Robotic process automation – research impulses from the BPM 2023 panel discussion

Robotic Process Automation is an established technology in organizations. In the last years, it has also received considerable attention in scholarly research with publications, special issues, and academic conferences dedicated to the topic. Given that Robotic Process Automation has now moved beyond the initial hype, we can ask what research should focus on in the future. To address this question, we conducted a panel discussion to discuss its current state and future development. This panel, which took place at the Robotic Process Automation forum at the Business Process Management Conference 2023, included experts from academia and industry, covering strategy consultants, implementers, and tool providers. In this report, we present insights from the panel discussions. We especially focus on three future research directions on Robotic Process Automation that emerged from the panel.