Robotic process automation for industry: adoption status, benefits, challenges and research agenda

Purpose This study intends to find the industries that have leveraged Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology and elucidate the extent of the adoption of RPA in various industry domains with benefits. The identification of tasks eligible for RPA itself is a challenge. Therefore, the study further brings out the challenges faced in various industry verticals and postulates the future direction of research and applications in RPA. Design/methodology/approach The study focuses on articles from popular databases such as SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google scholar. PRISMA methodology is used for systematic literature review and 113 papers are shortlisted for study. Three questions are framed to carry out the review and set the research direction. Findings It is evident from this study that RPA has been widely used in banking and related areas with moderate use in healthcare and manufacturing leading to operational efficiency and productivity. However, there are a lot more opportunities in other domains that need to be taped by leveraging technology advancements and a research agenda has been devised by postulating future directions. Originality/value The study brings out a new comprehensive perspective as regards RPA implementation across domains. There is no promising study found that gathers three-dimensional aspects of the meta-themes applications, benefits and challenges. The study summarizes the research agenda and projects the industry domains that have not yet explored, the benefits of RPA. This will be a good reference article for those who develop RPA techniques and organizations that have plans to go for RPA.