An AI digital worker is software that performs end-to-end work like a human employee — reading email, updating systems, making decisions within rules, and reporting outcomes — without supervision. Unlike chatbots (talk only) or RPA (rigid scripts), digital workers reason about messy, real-world inputs.
Works
End-to-end
vs Chatbot
Acts not talks
vs RPA
Reasons
Cost
£8k–£15k/yr
A chatbot answers questions. RPA runs rigid scripts that break when forms change. A digital worker reads email, decides what action is needed, takes the action across multiple systems, handles exceptions, and reports back — all without supervision.
It replaces 60–80% of a person's repetitive work. The other 20–40% (judgement, edge cases) still needs a human.