UiPath and the RPA boom (2005-2021)
UiPath, founded in Bucharest, Romania in 2005, made software 'robots' that automated repetitive office tasks by mimicking clicks and keystrokes. Investors poured in as customers used the bots for data entry and document processing. The company went public in April 2021 at a valuation above $30 billion.
The stock later fell sharply as customers found the bots brittle: they broke whenever a screen changed and couldn't handle judgment calls or exceptions.
The episode set the template for the current AI agent wave: rule-based automation that repeats steps but can't carry context or decide what to do next.
Stuut's pitch is the next stage of that promise: agents that hold context, handle exceptions, and take action without a human re-entering information at every step.
