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reviewer997830 - PeerSpot reviewer
GIS Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Easy to set up, reduces time spent on tasks, and provides ROI quickly
Pros and Cons
  • "The Control Room is the most important feature, where we can manage the bots and publish to various bot runners in the environment."
  • "If we are getting input from a CSV file, we have to add one more layer of automation that first saves the data to an Excel file."

What is our primary use case?

The main and primary use case using Automation Anywhere is "Invoice generation", which has repetitive steps and a huge amount of data. For this automation, we worked on a database, Excel, and mail activities.

In order to connect Automation Anywhere with our database, which is in a remote location, we had to install related drivers in the working machine. After that, we apply some business logic to the data and insert it into an invoice template that is in XLSX format.

Ultimately, we save the file as a PDF and send the output file to the user through email.

How has it helped my organization?

Automation Anywhere helped us to reduce the work time on data operations. It helps us to work fast and deliver fast. Without it, our work takes too much time using manual effort.

Along with reducing the time, we get the return on investment fast. Now, we are identifying many use cases that are fittable with RPA and Automation Anywhere. The organization has set up a separate RPA CoE and various teams working in this center of excellence. From this, we are working on various problems and providing solutions to clients.

What is most valuable?

Automation Anywhere has many features that are not supported by other RPA vendors. One of these features is Metabots, and I find it to be the most valuable part of Automation Anywhere.

Metabots are reusable and can be developed easily.

The Control Room is the most important feature, where we can manage the bots and publish to various bot runners in the environment. Here we can add users, edit them, and we are able to assign various roles to the users.

Task Bot can be used to implement the business logic, step by step. 

What needs improvement?

I think automation anywhere is a complete system if we have to work on structured data that doesn't require human decisions. However, it does not work as well with retrieving data from images. Image automation is something that needs to be improved.

One more thing is that Automation Anywhere does not support reading and writing to CSV files. If we are getting input from a CSV file, we have to add one more layer of automation that first saves the data to an Excel file. This is important to us because most of the data we get from the database is saved to a CSV file.

Buyer's Guide
Automation Anywhere
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Automation Anywhere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

For the last three years, we have been partnered with Automation Anywhere.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate stability at 90%.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise, I would rate AA a nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I haven't used any other RPA solution. We tried with Automation Anywhere and the solution works.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was quite easy, and they will provide setup documents.

What about the implementation team?

I have worked both in-house and with the vendor team.

What was our ROI?

I would rate the ROI a ten out of ten. I can say it is profitable to use Automation Anywhere as your RPA solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Overall, the pricing of Automation Anywhere is good.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have compared it to other RPA vendors like UiPath and Blue Prism.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1390509 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Manager at Accenture
Real User
Provides users the ability to create bots directly in the control room
Pros and Cons
  • "The universal recorder is a kind of hybrid recorder that enables the user to record the data across devices."
  • "SMTP mail features should come with migration options. All kind of VB scripts and Java scripts which we built using exiting version should support in this version."

What is our primary use case?

  • We have validated all the primary features of A2019. New features can be added just by updating the new Package (a group of commands).
  • Pass Credentials in CR Directly to run a bot on any device.
  • Instead of installing AA Client, we will just install Bot agent on the runner machine. 
  • Excel commands are classified into two types Excel Basic, Excel Advanced By giving a lot of scope to use a wide range of Excel operations.
  • Instead of using AA Client, A2019 provides users the ability to create bots directly in the control room.
  • Flow, List, Dual Views enable the user-friendly environment.

How has it helped my organization?

We have done lot of implementation with Automation Anywhere. Recently, we have used IQ Bot's latest version and delivered a few projects. It is saving most FTE benefits using Automation Anywhere automation. One good thing in A2019 is that all products of Automation Anywhere, like IQBOT services, Meta Bot Designer, Discovery Bot, and Control room are all together in one product which is very effective for any business team. Package options and workload management with queues are the most efficient features.

What is most valuable?

  • The universal recorder is a kind of hybrid recorder that enables the user to record the data across devices.
  • Option to send email from Outlook or SMTP.
  • A2019 also supports Python script(2.0/3.0) along with Javascript and VBScript. Also it as inline scripting and importing script file feature. 
  • A2019 contains almost 11 diffs. datatypes. Ex: window,number,table.
  • Browser support is Improved with Different Browsers support: IE, Mozilla, Chrome.
  • A2019 is not dependent on single os. It supports Linux, Windows, etc.
  • Running bot through Excel, Waiting for release from the vendor
  • Instead of meta bots we can use run DLL commands

What needs improvement?

