Everyone is chasing AI agents. UiPath’s CMO explains why hybrid automation is the real end state

The automation industry has spent the past year racing to pursue AI agents. UiPath’s new Chief Marketing Officer Michael Atalla pushes back on what that rush implies – not because agents lack value, but because he believes the destination is being misread. In his view, enterprises aren’t moving through a temporary hybrid phase on the way to full autonomy. They are settling into hybrid as the long-term operating model: deterministic workflows where certainty matters, autonomous systems where ambiguity can’t be avoided.

In our first conversation since joining UiPath in August 2025, Atalla tells me:

The hybrid approach, both the hybrid infrastructures and hybrid technology relative to automation, is permanent. That’s where we are today and it’s where we will always be.

His parallel is cloud adoption. A decade ago, the industry confidently predicts a wholesale shift to public cloud. What actually emerges is messier: hybrid and ...