(energetic music) >> From New York City, it's The Cube! Covering Automation Anywhere Imagine, brought to you by Automation Anywhere. >> Hey welcome back, Jeff Rick here with The Cube, we're in midtown Manhattan at Automation Anywhere Imagine 2019, we were here last year for the first time, we're really excited to be back. Since we were here, I think they raised like 550 million dollars, the RPA space is going bananas, and it's a really exciting place to be, both for the company and also for us at Cube, so we're excited to be back, and we got a return visit from last year, she's Neeti Metha, she's the co-founder, we always love to get co-founders, SVP brand strategy and culture, welcome back. >> Good to see you again, Jeff. >> Absolutely. So, first off, congratulations, I mean what a move you guys have made in only one short year. >> Thank you. The space is really taking off, and we are very excited to see the growth. >> So, excited to talk about the technology all day long but you're getting involved in some of the little higher-level discussions which are really really important, we see it in AI, and these are the conversations, I think, are much more important and that's about ethics, and how are these tools being used, what do people need to think about when they're using their tools, we don't just want to qualify bad behavior or bad bias' or bad ways of doing things in the past, that doesn't help so, what are you thinking about, how are you helping customers, what are some of the things they should be thinking about in this space? >> So, two things, one is, I think, society unfortunately has had a lot of unconscious bias in a lot of different ways, you know, it may not be intentional, it may be something that is inherent in the way we behave as a society or a community, or a race, religion, as a gender, it doesn't matter, and somehow, when we do AI and machine learning and we are training these bots, when we feed all this data to them, there are two things that AI helps us with. One is, we get to see it outside-in, so we are looking at it as how the data is looked upon by the machine, and these bias' become a little bit more obvious to us than otherwise, and then two, we can actually take that as a learning point and fix those biases so that we are not always targeting the most populous religion or the most populous race, or the most populous gender at that point, but we are looking at it absolutely gender-neutral, or race-neutral or religion-neutral and so forth, so AI really helps in those two things, one is it allows you to see it and identify it, and two, it allows you to rectify it as you're training these bots to make certain decisions using the analysis and the data that they have at their disposal. >> I'm curious how the outside-in exposes it 'cause for a lot of people, they don't see it, right, that's why the Terma Conch is bias so, is it in the documentation that you maybe never really had to write it down, what are some of the things that suddenly surfaced that, Oh, I didn't really realize we were doing that." >> So two things, one, again, in that sense, the data that we had, there was a lot of data, so having AI and machine learning actually helps us digitize that data and that means that we have a lot more data that can be analyzed, first of all, which was not possible before, and second, we can actually look at that data and cut in and dice it in any way we want to to kind of see these biases a little bit more. When you couldn't have digitized data, then how are you going to have one human brain, for example, look at all the data that was not digitized and analyze it without the digitization, and then actually find analyses around that or find biases around that? So it really does help to digitize that data and, for example, Automation Anywhere's IQ bot helps you digitize dark data or hidden data, and covert it to digitized data and then you can analyze it and do things with that data that you could never before. >> Okay, great. So, one of the things that came up in your great keynote this morning, lot of stuff, I could go on for probably 2 hours, but one of them is really re-thinking this concept of what a bot is, is it digital assistant, or even a digital employee? And thinking of it, not as something that's going to replace what I do per se, but it's just another tool in my toolbox, just like I have a laptop, I have a mobile phone, I have sales force, I have all these other systems, and really thinking of it more that way to offload some of this mundane, soul-crushing work that unfortunately takes up way too much of all of our time. Very different approach than, "This is a substitute for what I do now." >> Technology is always a human enabler, and this is extremely important. So the RPA and the digital workforce is something that we believe that every human who is working could leverage and enable themselves to get to that new level of creativity, that innovation, get rid of the repetitive and mundane and do things that you never could before or you could never get to because of a time perspective. And so, it's extremely important for people to utilize this to actually help