An attended robot works directly on an employee's personal computer to help them complete their daily work.

• How it starts: The human worker clicks a shortcut or button on their screen to start the robot. • Where it runs: On the employee's active screen while they are sitting at their desk. • Example: A customer service agent answers a telephone call. The agent clicks a button, and the attended robot opens three internal systems, gathers the customer's history, and presents it on the agent's screen in seconds.

An unattended robot runs completely on its own, usually on a remote virtual machine or server in the cloud.

• How it starts: It runs on a fixed schedule (such as every night at midnight) or starts automatically when a new transaction is added to a digital queue. • Where it runs: In a secure background computer session with no human watching. • Example: Late at night, the robot wakes up, processes 2,000 pending bank transactions, reconciles accounts, and emails a finished summary report to the team lead before the office opens in the morning.

Many enterprise processes are mostly routine, but occasionally require human review.

In a hybrid workflow: 1. An unattended robot processes 95% of routine transactions automatically. 2. When the robot encounters an unusual case—such as an invoice where the total does not match the purchase order—it pauses that specific item. 3. The robot sends a task notification to a human manager via UiPath Action Center. 4. The manager reviews the item on their phone or web browser and clicks Approve or Reject. 5. The robot picks up the manager's decision and finishes the remaining work.