Attended RPA bots run on an employee's desktop and are triggered by that person to assist with a task in real time, such as filling a form during a customer call. Unattended bots run on servers or virtual machines, start on schedules or triggers, and complete whole processes without human involvement. Choose attended for interactive work and unattended for high-volume back-office batches.
- Attended bots assist a person; unattended bots replace the manual steps of a whole process.
- Interactive, judgement-adjacent work suits attended bots; batch, rule-based work suits unattended.
- Many organisations use both, with attended bots handing finished work to unattended ones.
- Unattended bots need stronger monitoring, credential security and exception handling.
What is an attended RPA bot?
An attended bot works alongside a person on the same computer. The employee starts it, often with a button or a keyboard shortcut, and it performs a portion of the job while they watch. Typical examples are populating a customer record from an email, pulling data from three screens for a support agent or filling a standard form after a call.
The person stays in control. They can pause the bot, correct something and continue, which makes attended automation comfortable for tasks where context matters. It speeds up the routine parts while the human handles the conversation or the decision.
What is an unattended RPA bot?
An unattended bot runs without anyone sitting in front of it, usually on a server or virtual machine. It is started by a schedule, a file arriving or an event in another system. It might process every invoice that arrived overnight, update order statuses at set times or compile weekly reports before staff log in.
Because nobody is watching, design discipline matters more. The bot needs reliable error handling, alerts, a clear exception queue and secure credentials. An unattended bot that fails silently can leave work undone for days, so monitoring is not optional.
How do the two types compare?
The cleanest way to compare is by who triggers the work, where it runs and how much judgement is involved. Attended bots live on desktops and need a person; unattended bots live in a controlled environment and need an owner who monitors them instead.
Neither is better in general. The question is which one matches the shape of the process, and in many organisations the answer is both, with each doing what it does best.
- Trigger: attended starts when a person asks; unattended starts on a schedule or event
- Location: attended runs on an employee machine; unattended runs on a server or virtual machine
- Best for: attended suits interactive tasks; unattended suits batch, high-volume work
- Oversight: attended has the user watching; unattended relies on logs and alerts
- Risk: attended depends on user behaviour; unattended depends on robust exception design
When should you choose attended automation?
Choose attended when the process begins with a human moment: a phone call, a walk-in customer, a decision about which route to take. Contact-centre and front-office staff often benefit, because the bot shortens the time spent hunting through screens while the person keeps the relationship.
It is also a gentler way to start. Staff see immediate help on their own desks, which builds trust in automation. If the steps are not yet fully standard, an attended bot lets people handle the odd cases manually without breaking the flow.
When is unattended automation the better choice?
Choose unattended when the process is stable, rule-based and runs in volume with little need for human input, such as reconciling statements, entering batches of invoices, or updating records across systems overnight. Running out of hours means results are ready when the team arrives.
The trade-off is setup and governance. You need a managed environment, dedicated bot credentials, monitoring and a clear owner for exceptions. If a task occurs rarely or varies each time, the effort may exceed the benefit, and an attended or simpler approach could be wiser.
Can attended and unattended bots work together?
Yes, and this hybrid is common. An attended bot gathers information during a customer interaction, then passes the case to an unattended bot that completes the back-office processing later. The person handles the interaction; the bot handles the follow-through.
When designing the handover, define the data that moves between them and what happens if something is missing. A Plus Solution can map which parts of your process belong on which side as part of an automation audit, before any build begins.
- Attended first, unattended after: capture at the desk, process in the back office
- Define exactly which data passes between the two bots
- Decide what happens when a handover record is incomplete
Frequently asked questions
Which type is cheaper to run?
It depends on volume and infrastructure. Attended bots reuse desktops people already have, while unattended bots need managed servers or virtual machines. Compare the licensing and hosting setup for your chosen tool.
Can an attended bot be turned into an unattended one later?
Often yes, if the process is rule-based and the human step can be replaced by data or rules. Processes that rely on judgement may not convert cleanly.
Do unattended bots need a person to monitor them?
They do not need someone watching constantly, but they need alerts and an owner who reviews failures and the exception queue regularly.
Is one type more secure?
Each has different risks. Attended bots inherit the user's session, while unattended bots should use dedicated, least-privilege credentials stored in a vault.
How do I know which my process needs?
Ask whether a person must be present at the start or during the work. If not, and the rules are clear, unattended is likely right; otherwise consider attended.
Need help with this? See our RPA & Process Automation service or talk to Yash Parikh.