Agents first, at human quality

“If an AI agent can do a task [at] the quality of a human, I will always take the AI agent, even if it's more expensive than the human.” Daniel Dines, UiPath

Technology always gets cheaper over time, so the savings come later, Dines said. The bigger gain is productivity. Hiring an agent for a task does not mean he stops hiring people. Humans set the goals, make the decisions and supervise.

That has created a problem for juniors, he said, because agents can now do the tasks they used to start with. Dines still wants companies to hire juniors, but not to hand them trivial work. Senior staff should mentor them and show them how decisions are made.

From people-centric to AI-centric

Dines expects the way companies organise their work to change.

“As I said, the workflows will be transformed. From people-centric, they will become AI-centric.” Daniel Dines, UiPath

Tokenless automation

Companies should use ordinary software for everything software can deliver, Dines said. Software is cheaper to run and maintain, and people have used it for 50 years. AI should cover what software cannot do. It can also write the software and fix it when it breaks, but it should not run every step.

“The more tokenless an automation is, it's faster, it's cheaper and more reliable.” Daniel Dines, UiPath

People should stay accountable for decisions, he said. He compared AI and automation to cars and trains. Trains run on fixed rails and are less flexible, but they carry far more, faster and more reliably.

An agent that interviews staff

AI cannot learn on the job the way a new employee does, Dines said. Labs train a model once, and every company gets the same one until the next release. That is why UiPath built its Cartographer agent. It interviews business users by voice, pulls together how a process really works and helps redesign it before automation.

“It literally works like a sophisticated business consultant.” Daniel Dines, UiPath

Back in the CEO job

Dines stepped back as CEO after about 17 years to focus on product and engineering. UiPath reappointed him in 2024 when Rob Enslin stepped down. He told TNW he had always felt someone else might run the company better.

“I was realising that in a way nobody can do my job, especially in a time of such a huge transformation.” Daniel Dines, UiPath

No plan B

UiPath's early years were hard, and Dines had many moments of doubt. He told friends he was ruining his career as a software engineer. Having no fallback kept him going, he said.

“When you have a plan B, actually you will go to the plan B.” Daniel Dines, UiPath

Product-market fit came through a customer in Chennai, India, that ran a competition against Blue Prism, then the market leader. UiPath sent three of its best engineers, including its CTO, to live there for three months and build the software. Today, he said, people call that role a forward deployed engineer.

Dines grew up in communist Romania wanting to be a writer. He studied maths and computer science without having used a computer. He switched to software after a friend said he earned $300 a month as a developer, ten times what Dines made. He later worked at Microsoft in Seattle before going back to Romania.

Living with pressure

Being a listed company means constant pressure to deliver the numbers, Dines said. A tennis lesson helps him live with it.

“Pressure is a privilege, because otherwise you don't want to live the most comfortable life.” Daniel Dines, UiPath

Will before intelligence

AI development should slow down if it cannot be contained, and go as fast as possible if it can, Dines said. He would point it at drug discovery rather than hacking. He does not believe AI can reach consciousness or an identity without a body, and is writing an article on will and consciousness.

“Will came first and then intelligence came second.” Daniel Dines, UiPath

His advice to young people starting out is to keep learning.

“Embrace [the] unknown. Be a cartographer. Be an explorer.” Daniel Dines, UiPath