themselves, their careers, their own teams, their divisions, their organizations and their societies to get to the next level. >> Right, and open up this productivity gate because, the other thing I think is really funny is, all this conversation about robots taking jobs and yet companies have thousands and thousands of open recs, they can't hire enough people, even with the technology and I'm always drawn to this great invite, we did a Google cloud a couple of years ago, where, when they were starting to scale, they realized they could not do it with people, they just couldn't hire fast enough and had to start incorporating software defined automation, or else they could never take advantage of that. We're seeing that here and that's really part of the whole story and why RPA is so exciting right now, is 'cause you're an enabler for productivity force multiplier. >> That's right and a lot of businesses have certain things that are inherent in their industries, for example, there might be a seasonality requirement, or there might be a requirement where they suddenly have a surge of customers and so forth, and in order to stock that many claims or accounts that they're opening or whatever their process is doing, in order to get that many humans onboard them, train them, at least give them a breathing space to get onboard and actually be responsive to that organization, you can help them by having bots to bridge that gap and allow them to be successful. >> Right. Another interesting stab in here, I got great notes, again it was a terrific keynote, he talked about only 4% of US jobs require a medium level of creativity and I was struck, I remember being in grade school and we watched a movie about people in an auto-manufacturing plant, just the worst kind of monotony they were doing, and this one guy used to load cars on a train and every once in a while he would just drop one on purpose or run the forklift through it just to kind of break up his day. >> Right. >> So, again, the purpose is not to replace, but to really enable people to start to use their brains and be more creative. >> It is to unleash the human potential, and that is what automation will do for it. >> Now, you guys have recently came out with some new research, or if you can give us some of the highlights on some of your new research? >> Absolutely. So, last year, we worked with the Goldsmith's University of London to see if automation, and we believe so, but we wanted to see and validate that automation actually did make work more human. So, did people actually free themselves of their repetitive and mundane and then become more creative and innovative and solve problems that they wanted to and they couldn't before? And the answer was overwhelmingly yes. So this year, we went the next step in that research, and we did a second research, a second wave of research, where we said, "What do organizations, what are the challenges organizations will face if they want to implement this automation and unleash that human potential?" and you should read the research, it's on our website, but it was very very interesting, 72% of people didn't believe that AI or machine learning or automation would be taking over their jobs, yet only 38% of them were exposed or had the opportunity to work with this. So the potential is enormous, technology has to be an organizational change, that's another thing that came out of the research, and corporations should work towards it, but I think this research was very insightful, please do look at it, I think it will be very useful to you. >> So one of the announcements too, that came out today was about the community addition, and I think that's a really interesting play, right, 'cause your introducing a freemium, so people, myself, individuals, educations, businesses, have access to your whole suite for free. I'm sure there was some interesting conversations internally to really make that leap, but it really supports your theme of the democratization of the automation which we hear over and over around data and a lot of pieces of the stack, and so obviously the bigger picture, the bigger opportunity far outweighs a couple of bucks of revenue from this small company or that small company. I wonder if you can kind of share some of the thought behind that? >> Absolutely. This was always part of the strategy, but it was part of the strategy to do it at the right time, when the technology was mature and robust enough one, but when we could actually allow and give that opportunity to every human who wanted to get rid of their repetitive and mundane, give them the opportunity to be better at what they do, to create more and innovate more, and so we are very excited about it, we've had such a great response from the market on it and the idea from the beginning, and I think we are very committed to it, and Automation Anywhere is to create opportunity for automation for everyone. >> That's great. So, last question Neeti, what are you working on in 2019, I mean I don't expect you to raise another half a billion dollars, great year from last time, what are some of your priorities though as we look at the balance of 2019? >> I think this industry is under tremendous growth, I think we are seeing a lot of results, for the customers and for employees, and so we are very very excited, I think it's a great time for the industry, it will create a lot more innovation, we'll have a lot more new things coming out this year, a lot more engagement from all over the world, and it's a super exciting time to be in this industry. >> Great. Well thanks for taking a few minutes out of your busy day and for having us back here at the show. >> Absolutely, my pleasure, Jeff. >> She's Neeti, I'm Jeff, you're watching The Cube, where Automation Anywhere Imagine 2019 in midtown Manhattan. Thanks for watching, see you next time. (energetic music)

