boost ROI - it reduces delivery risk, speeds time to value, and leverages your current automation estate more effectively.
In short, it’s evolution, not revolution.
Real-World Impact: A 6x Value Boost
One of our clients recently experimented with Agentifying a high-volume back-office process. The result? They tripled the value of that automation by adding just one agentic layer. Encouraged, they then expanded the Agentified process to absorb a neighbouring attended automation - unlocking 6x the original value.
This wasn’t about rebuilding from scratch. It was about layering intelligence on top of an already mature process—enhancing flexibility, resilience, and throughput.
Why This Matters Now
With enterprise adoption of AI Agents still in its infancy, Agentifying presents a grounded and proven path forward. It:
Builds internal confidence by demonstrating tangible results
Avoids the “all-or-nothing” risk of AI-led transformation
Accelerates business value from your current RPA investment
Enhances the human + digital workforce model
Final Thoughts
The future of automation isn’t RPA or Agents. It’s RPA with Agentic Intelligence. By Agentifying your existing IRPA estate, you position your organisation for greater agility, faster innovation, and scalable value creation.
Agentifying is the bridge between today’s automation and tomorrow’s intelligent enterprise. And for many businesses, it’s the smartest next step.