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IT AI Index
October 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › IT operations and endpoint › RPA › Small business › October 2026 Edition

Robotic process automation for small business buyers

Asked as “RPA platform”, and as “robotic process automation software”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 60 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
72Microsoft Power Automate08UiPath07UiPath Community Edition13others

72% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Microsoft Power Automate72%3%73endorsed leader
02UiPath8%34%61criticized challenger
03UiPath Community Edition7%6%16accepted challenger
04Zapier3%12%32accepted challenger
05Make2%0%21accepted challenger
06Zoho RPA2%0%18accepted challenger
07Automation Anywhere Community Edition2%8%12accepted challenger
08Automation Anywhere2%39%46criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12Blue Prism0%94%17criticized challenger
11SS&C Blue Prism0%90%10criticized challenger
09ElectroNeek0%0%11accepted challenger
10Robocorp0%0%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

One product takes 72% of first choices here, so the chart would put eleven markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Four products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Twelve of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. MiniMax M2.5 and Muse Glimmer 30B changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
UiPath
34%
21 of 61 labels negative · 14 of 14 models · 7 hard negative
“Avoid UiPath, Blue Prism, and Automation Anywhere's enterprise offerings unless you have a clear, large-scale need and budget.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Automation Anywhere
39%
18 of 46 labels negative · 12 of 14 models · 6 hard negative
“Positioned heavily toward enterprise AI/agentic automation, which small businesses don't need and can't afford.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Blue Prism
94%
16 of 17 labels negative · 10 of 14 models · 6 hard negative
“Why to avoid: It is designed for compliance-heavy industries... vastly over-engineered for the average small business needs” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
SS&C Blue Prism
90%
9 of 10 labels negative · 8 of 14 models · 5 hard negative
“No self‑serve tier; quoted prices often start at $10,000–$25,000 per bot/year ... not suitable for a small team” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the fourteen in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

77 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1033 links across 239 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

vendor site · G240 answers · 41 citations · 12 models
40 answers · 40 citations · 12 models
vendor site · G236 answers · 45 citations · 12 models
28 answers · 32 citations · 12 models
25 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Rework23 answers · 28 citations · 9 models
22 answers · 32 citations · 6 models
21 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
20 answers · 21 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Blue Prism18 answers · 18 citations · 11 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 10 models
16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best rpa platform”, “rpa platform”, “rpa platforms”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Microsoft parent site
Microsoft Power Automate 72%, Microsoft Power Automate Desktop 2%
73%3142,240,000403,136
UiPath uipath.com
UiPath 8%, UiPath Community Edition 7%
15%20727,1001,854161,995$741071
Zapier zapier.com3%151165,0002,1457,333,309$230120
Automation Anywhere automationanywhere.com
Automation Anywhere Community Edition 2%, Automation Anywhere 2%
3%2036,60030245,595203
Make make.com2%104135,00012,939,045439,03176
Zoho RPA zoho.com2%2914061,216,894$51,031119
Rocketbot2%
ElectroNeek0%1403
n8n n8n.io0%111165,0002,786133,59942
Robocorp0%1,3004