  • Cloud API vision and OCR engine integration should be more effective. 
  • Auto-update of the Bot agent in runtime machines from Automation Anywhere control room server. 
  • The import and export of the previous version bots to the latest version of A2019 should be more flexible and friendly for the end business users. 
  • AI Sense recorder should be upgraded with additional features for better results. 
  • SMTP mail features should come with migration options. All kind of VB scripts and Java scripts which we built using exiting version should support in this version.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Automation Anywhere for three months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution is good with the latest version with final patches. Automation Anywhere team release patches in every release to enhance the features and performance of the added features

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is good for scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have migrated few projects from other RPA tools to Automation Anywhere RPA automation.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is easy but it is better to have AA support person during that activity.

What about the implementation team?

AA Support team is good in the environment setup.

What was our ROI?

ROI is as expected.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I am managing the entire cost, price, and licensing model for our project.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have entirely validated the products before using in our projects.

What other advice do I have?

Initial version of products bugs should be reduced.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Automation Anywhere
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Automation Anywhere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1390506 - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Manager (RPA : Robotics Process Automation) & Automation Architect at Accenture
Real User
Integrated machine learning streamlines document-centric processes with drag-and-drop IQ Bot integration
Pros and Cons
  • "Movement on cloud architecture according to me provided by AA2019, will be most beneficial as it will be easy to use and will provide flexibility."
  • "[They] should add more Analytics and Intelligence related capabilities."

What is our primary use case?

We have multiple use cases, we build & supported 200+ automations and one of the main businesses was related to the contract processing and due to high volume and complexity, it was very crucial. Also, we built and supported multiple operations related use cases.

We have built and implemented multiple SharePoint, OutLook, web-based, and automation related to ticketing tools.

Automations were from simple to medium and high complexity related however with the help of many easy to use and user-friendly features, we have implemented them with high accuracy.

How has it helped my organization?

Using Automation Anywhere we have built/supported 200+ automation around operations and automated different Sharepoint, Outlook, ServiceNow, and contract processing related use cases. It offers a lot of features, flexibility whether it is through Meta bot, IQBot, etc. 

It offers :

a. Zero-install, Web-ready platform: Deploy RPA across the entire organization and scale bots on-demand in a few clicks.                                                                                                  b. Use the pluggable API architecture to maximize extensibility and customize RPA to meet unique business automation requirements.
c. Integrated machine learning: Streamline your document-centric processes with drag-and-drop IQ Bot integration.
d. Self-learning automation engine: Create a smarter automation engine by infusing third-party AI technology.

What is most valuable?

Movement on cloud architecture according to me provided by AA2019, will be most beneficial as it will be easy to use and will provide flexibility.

However, we have almost sued all the features extensively and few of them are as below :

  • Intelligent automation for business and IT tasks
  • Uses SMART Automation Technology
  • Rapidly Automates complex and complicated tasks
  • Create automation tasks like recording keyboard strokes and mouse clicks
  • Distribute tasks to multiple computers
  • Automation Anywhere offers scriptless automation
  • Auto-login runs scheduled tasks at any time, even when the computer is locked.

What needs improvement?

1. Accuracy to process handwritten documents.

2. Should add more Analytics and Intelligence related capabilities.

3. Scalability along with the volume and business should be more flexible.

4. Cognitive capabilities should be improved more.

5. Large scale robot deployment is limited.

6. Licensing costs should be reduced.

7. Error handling should be improved more.

As AA has recently moved to Cloud architecture, there will still be a lot of additions and improvements in terms of the features and offering and this will be evolved over the period of time only. About the exact performance on the cloud maybe we have to wait a bit more time and should evaluate once it will get settle down more.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Automation Anywhere for more than 3 yrs and implemented 200+ uses cases. Also, we have started using the new version AA2019 for a few months (4) and did a few POCs.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is good, however, it can be improved.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have evaluated other RPA tools as well however, looking at overall feasibility from features to costing perspective we have taken a call to go along with AA and we are happy that we have made a right call and it has benefited us to a great extent.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We have our in-house development and support team.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Looking at overall feasibility from features to costing perspective we have taken a call to go along with AA. Installation is easy however pricing etc. can be reduced a bit as it is still more for small business/automation.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, we have evaluated other RPA tools like UiPath and BP as well.

