If someone had told us five years ago that in 2025 we would be discussing business strategy with robots, we would probably have dismissed it as a science-fiction plot. And yet - it happened. This year brought about a revolution whose effects we will feel for decades.
I recall a conversation with one of our public-sector clients from two years ago. At the time, they asked whether automation was just a passing fad. Was it worth investing in robots, when something new would appear within a year? Today, that same client runs one of the most advanced automation programmes in Polish public administration. What changed? Everything.
2025 will go down in history as the moment when automation stopped being a tool for repetitive tasks and became a partner in decision-making. It was the year in which traditional software robots - obedient but limited - gave way to agents capable of independent thinking, planning and adaptation. It was the year in which Polish business faced a choice: evolve, or be left behind.
From executor to partner - the metamorphosis of automation
To understand how great a shift occurred in 2025, we need to take a step back. For the past decade, business process automation rested on a simple principle: humans define the rules, robots execute them. Step by step, without deviation, without initiative. If a web form changed, or a button moved a few pixels, the robot would get lost and call for human help.
This model worked. It delivered savings, eliminated human error, and accelerated processes. But it had a fundamental limitation - it required predictability. In a world that changes faster than ever, predictability became a luxury fewer and fewer companies could afford.
Then came artificial intelligence. Not the kind from films that takes over the world, but the practical, useful kind, ready to work. And everything changed.
At SNOK we observed this transformation up close. As a Platinum partner of UiPath, one of the market leaders in automation, we had the privilege of testing new solutions before they reached the wider user base. We saw how Maestro - the new orchestration platform - changed the way people think about automation. We also saw how our clients reacted to these changes - with initial scepticism that quickly gave way to enthusiasm.
The most important change does not concern technology, but trust. Clients are beginning to trust machines in a way that seemed impossible only recently. This is not blind faith - it is trust built on experience, on dozens of successful implementations, on hard data showing that automation works. Jacek Bugajski, CEO SNOK
Maestro and the birth of intelligent orchestration
The introduction of the Maestro platform by UiPath at the start of 2025 was a watershed moment. Not because it added new features - the market had already seen plenty of those. The breakthrough lay in a change of philosophy. Maestro is not just another automation tool. It is a command centre in which people, traditional robots and intelligent agents collaborate.
Picture a symphony orchestra. Each musician is a master of their instrument, but without a conductor the whole would sound chaotic. Maestro plays precisely that role - coordinating the work of different elements, maintaining harmony, and responding to unforeseen situations.
In practice, this means an enterprise can now combine robots from different vendors, use AI models from Google, OpenAI or NVIDIA, and still retain full control over the whole. No lock-in to a single vendor. No closed ecosystems.
At the FUSION 2025 conference in Las Vegas, UiPath CEO Daniel Dines presented the company’s vision as a neutral platform that connects different technologies without favouring any one of them. A bold declaration in a world where technology giants are building ever-higher walls around their ecosystems.
Agents take the stage
What exactly is an agent in the context of automation? This is a question we heard dozens of times in 2025. The answer is simpler than it might seem - and, at the same time, more revolutionary.
A traditional robot is an excellent executor. Give it an instruction and it will carry it out flawlessly, even a million times over. But change anything in its environment, and it becomes helpless. An agent behaves differently. Instead of an instruction, it receives a goal. How it achieves that goal is up to it. If it encounters an obstacle, it finds a way around it. If conditions change, it adjusts its strategy. If it needs help, it asks for it.
This is a fundamental difference. A robot executes. An agent thinks.
We worked on a performance-testing automation project for a large SAP client. The traditional approach would have required months of work - defining scenarios, writing scripts, handling exceptions. With agents, we achieved it in weeks. The agent learned the system itself, identified critical paths itself, and proposed optimisations itself. Our role changed from developers to mentors. Michal Korzen, CTO SNOK, Enterprise Solutions Architect and AI lead
Autopilot - the tool UiPath made available to all clients - became the symbol of this change. It is an assistant you can talk to in natural language. Instead of writing scripts, you simply tell it what you want to achieve. It analyses the tools available, plans actions and executes them - often faster and more accurately than a human.
A year of challenges - KSeF and the transformation of Polish companies
For Polish enterprises, 2025 was defined by three letters: KSeF. The National e-Invoicing System - mandatory from February 2026 for large companies - became the catalyst for the largest wave of automation in the history of Polish business.
This is not just about issuing electronic invoices. KSeF forces a fundamental shift in how financial processes are thought about. Data must be structured. Flows must be automated. Integrations must work in real time. For many companies, this meant rebuilding systems that had grown over the years through trial and error.
At SNOK, in 2025 we delivered a dozen or so KSeF-related projects. Each was different - different sector, different source systems, different challenges. But all shared one common feature: the need to combine automation with SAP systems integration.
It is precisely this combination of competencies - deep SAP knowledge together with automation experience - that proved decisive. Many firms offer one or the other. Few can bring both worlds together. And without that combination, a KSeF implementation becomes a painful compromise instead of an opportunity for transformation.
When robots reach the courts
One of the most fascinating projects we delivered in 2025 was the automation of court claim handling. It may sound unremarkable - paperwork, deadlines, procedures. But behind this apparent routine lies enormous complexity.
Picture an institution that receives thousands of claims a year. Each must be analysed, classified and routed to the right person. Deadlines must be tracked with day-level precision. Documents must be prepared according to strictly defined templates. And all of this within a system where an error can mean serious legal consequences.
Traditionally, this work was done by people - skilled, experienced, but also prone to fatigue and mistakes. A robot never tires. A robot does not miss a deadline. A robot does not mix up a case number. And an agent - an intelligent agent - can additionally assess the priority of a case, suggest a response strategy, and flag unusual elements that require human attention.
