Sola —AI-native, agentic process automation

We've been tracking automation platforms for years, and Sola caught our attention for one simple reason: their bots actually work in the real world. While most RPA solutions promise the moon and deliver brittle scripts that break every time someone updates a website, Sola's AI-native approach feels like a genuine leap forward.

The company's founded by Jessica and Neil, both MIT grads who clearly got fed up with existing automation tools while working in finance and AI research. That frustration shows in the best possible way—they've built something that addresses the core problems that make traditional RPA such a headache for enterprises.

What Makes This Different

Here's where Sola gets interesting: you literally just record yourself doing a task once, and their platform turns that into a living, breathing bot. No coding required. The AI watches what you do and creates an agent that can handle the same process, even when interfaces change or unexpected variations pop up.

We're talking about computer vision and large language models working together to actually understand what's happening on screen, not just clicking predetermined pixels like old-school RPA. When something goes wrong, the bot learns from human corrections and gets better over time.

The Enterprise Reality Check

What impressed us most? Sola's bots are already running production workflows at Fortune 100 companies—not pilots, not demos, but actual critical business processes. They're handling everything from insurance claims processing to healthcare billing reconciliation, areas where automation has traditionally been too risky or complex to attempt.

The $17 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz tells us the VCs see something substantial here too. When a16z backs an automation play in 2024, they're betting on technology that can scale across entire enterprise ecosystems.

Who Should Pay Attention

If you're in healthcare, finance, insurance, or logistics—basically any industry drowning in manual data entry and repetitive processes—Sola deserves a serious look. They've designed this specifically for regulated industries where reliability isn't optional.

The "citizen developer" angle is particularly smart. Instead of requiring IT teams to build and maintain every automation, Sola lets business users create their own bots. That's a game-changer for organizations tired of waiting months for simple workflow improvements.