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 18 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (auxis.com, blueprism.com, g2.com). The first result for “best rpa platform” is g2.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best RPA platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which robotic process automation software would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top RPA platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best RPA platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a RPA platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which RPA platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Microsoft Power Automate
Three alternativesInflectra Rapise, Octoparse AI, PIX RPA
against: UiPath
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Two alternativesMake, Zoho RPA
against: UiPath
Microsoft Power Automate
Three alternativesPIX RPA, UiPath, Zoho RPA
Microsoft Power Automate
Four alternativesMake, Robocorp, UiPath Community Edition, Zoho RPA
no first choiceagainst: Automation Anywhere, SS&C Blue Prism, UiPath
GPT-5.4 miniMicrosoft Power Automate
Two alternativesUiPath, Zapier
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Two alternativesAutomation Anywhere, UiPath
Microsoft Power Automate, UiPath
One alternativeAutomation Anywhere
against: SS&C Blue Prism
Microsoft Power Automate, UiPath Community Editionagainst: Automation Anywhere Community Editionno first choiceagainst: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, SAP® Build, UiPath
Gemini 3.5 FlashMicrosoft Power Automate
Three alternativesMake, UiPath, Zapier
against: Automation Anywhere, SS&C Blue Prism
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Three alternativesMake, UiPath, Zapier
Microsoft Power Automate
Five alternativesMake, OpenBots, Sema4.ai, UiPath, Zapier
Microsoft Power Automate, UiPath
Two alternativesOpenBots, Robocorp
Make, Zapier
One alternativeMicrosoft Power Automate
against: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, UiPath
against: Automation Anywhere, SS&C Blue Prism, UiPath, WorkFusion
Perplexity SonarMicrosoft Power Automate
Two alternativesElectroNeek, UiPath
against: Automation Anywhere
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Two alternativesRocketbot, UiPath Community Edition
Microsoft Power Automate
Four alternativesAutomation Anywhere, ElectroNeek, UiPath, Zoho RPA
Microsoft Power Automate
One alternativeUiPath Community Edition
no first choiceagainst: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Microsoft Power Automate, UiPath
Grok 4.1 FastMicrosoft Power Automate
Four alternativesAutomation Anywhere Community Edition, ElectroNeek, UiPath Community Edition, Zoho RPA
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Three alternativesAutomation Anywhere, ElectroNeek, UiPath
Microsoft Power Automate
Two alternativesAutomation Anywhere, UiPath
against: Blue Prism, Pega
Microsoft Power Automate, UiPath Community Edition
One alternativeRobocorp
Microsoft Power Automate, UiPath
One alternativeZoho RPA
against: Automation Anywhere
against: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, UiPath
Mistral SmallMicrosoft Power Automate
Two alternativesAutomation Anywhere Community Edition, UiPath Community Edition
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Two alternativesUiPath, Zoho RPA
Microsoft Power Automate
Four alternativesAutomation Anywhere, UiPath, Zapier, n8n
against: Blue Prism
Microsoft Power Automate
Two alternativesAutomation Anywhere, UiPath
UiPath
Four alternativesAutomation Anywhere, Microsoft Power Automate, NICE, Pega
against: Blue Prism
against: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, UiPath
DeepSeek V4 FlashMicrosoft Power Automate
Three alternativesElectroNeek, Nintex, Rocketbot
against: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, UiPath
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Three alternativesMake, UiPath, n8n
Microsoft Power Automate
Four alternativesAutomation Anywhere, Make, UiPath, n8n
against: Zapier
Microsoft Power Automate
Three alternativesAutomation Anywhere, Robocorp, UiPath
Microsoft Power Automate
One alternativeUiPath
against: Automation Anywhere, SS&C Blue Prism, UiPath, Zapier
Llama 4 MaverickMicrosoft Power Automate
Two alternativesAutomation Anywhere Community Edition, UiPath Community Edition
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Four alternativesAutomation Anywhere, Creviz, Pega Robotic Automation, Rocketbot
no first choiceMicrosoft Power Automate
Two alternativesRobocorp, UiPath Community Edition
no first choiceagainst: Blue Prism, UiPath, Zapier
Qwen 3.7 FlashMicrosoft Power Automate
Four alternativesMake, UiPath, Zoho RPA, n8n
against: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Pega
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
One alternativeUiPath
Microsoft Power Automate
Three alternativesAutomation Anywhere, UiPath, Zoho RPA
Microsoft Power Automate
Four alternativesMake, TagUI, UiPath, Zapier
Microsoft Power Automate
Two alternativesAutomation Anywhere, UiPath
against: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Scrapy, Selenium, UiPath
Kimi K2Microsoft Power Automate
Four alternativesAutomation Anywhere, ElectroNeek, UiPath, Zapier
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Two alternativesMake, UiPath
against: Zapier
Zapier
Three alternativesMake, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n
against: UiPath
UiPath Community Edition
Three alternativesAutomation Anywhere Community Edition, Microsoft Power Automate, Rocketbot
Microsoft Power Automate, UiPathagainst: Automation Anywhere, SS&C Blue Prism, UiPath
GLM 4.7 FlashXMicrosoft Power Automate
Five alternativesAutomation Anywhere, SS&C Blue Prism, UiPath, Workato, Zoho RPA
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Four alternativesMake, UiPath, Zapier, n8n
against: Blue Prism
Microsoft Power Automate
Five alternativesAutomation Anywhere, Make, UiPath, Zapier, Zoho RPA
against: Blue Prism, Workato
Microsoft Power Automate Desktop
Three alternativesAutomation Anywhere, Robocorp, UiPath
Automation Anywhere Community Edition, Zoho RPA
One alternativeAutomation Anywhere
against: UiPath, UiPath Community Edition
against: Appian, Automation Anywhere, Kryon, Pega, SS&C Blue Prism, UiPath
MiniMax M2.5Automation Anywhere, UiPath
One alternativeMicrosoft Power Automate
Microsoft Power Automate, RocketbotChanged
One alternativeZapier
against: Blue Prism, UiPath
Automation Anywhere Community Edition, UiPath Community Edition
Five alternativesMake, Microsoft Power Automate, Workfusion Express, Zapier, Zoho RPA