What other advice do I have?

Looking at overall feasibility from features to costing perspective, I strongly feel Automation Anywhere offers a lot of features and scalability and is a very good tool overall and people who have not tried should give a try and put some hands-on. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior RPA Analyst at TATA consultancy
Real User
Reduced the number of full-time employees needed
Pros and Cons
  • "It has reduced the number of full-time employees."
  • "There is an issue with the object cloning in Excel. OCR is also not that stable. Image recognition works fine, but not all the time."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case would be to do automated processing using Excel with an application, even SAP. We use it for extracting data tables, clicking on data, recording records, and extracting the records table. We use it for all the Excel operations. 

We updated Automation Anywhere already to version A2019 with all the Excel operations.

How has it helped my organization?

It has reduced the number of full-time employees. 

What is most valuable?

The Excel operations are very good. Even in the MetaBot, they have included all the commands. Because of security, we automate our processes in MetaBot. 

IQ Bot is good compared to the other tools available in the market.

The dashboard and Control Room are very good compared to the market.

What needs improvement?

They are launching cloud into the market, which is very good.

They need to improve the OCR engine which is not up to the market.

We still cannot use IQ Bot with our documents.  

They have to work on the OCR and object cloning features.

However, I have not used version A2019 and cannot comment on the latest Automation Anywhere updates.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability as an eight out of 10.  There is an issue with the object cloning in Excel. OCR is also not that stable. Image recognition works fine, but not all the time.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is very good.

How was the initial setup?

It is easy to set up.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing costs are a bit high, but the profits are very good. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have worked on Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, and UiPath. The user interface of Automation is good and helpful. 

What other advice do I have?

I have gone through the online training.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
RpaDevel9e0e - PeerSpot reviewer
RPA Developer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
Control Room lets us schedule bots to perform tasks while we are out of the office
Pros and Cons
  • "The Control Room is the most valuable feature. This is where I can schedule a task. It runs 24/7, so it's a great feature that I love. If we are not in office, we can schedule something and leave, then the bot will run at the scheduled time."
  • "We have hundreds of cases a day. There were around two to three employees who were just moving a case from one state to another. This was a repetitive, tedious job, which was frustrating for the employees. It helps to have the bot doing this work now. We have immediately seen effects, so this is a good use for it."
  • "We have used the technical support. I am quite unhappy with the support part. The higher priority tickets are not getting resolved within the SLA. Higher priority tickets for production issues should be looked into immediately. However, until they get escalated, tickets are not receiving higher priority. I would like to see this improve."
  • "Triggers work in the attended mode on Automation Anywhere. I would love it if we could use triggers in the unattended mode too. This way we can use the feature more in our IT sector. E.g., when any service or folder is accessed by unauthorized person, we want to be able to get an immediate trigger, even on "out of office", this would be helpful for my organization."

What is our primary use case?

We are in the banking domain. We use Automation Anywhere for loan processing to support its journey from each state until the loan is approved. We focus on title commission. We are trying to remove the human repetitive component, bring in automation, and help humans do value-added jobs.

Up until August, we were using version 10.5. Recently, we migrated to the new version 11.3.2.

How has it helped my organization?

We have hundreds of cases a day. There were around two to three employees who were just moving a case from one state to another. This was a repetitive, tedious job, which was frustrating for the employees. It helps to have the bot doing this work now. We have immediately seen effects, so this is a good use for it. 

What is most valuable?

The Control Room is the most valuable feature. This is where I can schedule a task. It runs 24/7, so it's a great feature that I love. If we are not in office, we can schedule something and leave, then the bot will run at the scheduled time.

What needs improvement?

In the previous version, we were facing auto login failure issues. The production machine would go down on a daily basis. Later, once we had stability, the tasks don't fail because of the object cloning issue. Therefore, all issues have been resolved in the new version. I'm happy with that. 

In the new version, we got options for running the bot in attended mode as well as unattended mode.

