What's New in Appian RPA

This page describes what's available in this release of Appian RPA. Some capabilities may not be available if you're using an older version of the Appian platform.

Version 9.27 (Release date: 23 October 2026)

Agentic RPA: Use natural language to build adaptable, versatile, and resilient robotic tasks

Introducing Agentic RPA: use natural language to automate interactions with any application visible on screen, from SAP and Mainframe terminals to legacy desktop software, and web browsers. Define your goal in plain language and the action autonomously navigates, clicks, types, and reads until the objective is achieved.

Unlike traditional RPA actions, agentic automation doesn't need you to plan and configure each step. It captures the screen, interprets what it sees, and decides the next best move to meet the goal described in your natural language prompt. And when a dialog moves, a button changes label, or an unexpected pop-up appears, the action adapts in real time—no reconfiguration needed.

Increased scale to keep your largest robotic automations highly available

Appian RPA High Availability (HA) now officially supports custom topologies of 4 or more nodes. Designed for enterprise customers managing massive robotic workloads, you can deploy 6, 9, or even 12-node clusters. This gives mission-critical RPA processes stronger stability, load balancing, and failover integrity as automation volume grows.

Simplify robotic task logic and error handling with Switch and Try-Catch actions

We've added two new low-code actions to the RPA Designer to help you build simpler workflows and handle exceptions confidently.

Instead of chaining multiple conditional actions, you can now use Switch to route task execution across several conditions from a single expression. The Switch action routes on a matched value rather than a Boolean result. With Try-Catch, you can add structured exception handling to isolate fragile actions and recover from errors without stopping the run. Use Try-Catch when a robotic task should recover from a predictable failure instead of ending the whole task.

Together, these two actions reduce execution time, improve readability, and bring Appian RPA control flow and error handling closer to industry-standard practices. When used with the Run Agentic RPA action, Switch and Try/Catch also empower you to build flexible agentic error handling into your robotic tasks to keep them on track when conditions change.

Attach to running browsers and call processes synchronously

Robotic tasks can now attach directly to browser windows already open on the host machine. With the new Attach to Browser action, your robots can join browser workflows mid-stream without re-launching the browser or repeating prior navigation and authentication steps. The browser stays open when the robotic task finishes, ready for whatever comes next.

Robotic tasks can also run process models synchronously in the Start Process action for seamless, in-progress data updates. This option streamlines the design and maintenance process and ensures your complex, multi-step automations run reliably and faster from start to finish.

Version 9.26 (Release date: 11 September 2026)

Behind-the-scenes updates for RPA

We've made several behind-the-scenes updates to keep things running smoothly. There are no visible changes in this release, so you can continue developing as quickly and easily as always.

Version 9.25 (Release date: 31 July 2026)

Automate core mainframe applications

Bring enterprise-grade support and modern efficiency to your workflows with native mainframe support. Use drag-and-drop actions to securely connect your legacy systems to Appian processes. Appian RPA automatically handles screen timing adjustments and converts code into plain language, so you can meet strict corporate security standards while keeping your automations reliable and faster to build.

Update RPA credentials within robotic tasks

Rotate and update your RPA credentials without leaving your robotic task. The new Update Credential action writes new passwords directly to the credential store during execution using a credential UUID. By eliminating complex API calls and keeping sensitive data within the robotic task, you can implement fully automated, end-to-end credential rotation workflows.

Version 9.24 (Release date: 29 June 2026)

Automate complex web workflows with native browser actions

Build secure, compliant web automations without relying on community plugins. Appian RPA now includes native support for closing active tabs and improved table value extraction in robotic tasks.

The enhanced Get Table Value action now allows robots to extract values from more non-standard web tables, like tables where there are fewer header cells than data cells. This update lets you leave fragile workarounds in the past, while improving the stability and reliability of your web automation workflows.

Revert your RPA infrastructure topologies safely

Appian Cloud RPA sites can now be reverted from a Highly Available (HA) topology to a single-node configuration when required, such as for troubleshooting or broader topology changes. Appian Support manages the transition, and your existing agents, robots, and robotic tasks continue to function without manual updates.

Version 9.23 (Release date: 29 May 2026)

Reserve a specific credential by UUID

The Reserve Credential action now supports credential UUIDs as fixed inputs or expressions. This lets you configure automated workflows to use a specific stored credential instead of selecting one from a credential pool. With more precise control over credential selection, you can support automation patterns such as password rotation without manual intervention.

Manage support files faster in high availability environments

Using support files in high availability (HA) deployments is now faster than before. We optimized how support files are managed in HA architectures, so actions like uploading, downloading, renaming, moving, and extracting now complete in seconds.

Improved stability for high-volume executions

We enhanced how the RPA server handles concurrent robot authentication to better protect performance as volume increases. These improvements keep execution queuing stable even when multiple robots connect at the same time.

Version 9.22 (Release date: 10 April 2026)

High availability for Appian RPA

Keep your most important RPA automations running smoothly with high availability for Appian RPA. This enhancement ensures your robotic tasks remain resilient and scalable, even during periods of high demand. By protecting your business from unplanned downtime, you can confidently scale your operations and ensure your critical processes are always available.

High availability for RPA is available upon request. Contact Appian Support to enable this feature for your environment.

To optimize your automation resilience, see High Availability for RPA.

Automate RPA infrastructure at scale

Appian RPA introduces secure REST APIs to automate the management of credentials and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) configurations. You can now programmatically rotate passwords and update autologin credentials instead of performing manual tasks in the RPA Console. These new endpoints eliminate maintenance bottlenecks and allow you to manage large-scale robot deployments with secure, automated workflows.

RPA Queues and Schedules removed

RPA Queues and Scheduling, deprecated in RPA 9.17, are now fully removed in RPA 9.22. If you haven't already, migrate your schedules to Appian process model Timer Events and replace queues with LCP patterns.

Version 9.21 (Release date: 30 January 2026)

Intelligent RPA prerequisite checks

RPA now includes more built-in prerequisite checks that verify critical system dependencies, such as database connectivity, before a process begins. By confirming your environment is ready for action, Appian prevents unnecessary interruptions and guarantees that your automations execute under optimal conditions.

Quickly resume robotic tasks after closing popups

We've improved the reliability of robotic tasks when working with multiple browser windows. Robotic tasks now smoothly transition back to the primary browser window after closing secondary popups. This update ensures your workflows maintain momentum, providing a more robust and dependable execution for your complex processes.

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