3 Human Roadblocks That Keep 80% of RPA Projects From Scaling (And How to Overcome Them)

Posted on on July 4, 2025 | by XLNC Team

Introduction: It’s Not the Bots, It’s the People

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has promised to liberate teams from repetitive tasks, reduce costs, and drive digital transformation. Yet, while 92% of enterprises initiate RPA pilots, only 13% manage to scale them across business units, according to Deloitte’s Global RPA Survey.

The reason? The biggest RPA blockers aren’t technical they’re human. This article explores the three most common people-related roadblocks that hinder enterprise RPA scalability and how to proactively address them for sustainable automation success.

1. Change Resistance and Fear of Replacement

What’s Happening:
Employees often view automation as a threat to job security. This creates silent resistance, delayed cooperation, low adoption, and disengagement from process owners who fear they’re automating themselves out of a role.

Why It Matters:
Without deep business user involvement, automation designs lack accuracy and contex,t leading to brittle bots that break in real-world usage.

How to Fix It:

• Reframe RPA as an augmentation, not a replacement.
  
  

• Communicate success stories that highlight freed-up capacity for high-value work.
  
  

• Involve end-users in bot design and UAT to build ownership and trust.
  

2. Lack of Cross-Functional Ownership

What’s Happening:
RPA often begins in a single department usually finance or operations with no formal handoff process or governance for scaling. As interest grows, so do inconsistencies, duplicated efforts, and unsupported bots.

Why It Matters:
Without a scalable governance model, RPA can devolve into chaos "bot sprawl" with no visibility across business units.

How to Fix It:

• Establish a Center of Excellence (CoE) early, with clear roles across IT, operations, and compliance.
  
  

• Define standards for bot lifecycle management, security reviews, and change control.
  
  

• Implement a centralized bot registry to track deployment, ROI, and maintenance needs.
  
  

3. Skills Gap and Over-Reliance on External Vendors

What’s Happening:
Many companies start with consultants or system integrators, but never build in-house capabilities. Once vendors exit, internal teams struggle to maintain, troubleshoot, or evolve the bots.

Why It Matters:
RPA without internal enablement leads to dependency, high costs, and stalled innovation.

How to Fix It:

• Train internal business analysts and developers on low-code tools.
  
  

• Encourage “citizen development” with appropriate guardrails.
  
  

• Develop career pathways for internal RPA leads to foster ownership and sustainability.
  

Conclusion: To Scale RPA, Solve the Human Problem First

Scaling RPA isn’t just about choosing the right platform it’s about aligning people, culture, and process. By tackling human-centered roadblocks head-on, companies can transform RPA from isolated wins into enterprise-wide momentum.

The real challenge isn’t building bots it’s building belief.
Focus on change enablement, shared ownership, and internal capacity and watch your automation strategy thrive.