against: Blue Prism
UiPath Community Edition
Two alternativesElectroNeek, Microsoft Power Automate
Microsoft Power Automate
Four alternativesAutomation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Nintex, UiPath
nothing named
GPT-6 LunaMicrosoft Power Automate
One alternativeUiPath
Microsoft Power AutomateHeld
Two alternativesAutomation Anywhere, Zapier
Microsoft Power Automate
Two alternativesAutomation Anywhere, UiPath
Microsoft Power Automate
One alternativeUiPath Community Edition
Microsoft Power Automate
One alternativeUiPath
against: Automation Anywhere, Microsoft Power Automate, SS&C Blue Prism, UiPath
Muse Glimmer 30BMicrosoft Power Automate
One alternativeZapier
against: UiPath
ZapierChanged
Two alternativesMicrosoft Power Automate, UiPath Community Edition
Microsoft Power Automate
Three alternativesAutomation Anywhere, ElectroNeek, UiPath
Microsoft Power Automate
Two alternativesAutomation Anywhere, UiPath
no first choiceagainst: Automation Anywhere, Pega, SS&C Blue Prism, UiPath
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:38yes1410 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:26yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:42yes718 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:38yes173 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:56yes177 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:13yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 23:58yes2328 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:05yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:53yes731 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:43yes915 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:32yes2472 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:00yes521 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:44yes310 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:19yes1416 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:19yes159 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:49yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:59yes1428 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:40yes173 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:52yes125 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:33yes118 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:21yes2529 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:02yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:15yes1021 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:29yes1921 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:13yes2041 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:25yes523 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:40yes312 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:39yes2023 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:07yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:58yes56 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:40yes2027 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:14yes184 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:25yes1911 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:55yes1513 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 23:30yes2139 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:27yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:29yes2459 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:51yes2031 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:49yes2559 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:39yes763 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:26yes522 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:35yes1429 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:43yes169 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:49yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:09yes2226 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:36yes194 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:48yes2310 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:56yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:33yes2583 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:15yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:25no025 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:28yes1317 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:58yes2550 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:12yes1316 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:12yes211 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:43yes1319 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:38no04 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:06no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:16yes2132 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:26yes205 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:37yes199 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:25no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 23:17yes2444 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:12yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:14no025 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:45yes2124 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:38yes15136 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:33yes515 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:01yes422 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:25no010 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 23:38yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:12yes37 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:52yes1222 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:44yes184 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:06yes177 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:42yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:00yes2536 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:54yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:07no027 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:22yes2336 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:43yes1827 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:39yes539 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:45yes523 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:17yes2131 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
IBM RPA read as IBM Robotic Process Automation
SAP read as SAP Build Process Automation
Unresolved, counted raw
Automa
Creviz
Inflectra Rapise
Node-RED
Octoparse AI
Python + Selenium
Scrapy
Workfusion Express
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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