# Robotic process automation for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "RPA platform" and as "robotic process automation software", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. 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. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/operations/robotic-process-automation/smb/

**Standing:** Microsoft Power Automate leads with 72% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 60 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft Power Automate | 72% | 3% | 73 |
| 2 | UiPath | 8% | 34% | 61 |
| 3 | UiPath Community Edition | 7% | 6% | 16 |
| 4 | Zapier | 3% | 12% | 32 |
| 5 | Make | 2% | 0% | 21 |
| 6 | Zoho RPA | 2% | 0% | 18 |
| 7 | Automation Anywhere Community Edition | 2% | 8% | 12 |
| 8 | Automation Anywhere | 2% | 39% | 46 |
| 9 | ElectroNeek | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 10 | Robocorp | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 11 | SS&C Blue Prism | 0% | 90% | 10 |
| 12 | Blue Prism | 0% | 94% | 17 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives Inflectra Rapise, Octoparse AI, PIX RPA
- GPT-5.4 mini: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives UiPath, Zapier
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives Make, UiPath, Zapier
- Perplexity Sonar: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives ElectroNeek, UiPath
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives Automation Anywhere Community Edition, ElectroNeek, UiPath Community Edition, Zoho RPA
- Mistral Small: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives Automation Anywhere Community Edition, UiPath Community Edition
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives ElectroNeek, Nintex, Rocketbot
- Llama 4 Maverick: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives Automation Anywhere Community Edition, UiPath Community Edition
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives Make, UiPath, Zoho RPA, n8n
- Kimi K2: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives Automation Anywhere, ElectroNeek, UiPath, Zapier
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives Automation Anywhere, SS&C Blue Prism, UiPath, Workato
- MiniMax M2.5: Automation Anywhere, UiPath; alternatives Microsoft Power Automate
- GPT-6 Luna: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives UiPath
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Microsoft Power Automate; alternatives Zapier

## Sources the answers cite

77 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- learn.g2.com: 40 answers, 41 citations
- layer3labs.io: 40 answers, 40 citations
- g2.com: 36 answers, 45 citations
- aimultiple.com: 28 answers, 32 citations
- auxis.com: 25 answers, 25 citations
- resources.rework.com: 23 answers, 28 citations
- deepusecase.com: 22 answers, 32 citations
- costbench.com: 21 answers, 22 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://layer3labs.io/guides/rpa-software-and-vendors-compared (39 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-robotic-process-automation-software (36 answers)
- https://deepusecase.com/blog/rpa-tools-for-small-business-2024-review (22 answers)
- https://axis-intelligence.com/best-rpa-tools-2025-expert-rankings-guide (20 answers)
- https://costbench.com/best/best-rpa-small-business-2026 (19 answers)
- https://auxis.com/learn/rpa/top-rpa-tools (18 answers)
- https://resources.rework.com/tools/automation/best-rpa-software-2026 (18 answers)
- https://aimultiple.com/rpa-software (17 answers)
- https://scryai.com/blog/best-rpa-software (17 answers)
- https://2hatslogic.com/blog/top-rpa-tools-compared (16 answers)

## Warned against

- UiPath: 21 of 61 labels 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: 18 of 46 labels 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: 16 of 17 labels 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: 9 of 10 labels 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)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.