>> From Times Square, in the heart of New York City, it's theCUBE, covering Imagine 2018. (upbeat electronic music) Brought to you by Automation Anywhere. >> Hey, welcome back, everybody, Jeff Frick here, with theCUBE, we're in downtown Manhattan at Automation Anywhere Inspire 2018, about 1,100 people talking about bots and RPA, that's robotic process automation, for those who aren't in the know. And we're excited to have another co-founder join us. She's Neeti Mehta, she's a SVP and co-founder, welcome. >> Nice to meet you Jeff. >> So you're tackling some of the softer, more complex issues that come up around machines and bots and people and working together, and people's jobs getting takeaway, so as leaders try to put in more automation, start thinking about adopting things like Automation Anywhere and bots, what are some of the big ethical things they need to think through? What are some of the bigger issues that maybe aren't top of mind, that are really worth a little deeper thought? >> So one of the things we like to bring to focus is, that corporate leadership and corporations must look at it with a human focus. Robotic process automation helps get rid of the mundane and repetitive tasks, but the ultimate goal is so that you can enable the humans to do more. To enable a lot more creativity, or outside the box thinking or come up with new service models. Come up with new ways to solve things. And this is only possible if you get rid of the repetitive, mundane tasks, which often bogs down humans. >> Right. >> And so, coming at it from asking leadership to look at it right from the forefront. How can we enable the humans to do more, how can we enable our human workforce to use this technology, to unleash that potential? >> Right, and how receptive is the workforce to that message, or are they just afraid that these bots are coming in to take their jobs on some of these more repetitive tasks or, you know, is the rollout and communication and some of your guys' customers, you've been at this for a while, you know is that part of the rollout? Is that part of the implementation to say, hey, you know, the goal here is to help these things with the stuff you don't like to do so much in your job. >> Right, right. >> So that you can have a higher level of productivity, a higher level of contribution. >> Right >> A higher level of everyday activity and tasks. >> Absolutely, I think change is always hard, and it takes a while to progress through it. Re-skilling is a part of some of this change that we are going through, especially with people working with bots or bots taking over some of the more repetitive, or mundane tasks, in a way. But having the leadership walk that change management, walk that transition with the human workforce, is part of our endeavor and we enable our corporations that work with us, and our partners, to make sure that they are able to do that and bring that focus to the human workforce. The more we talk about it, the more we put corporate focus on re-skilling and talking to our human workforce about what the ultimate vision is, and how we are going to get there, is very, very important. >> Right, now you're a co-founder, you've been at this for a while, and yet your blogs talk about audacious bots. Audacious is a really interesting choice of words, and one that you very specifically pick. What is so audacious about bots, and is that both a good thing and a bad thing? >> I think so, the audacity of bots, as I like to put it, is because bots promise to self-learn, or perform certain things like a human does, or perform cognitive functions. To some extent think through certain problems or questions that arise, and think is such a human skillset, and we're asking a bot to do the same thing as that, is very, very difficult. >> Right. >> For a human to comprehend. And that's why I call these bots audacious, because they promise to do all these things. But if we keep the thought process, that why are we enabling this technology, why are we focusing or encouraging this technology to be adopted? Is so that humans can unleash that potential, humans can get to that next level. >> Right. >> And so, it's important to do so. >> Right, Mihir touched on an interesting thing in a keynote, about now people are creating bots that are creating bots. >> Yes. >> So you know, I mean, we hear about that all the time, right? We've heard about the machines talking to one another in a language that nobody, that nobody