This is not about replacing people. It is about freeing them from monotony so they can focus on what genuinely requires human intelligence - strategy, risk assessment, relationship building.
The public sector - specific challenges, concrete solutions
Working with the Polish public sector deserves a chapter of its own. Not because it is harder than working with business - though it often is. Rather, because it demands a fundamentally different approach.
Our experience with institutions such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and units under the Ministry of National Defence has taught us humility. In a world whose mantra is “fast, iterative, in the cloud”, public administration must operate under different rules.
Citizens’ data cannot “fly” between servers in different countries. Systems must work even when the internet does not. Security is not an add-on - it is the foundation. This means on-premises deployments, dedicated servers, multi-layered safeguards. It also means longer decision-making processes, more rigorous testing, more documentation.
But the results? The results are worth the effort. Automation at the Court of Appeal in Wrocław. Robots supporting processes in ministries. Systems that save thousands of hours of civil servants’ work - hours that can now be devoted to genuinely helping citizens.
Numbers that speak for themselves
2025 also brought hard data confirming the value of automation. UiPath closed the third quarter of its fiscal year with revenue exceeding USD 400 million - the first time in the company’s history with operating profit under accounting standards. This is not growth driven by promises - it is growth driven by real deployments at thousands of clients around the world.
Gartner analysts named UiPath a leader in the process automation market for the seventh consecutive time. The company’s platform received a TIME award as one of the best inventions of 2025. And at the end of December, the company was included in a prestigious stock index tracking US mid-cap companies.
But the most important numbers are the ones from the Polish market. According to research, more than 80 per cent of companies that invested in automation before 2023 plan to scale up their deployments further. Nearly half of working time in Polish companies could potentially be automated. The cost of a digital worker is two-thirds lower than that of a human employee.
These are not abstract statistics. They are real savings, real acceleration, real competitive advantage.
Clouds on the horizon - what is worth bearing in mind
It would be dishonest to paint 2025 solely in bright colours. The shift towards intelligent automation carries real challenges and risks.
Analysts warn that more than 40 per cent of AI agent projects will be abandoned by the end of 2027. The reasons? Unclear business objectives, lack of organisational readiness, underestimated maintenance costs. Technological enthusiasm is outpacing organisations’ capacity to absorb change.
There is also a phenomenon experts call “agent-washing” - by analogy to “greenwashing” in ecology. Dozens of vendors have suddenly started calling their products “agents”, even though the same old technology lurks beneath a new label. Distinguishing genuine innovation from marketing tricks requires experience and a critical eye.
In our industry, trust is built over years and lost in minutes. That is why we always tell clients the truth - even when that truth is: this project does not make sense in your current situation. Better to lose one contract than a reputation. Jacek Bugajski, CEO SNOK
2026 - what is around the corner
Writing these words on the first day of 2026, it is hard to resist the temptation to make predictions. What will the coming year bring? Based on the trends we have observed and the projects we are delivering, allow me a few forecasts.
First, February 2026 will bring a wave of KSeF deployments. Companies that put off preparation until the last minute will operate in crisis mode. Those that prepared in advance will reap the advantage - smoother processes, lower costs, better relationships with business partners.
Second, multi-agent systems will stop being a technological curiosity and become standard in complex deployments. Instead of a single all-powerful agent, we will see teams of specialised agents cooperating like a well-coordinated team. One agent analyses documents, another plans actions, a third executes, a fourth checks quality.
Third, security will become even more important. The more autonomy we give machines, the more critical the question becomes: who controls the controllers? Companies that ignore this aspect will expose themselves to serious consequences - legal, financial and reputational.
2026 will be the year of verification. The time of pilots and experiments will end. Companies will have to show real results or admit that their investments in automation were misguided. That is good news for those who took the transformation seriously from the start. Michał Korzeń, CTO SNOK
Lessons from the field - what 2025 taught us
After a year of intensive work with agentic automation, we have drawn several lessons worth sharing.
The first lesson: technology is only the beginning. The best agent in the world will not help an organisation that does not know what it wants to achieve. Before we start talking about robots and artificial intelligence, we need to answer fundamental questions. Which processes truly need automation? Where do we lose the most time and money? What is preventing our people from focusing on what matters?
The second lesson: people are essential. Paradoxically, the more we automate, the more important people become. Not as executors of repetitive tasks, but as process architects, quality guardians, mentors to machines. Companies that treat automation as a way to get rid of people will lose to those that treat it as a way to unlock human potential.
The third lesson: security and oversight are not a brake, but a foundation. Every agent must have clearly defined boundaries. Every decision must be auditable. Every process must anticipate the “what if something goes wrong” scenario. This is not a paranoid approach - it is professionalism.
The fourth lesson: partnership matters. In a world where technology changes every few months, no one can keep up alone. The value of a partner such as SNOK does not lie only in deploying a system. It lies in being a guide through the maze of possibilities, in pointing out pitfalls before we fall into them, in learning alongside the client.
In place of a summary - an invitation to talk
2025 was a landmark year, but it is only the beginning. We stand at the threshold of an era in which the boundary between human and machine intelligence will blur. Not in an apocalyptic sense - rather in the sense of symbiosis, cooperation, mutual reinforcement.
At SNOK we believe this transformation can be an opportunity for Polish companies. We have the competencies, we have the experience, we have the technology. But above all - we have a passion for solving difficult problems.
If this article has piqued your interest - let us talk. Not about technology for its own sake. About your challenges, your goals, your vision of the future. Because the best automation is the kind that starts with understanding people.
See you in 2026.
Would you like to see this in practice, or discuss an implementation in your company? Contact us - we will respond within 48 hours.