Triggers work in the attended mode on Automation Anywhere. I would love it if we could use triggers in the unattended mode too. This way we can use the feature more in our IT sector. E.g., when any service or folder is accessed by unauthorized person, we want to be able to get an immediate trigger, even on "out of office", this would be helpful for my organization.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability issue in the previous version has been resolved. So, we are happy and this have improved our trust. We will be happy to build more processes.

We are still near the end of migration. Two of our processes are still running on the older version.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our scalability has been increased with our new version. We do not see any issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have used the technical support. I am quite unhappy with the support part. The higher priority tickets are not getting resolved within the SLA. Higher priority tickets for production issues should be looked into immediately. However, until they get escalated, tickets are not receiving higher priority. I would like to see this improve.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. I updated the license files after we got them. I needed to update them in the Control Room. I think a non-technical person would be able to do this.

What was our ROI?

We are focused on reducing repetitive jobs.

What other advice do I have?

Know your process, design, and how you want to re-engineer everything.

A lot of issues that we were facing in the previous version have been solved in the latest version. We are happy with the scalability and reliability now. We have more trust in the tool and are happy to grow and build more tasks going forward.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Manager at Eli Lilly and Company
Real User
Saves us significant time in data entry, but needs to support macOS
Pros and Cons
  • "With Automation Anywhere, what used to take us two days now takes us twenty minutes."
  • "If you want to use Chrome then there are three or four additional steps that need to be completed."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to assist us in the collection of data. We have patients who fill out an application that contains information based on the affliction that they have. For example, a migraine patient or a diabetic patient will have different sorts of information contained in the application.

It starts with them giving us information. There are no regulations that govern the format of what they give us. Based on what they give us, we provide them with our application. Our overall goal is to give them a better quality of life.

We use MetaBots to ensure that the data goes into the proper channel and in the proper pattern.

How has it helped my organization?

Before we implemented this solution, we had to manually deal with a lot of emails. People would send us unstructured data in the form of Notepad or Wordpad. We spent a lot of time manually entering the information.

With Automation Anywhere, what used to take us two days now takes us twenty minutes.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of this solution is automation using MetaBots.

What needs improvement?

We would like to see support for macOS, rather than just Windows machines.

Whenever you start Automation Anywhere it opens the IE browser to notify you. It would be really great if you had the option to not open IE when it starts.

If you want to use Chrome then there are three or four additional steps that need to be completed.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is good, although it would be better if they supported more than just Windows machines.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support for this solution is pretty good. The turnaround time is good, as well as the response. The technical support people are well trained and we appreciate it.

What about the implementation team?

We have in-house people who have been trained and handle this for us.

What was our ROI?

We have certainly seen ROI when it now only takes twenty minutes to perform a job that use to take us two days.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I am involved in making the decision as to whether we use Automation Anywhere or Blue Prism in our upcoming projects.

For each of our projects, we do a POC that lasts three months for each of the tools. Out of that, we come up with the best solution that we can offer for a particular project.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody researching this solution is to first identify all of the use cases around your project. If you don't do your due diligence then I don't recommend this solution. You need to have the use cases identified.

We wanted to use IQ Bot to assist with unstructured data, but we were not able to do it. Our next step is to create a workload to handle our information processing.

This solution saves us time but there are some things that make it clumsy for the end-users. When we have to tell them that there is no macOS version then we put our heads down and tell them that we have to wait for that. Also, if you want to use Chrome then there are three or four additional steps that need to be done.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Founder at Predikly
Video Review
Real User
Good for object cloning and screen scraping, among many other features
Pros and Cons
  • "We've been using a lot of object cloning and screen scraping, but we've also had success with: inbuilt email functionality, some integrations to incorporate heterogeneous systems like Python scripting, etc."
  • "Cloud was one of the features we wanted to see, because it makes it much easier. The second feature is ease of use in terms of agnostic operating system."

What is our primary use case?

People are now trying to automate many different kinds of technology. They have use cases related to ARP, invoicing, and three-way matching, for example.

We are seeing an incremental need for legacy systems which do not have an architecture in place or API integrations. Our customers are doing things like simple website scraping, bringing the data into Excel, taking that data and then putting it into their legacy systems. We are seeing customers that read a lot of invoices.

Our customers have been using Automation Anywhere for a lot of integration purposes. They've been using it not only for process integration but for application integration as well.

How has it helped my organization?

