UiPath spent much of the year as one of software's biggest disappointments. Now the Romanian-founded automation firm is clawing back. Its first profit and an all-in bet on AI agents are the reason.
Shares in UiPath have rebounded in recent weeks. They are up around 15 per cent over the past five days, lifting the market value back toward $6bn. That still leaves the stock far below where most analysts think it belongs. It also bounces off a 52-week low near $9. But the mood has shifted, and a turnaround is starting to show up in the numbers.
In the quarter to the end of April, UiPath reported revenue of $418mn, up 17 per cent on a year earlier. The bottom line was more striking. It posted a GAAP operating profit of $28mn, and its first-ever profit in a first quarter, after a loss a year before.
That is a milestone for a business long used to losses. Annual recurring revenue reached $1.9bn, up 12 per cent, and the quarter beat the company's own guidance.
From robots to agents
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Behind the figures sits a strategic pivot. UiPath made its name in robotic process automation, the software robots that handle repetitive office tasks. AI now threatens that market, so the company is repositioning around agents.
Its pitch is to be the control layer for AI agents. It wants to help big firms deploy and govern agents at scale. That includes coding agents like Claude Code and OpenAI's tools, running inside the systems firms already use.
The strategy leans on both deals and products. UiPath recently bought WorkFusion, a specialist in AI agents for financial-crime compliance, to push deeper into banking. Analyst house Forrester also named UiPath a leader in one of its enterprise reports. That is a useful stamp when selling to cautious corporate buyers.
Wall Street is not sold yet
The analyst community remains split. Needham lifted UiPath to a buy, citing enterprise AI adoption. Others stay guarded. Bank of America keeps an underperform rating, even after nudging its price target higher. It calls UiPath a “show-me” story until recurring revenue grows faster. Morgan Stanley sits on the fence with an equal-weight rating. The consensus lands on hold.
That caution reflects a bigger question over the sector. Say AI agents can write and run software on their own. Does a dedicated automation vendor still matter, or do the big model makers simply swallow it?
UiPath's answer, echoed by founder Daniel Dines, is that enterprises will still need a trusted layer to orchestrate humans, AI, and automation together. That, it argues, is exactly what it sells.
UiPath is one of Europe's biggest software success stories. It was founded in Bucharest and listed in New York in 2021 at a $35bn valuation. It is worth about $6bn today, a fraction of that. The recent bounce does not undo a hard year. But for the first time in a while, the company has a profit, a clearer story, and a market willing to listen.
Rivals such as SAP are racing down the same agentic path, and the prize goes to whoever enterprises trust to run it.