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Automation Anywhere vs Microsoft Power Automate
March 18, 2025 | Author: Michael Stromann
12★
Automation Anywhere caters to enterprises looking to deploy a digital workforce composed of software bots that complete business processes end-to-end.
16★
Microsoft Power Automate (earlier Microsoft Flow) - is a versatile automation platform that integrates seamlessly with hundreds of apps and services and allows users to create custom workflows without coding through a drag-and-drop interface.
Automation Anywhere and Microsoft Power Automate are, at first glance, remarkably similar. Both claim to free humans from the mind-numbing drudgery of repetitive tasks, both promise to make businesses more efficient through automation and both have sleek, modern interfaces that make you feel like a futuristic wizard instead of someone desperately trying to get Excel to talk to Outlook. They use AI, they integrate with cloud services and they let you drag and drop your way to productivity—at least, that’s the theory. In practice, they will probably still require you to watch several YouTube tutorials and question your career choices before things start running smoothly.
Automation Anywhere, which hails from the grand old United States and has been around since 2003 (meaning it’s old enough to know better), is aimed squarely at enterprises that need automation on an industrial scale. It boasts a cloud-native platform, a suite of governance tools that make compliance officers weep with joy and something called Bot Insight, which is presumably meant to help you understand what your digital minions are up to. It is sophisticated, powerful and capable of handling automation so complex that you might start to wonder if you are, in fact, still needed at all.
Microsoft Power Automate, by contrast, is the plucky young upstart, launched in 2016 and tightly woven into the Microsoft ecosystem, like an overly eager intern trying to integrate themselves into every possible meeting. It plays exceptionally well with Office 365, Azure and other Microsoft products, making it a natural choice for businesses already trapped—sorry, invested—in Microsoft’s world. It also includes AI Builder, which sounds exciting and futuristic but mostly helps you make your workflows smarter without writing a single line of code. If you’re already paying for Microsoft 365, it’s the kind of automation tool that feels less like an extra cost and more like a “well, I suppose we might as well use it” kind of deal.
See also: Top 10 BPM Software
Automation Anywhere, which hails from the grand old United States and has been around since 2003 (meaning it’s old enough to know better), is aimed squarely at enterprises that need automation on an industrial scale. It boasts a cloud-native platform, a suite of governance tools that make compliance officers weep with joy and something called Bot Insight, which is presumably meant to help you understand what your digital minions are up to. It is sophisticated, powerful and capable of handling automation so complex that you might start to wonder if you are, in fact, still needed at all.
Microsoft Power Automate, by contrast, is the plucky young upstart, launched in 2016 and tightly woven into the Microsoft ecosystem, like an overly eager intern trying to integrate themselves into every possible meeting. It plays exceptionally well with Office 365, Azure and other Microsoft products, making it a natural choice for businesses already trapped—sorry, invested—in Microsoft’s world. It also includes AI Builder, which sounds exciting and futuristic but mostly helps you make your workflows smarter without writing a single line of code. If you’re already paying for Microsoft 365, it’s the kind of automation tool that feels less like an extra cost and more like a “well, I suppose we might as well use it” kind of deal.
See also: Top 10 BPM Software