understands what they're talking about. So have you seen the increases in compute, the increases in networking, the increases in storage, the prices of those things going down? How has that changed the evolution of the bots that you guys are creating, and how do you see that change in the evolution of the development of these tools going forward? >> Bots creating bots is an interesting concept, but remember that the context of the bot creating the bot is still up to the human. What we allow the bot to do, or what he is able to get more productivity out of, is important. And so, if we get those barriers right, or if we get those positions right for the bots to work in and then it is a pure corporate enhancement. It's an enhancement of everything the corporation brings to the table. >> Right, right. I'm just curious, like, so you guys been at this for a long time. When people start to really get into their journey with this technology and really you're starting to implement it and see things, what does happen to the human workforce? Do they get redeployed? Are they just doing different types of activities, generally within the same category of work? How have you actually seen it evolve in the real world? >> So yes to all those questions in a way. Some people will get redeployed, but what we are seeing right now is most people are able to take what they have and get rid of some of the things that they didn't really want to do anyways, which was very time-consuming. >> Right. >> And often, not a big value add to their own job sets that they're bringing to the workspace. So having that availability for the human to say, yes, I want to get rid of this 25% of my work that is very, very repetitive and have a bot do it so that I can actually go and do the five things I've always wanted to do. >> Right. >> But I never got to it. >> Right. >> And that's what we see on the work floor. We've also seen amongst all our implementations that humans who are embracing this bot enablement, as I like to call it, don't want to go back to the other way of doing it. It has improved their work life. It has improved what they bring to the table. It has improved how they deal with their coworkers or their jobs or what they are responsible for and they really don't wanna go back. That's what we're seeing on the floor. >> Right. >> And that's great. That means we're on the right track. We are enabling them with technology that will make a difference to that human. >> Right. >> And that is what this is all about. >> Right, I don't think, too, there's enough talk about, humans aren't really good at repetitive tasks. Those are where we make the most errors. Unfortunately people don't use the copy paste function enough. >> Yes. >> And I think we're aware it kind of manifests itself in just a consumer front-end application is addresses. >> Yes. >> And address verification when you buy something online and you get that thing that says, you know, here's the address that you typed in. >> Right. >> You know, here's the address that we have in our system. This is just a very clean, simple-- >> Crosscheck verification. >> Example of a crosscheck verification because we're not good as a species. >> Exactly. >> At repetitive, mundane tasks. >> It is, that's not our core strength and I haven't met a human who hasn't failed to impress me in some form or fashion. If we can unleash that potential on every human we are capable of such greatness. >> Right. >> We are not bound to transfer data from one system to another or do the same thing in rote without even considering or bringing in any enhancement to that data or that process. >> Right. >> And that's what we want to enable humans to do, to get to that next level. >> Right. >> Of what they're capable of. >> So Neeti, I want to give the last word. You've been at this from the beginning, 14 years, there's 1,100 plus people here in New York this week for this event, just your impressions of how does it feel to grow. I'm sure you're in a proud momma moment to see your company grow into what it's become. So as you look back and you reflect and you take in what's happening all around us here, just love to get your general impressions. >> It's been extremely exciting, I think, for multiple reasons. One is that we get to work with absolutely fantastic human beings, I think, who have brought a lot of greatness to Automation Anywhere and it's been an exciting journey from a career standpoint. From an industry and from a societal standpoint I think we're also at a cusp. We've changed a lot of the world of business and how it works and that is extremely satisfying to see. If we can leave something behind from the future of work prospects for our children, it is something that I am very happy about. >> Good, well, I gotta get some of this automation in my day to day life, let me tell you that. (laughs) All right Neeti, well thanks for taking a few minutes of your day and sitting down with us. >> Thanks Jeff, it was absolutely a pleasure. >> All right, she's Neeti, I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE from Automation Anywhere Imagine in New York City, thanks for watching. (upbeat electronic music)