Using Automation Anywhere, we are able to reduce human functions. We aren't exactly replacing the human, but efficiently increasing the productivity of that particular human by collecting and entering the data into a CCD system like contract systems.

What is most valuable?

I think there are quite a few new features which have been introduced, but right now we've been using a lot of object cloning and screen scraping. Those are some of the primary features, but we've been able to use other features very wisely as well. These include inbuilt email functionality, some integrations to incorporate heterogeneous systems like Python scripting, and also other things.

Compared to the rest of the industry, this product is easy to use, not only from the technology perspective but from the business user side as well. We have been very successful, in that we haven't seen a situation where we trained a particular set of users or customers, and they complained that they are not able to use it.

Some of the other products in this industry have not been able to succeed because of this issue. Although they are really great, they are too focused on technology and IT, rather than business focused.

What needs improvement?

Cloud was one of the features we wanted to see because it makes it much easier. The second feature is ease of use in terms of agnostic, which was released in the next few quarters. A lot of customers had been asking about the operating system agnostic, so today it runs mostly on Windows and I believe agnostic is also coming.

There are a few features that we would love to have: running on the cloud, running on Linux, out of the box integration availability with larger ecosystems like Salesforce, Workday, or Microsoft. If somebody is using an AWS shop it should be much easier for them to use this. So there's a lot of room for improvement in terms of infrastructure, provisioning, cloud usability, and ease of use.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This product has pretty scalable so far. The number of customers is growing year over year. People are deploying hundreds of thousands of bots. We haven't hit any scalability issue at this point in time.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I come from an investment background, so when we were doing a SWOT analysis of which product to go with we looked at a couple of free products. We looked at UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism. We found that Automation Anywhere was the easiest to use. Their offer was much more appealing compared to the other products, so that's why we ended up choosing them.

What was our ROI?

We analyze ROI with what we call 3D or 3V. We look at the value proposition in three ways. First is, of course, the direct cost savings in terms of how many manual labor hours we are saving. The second thing is indirect, such as productive improvisation of the bot, and the third thing is the overall efficiency of the system. Today, when people do the ROI calculation, they just focus on a particular process. In the case of a supplier, if the requisition creation was taking a week, the rest of the processes were getting delayed.

The ecosystem processes what automatically improvises well even though RP did not even touch it. So those are some of the things what we try to bring into the picture when we do the ROI calculation other than the direct cost.

One way to measure ROI is based on how much customers are spending. Most of the customers start with the smaller licensing pack and they are increasing their investment in terms of the licensing and services every year. Some customers start with about $10,000 and end up spending about $300,000 just on the licensing over a two years period. That speaks for itself.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Automation Anywhere as seven and a half or eight out of ten. It's not because the product doesn't serve the purpose, but every product has a lot of room for improvement. Hopefully, we'll get it to a nine out of ten by next year.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Software66cd - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineering Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Non-developers can use the tool to create bots, but we ran into stability issues when scaling bots
Pros and Cons
  • "Non-developers can use the tool to create bots. Also, it is very easy for developers to use."
  • "The bot scaling process was painful, when you go beyond a few bots, and because we had stability issues. We had to work through the issues, and they took us a long time."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is to automate our current exports and fraudulent transaction processing in the back office.

How has it helped my organization?

Automation Anywhere brings speed with accuracy. We are replacing a lot of manual work that our agents used to do. This has been automated now, and we get things done faster.

What is most valuable?

Non-developers can use the tool to create bots. Also, it is very easy for developers to use.

What needs improvement?

The bot creation process is easy enough with its drag and drop, then add some logic. However, once you're done with it, you can't really work outside the tool that the AI provides. It is drag and drop, then work right there.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It took a couple of months to scale from our pilot to the current number of bots that we are using. The bot scaling process was painful, when you go beyond a few bots, and because we had stability issues. We had to work through the issues, and they took us a long time.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good. They need to improve their response to production issues. They need to have knowledgeable people to fix issues when things are down in production.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward, but the scaling was an issue.

What about the implementation team?

We worked directly with Automation Anywhere. Their help was good, but sometimes it took a couple days for them to get back to us.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Automation Anywhere. Though, it depends on how they plan to build the environment: on-premise or cloud. There are some issues that we're facing in the cloud.

The current features are good, but we are not using all of the product's existing features at the moment.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Automation Anywhere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Automation Anywhere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.