Why UiPath, and why now?

As automation and agentic AI converge, we’re entering a new era of enterprise AI. The ability to seamlessly integrate decision intelligence with automation presents an unprecedented opportunity to redefine how businesses operate.

UiPath is the global leader in enterprise automation, and their mission aligns perfectly with ours. With their reach, expertise and commitment to AI-driven innovation, we can accelerate our vision — putting decision-making AI in the hands of even more businesses, at a scale we could never have achieved alone.

By joining forces, we will:

Supercharge AI-powered automation: Combining Peak’s decision intelligence with UiPath’s industry-leading automation capabilities will create a powerful, end-to-end AI + automation solution for enterprises.
Expand our reach and impact: UiPath’s global presence and enterprise customer base will help bring Peak’s AI technology to thousands of organizations worldwide.
Innovate faster than ever: With UiPath’s resources and AI expertise, we can push the boundaries of what’s possible, delivering more advanced, integrated AI solutions to our customers.

What this means for our customers and team

For our customers, this is an exciting milestone. Our core technology, team and vision remain unchanged — only now, we have the backing of one the most respected AI and automation companies in the world. Together, we will deliver even greater value, ensuring that businesses can not only make smarter decisions with AI but also act on them seamlessly through automation.

For our team, this marks a huge opportunity for growth, collaboration and impact. UiPath’s culture of innovation and excellence makes it the perfect environment for us to continue pushing the boundaries of decision intelligence and AI-driven automation.

A proud moment for Manchester and Jaipur

One of the things we’re most proud of at Peak is that we’ve built this company outside of the traditional enterprise software hubs, proving that world-class AI and enterprise technology can thrive in places like Manchester and Jaipur. From day one, we’ve been committed to fostering innovation, creating jobs and building a global AI leader from these incredible cities. 

This milestone is not just a success for Peak — it’s a testament to the talent, ambition and growing tech ecosystems in both Manchester and Jaipur. Joining UiPath means even greater opportunities for our teams, our communities and the next generation of AI and automation pioneers in these regions. We’re excited to continue championing Manchester and Jaipur as global hubs for AI excellence and enterprise innovation.

Looking ahead

This is just the beginning. Over the coming months, we’ll be working closely with the UiPath team to explore new possibilities, integrate our technologies and deliver even more powerful AI solutions for enterprises worldwide.

I want to personally thank everyone who has been part of our journey so far — our customers, our team, our partners and our investors. Your support, trust and belief in our vision have made this possible, and we can’t wait to show you what’s next.

Stay tuned for more updates, and as always, feel free to reach out with any questions. The future of AI and automation is here, and we’re just getting started.

Richard, David & Atul
Co-Founders, Peak

Shelf awareness

As technology leaders, we’re all too familiar with the problem of shelfware. You procure a new piece of software and after a short burst of enthusiasm, user adoption tails off. Soon your shiny new solution becomes just another piece of shelfware, collecting digital dust in your already crowded tech stack.

One US study found that 37% of software bought by businesses goes unused, wasting an estimated $30 billion. That shows shelfware is already a huge problem. But when it comes to AI, the bottom line is bigger than our budgets.

AI is a new technology. Many are still forming opinions about it. So every time we don’t deliver on the promise of its potential, we chip away at people’s enthusiasm for AI and diminish the potential of any future investment in it. But what if we’re not the only business failing to deliver results from AI?

The AI winters

Today’s AI hype might feel new, but it isn’t. The earliest period of AI enthusiasm was in the 1950s when AI first emerged as a concept. Researchers stunned the world with AI programs that could solve difficult mathematical problems. There was even a natural language chatbot named ELIZA with dialogue so convincing that users couldn’t tell they were talking to a machine.

This age of AI made people imagine a world where menial tasks, once considered the exclusive domain of humans, would be taken care of by computers, inspiring countless books and films on the topic. In 1965, H.A. Simon — a prominent political scientist who wrote extensively on AI — said, “machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do.”

But this world failed to materialize. People’s expectations were soon confronted with the reality that delivering this imagined world was much more complicated in practice. Soon after, funding for AI dried up. This would be the world’s first AI winter — a period where AI research all but disappeared. But it would not be the world’s last AI winter. Because it would be followed by another winter that started in the late 1980s and in many respects lasted right up until the early 2010s.

How to avoid another AI winter

Each of the AI winters had one thing in common: AI could not meet people’s sky-high expectations. Today, we’re facing another period of hype, with the promise of AI yet again the topic on everyone’s lips, describing the same sort of optimistic visions of our AI future.

The difference is that this imagined AI future is now within our grasp. The technology behind AI has come a long way to the point where AI genuinely has the potential to transform the world in the coming years.

But for that to happen, we need to nail AI adoption. The problem is that while the technology has developed at lightning speed, the thinking on how we implement AI from a change management perspective has slowed to a halt.

If we want to see the future AI promises, we have to not only progress the technology but how we approach user adoption. The secrets to AI adoption can no longer be the closely guarded secrets of companies that succeed with AI.

We need to start sharing those secrets with the world. If we don’t, the AI solutions we’re all so excited about risk becoming just another piece of shelfware and we face yet another cold AI winter.

This article was originally written and published for Forbes Technology Council on 5 February 2024.