TAME YOUR ASSETS

In the aftermath of the pandemic, as companies pivot towards more conservative spending habits, the focus has shifted towards maximizing efficiency with the same. Automation is top of mind, valued for its capacity to free up human talent for strategic, creative, and higher-value work. The robots can do the mundane, repetitive tasks we dread. This aligns with a report about 2024 MarTech by Scott Brinker and Frans Riemersma, which highlights a growing trend among firms to be cautious about expanding their technological arsenals, showing a preference for optimizing and automating within their existing systems. This strategy underscores automation’s role in enhancing the utility of current tech investments, echoing the report’s call for a more disciplined and financially responsible MarTech management. In a period marked by a drive to do more with less, automation stands out not only for its ability to streamline operations but also as a versatile, cost-effective solution that supports the current corporate ethos of deriving maximum value from existing technology stacks without the need for new additions.

What is automation?

​​Automation refers to using technology to perform predictable and repetitive processes including tasks, workflows, and business processes.

Why automate?

Automation shines for its ability to save time and money, eliminating repetitive manual tasks and enabling us to focus on more strategic activities that add value to the business. Automation inherently increases quality and accuracy by minimizing human errors that can occur in manual processes, ensuring that outputs meet high standards. Every task is performed in the same way every time, which is crucial for maintaining uniformity in processes and outputs, bolstering reliability and trust in services and products. The ability to update and run processes centrally is another significant advantage; automation systems can be quickly changed to accommodate new regulations or business needs, making organizations more agile and responsive to change. Scaling operations become easier with automation too, as it allows businesses to handle increased workloads without a proportional increase in resources. Lastly, standardization, which is closely linked to consistency, can be more easily achieved through automation, ensuring that operations adhere to predefined standards and regulations, simplifying compliance and improving overall operational efficiency. Together, these advantages make a strong case for adding automation into business strategies to foster growth and efficiency.

What can we automate?

Nowadays, the scope of automation spans across various aspects of business operations, streamlining processes, and enhancing efficiency in remarkable ways. Project applications can be automated to grease the wheels of project management, ensuring tasks are assigned and monitored more easily. Data, the lifeblood of today’s businesses, can be automated in terms of collection, analysis, and distribution, enabling real-time insights and decision-making. Email automation transforms communication, allowing for personalized customer interactions at scale, while automation is enabling creative apps to revolutionize content creation, offering templates and workflows that speed up production. The content ingest process is no exception, facilitating the swift movement of files and data across platforms without manual intervention. Validation processes benefit from automation too by ensuring data integrity and compliance through systematic checks, without the need for exhaustive manual oversight. Reporting is another area fit for automation, with systems capable of generating detailed reports on various metrics, saving countless hours of manual cleaning and compilation. Lastly, testing, particularly in the realm of software development, benefits from being automated (I’m looking at you regression testing!). These automated processes allow businesses to allocate their resources more effectively, focusing on innovation and growth.

What can’t we automate?

While automation offers numerous benefits to companies by optimizing tasks and processes, there are certain areas where the human touch remains irreplaceable. Strategic decision-making, for instance, requires in-depth understanding, intuition, and foresight that current automation and artificial intelligence technologies cannot replicate, relying instead on human judgment to navigate complex, often uncertain business, landscapes. Similarly, user and client support benefits greatly from personal interaction, where understanding and nuanced communication play key roles in resolving issues and enhancing customer satisfaction. The realm of creativity also eludes full automation; while certain aspects can be supported by tech, the genesis of innovative ideas and creative solutions necessitates human imagination and insight. In the context of teamwork and client relationships, the ability to partner effectively with team members and clients, lead projects, and build meaningful relationships depends on interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and a personalized approach that automation has yet to achieve. Further, the capacity to prioritize tasks and multitask efficiently in a rapidly changing environment involves judgment calls and adaptability that are distinctly human traits. Humans need to be involved in areas that demand strategic thinking, personal interaction, and creative ingenuity.

When should we automate?

A prime candidate for automation is a process that is well-defined, repeatable, and operates according to a set of predetermined rules and steps, ensuring predictability and consistency. All necessary data/content must be readily available in a digital format and structured for easy processing. Tasks that are repetitive and occur frequently are strong contenders for automation. Time-consuming processes that require substantial manual effort also stand to benefit greatly from automation, as do tasks that are low value and high volume, such as those involving basic data entry or routine maintenance tasks. When a task or process aligns with these criteria, it is a a good time to consider automating them.

Final Thoughts

Combining automation and artificial intelligence (AI) is a natural evolution for advancing efficiency and innovation. AI’s ability to process and analyze vast data sets promises to elevate automation, enabling not just routine task execution but broaden it to include decision-making. That being said, the transparency in the use of AI is critical; it builds trust and ensures ethical practices and human oversight remain integral. Emphasizing transparency while leveraging AI’s potential in automation can help foster a climate of innovation where technology not only optimizes processes but also aligns with ethical standards and fosters trust. This balanced approach places AI-enhanced automation, or Intelligent Automation, as a cornerstone of a new era of creativity and efficiency.

Please join me for “Automation Unleashed” on Thursday, March 28, 2024 @ 9 AM PT/12 PM ET/4 PM GMT/5 PM CET! Explore key topics like migrating legacy data content seamlessly, using automation for content enrichment, and the future of automation in DAM. Don’t miss out on actionable insights & practical tips! Register here.

References

Brinker, S., & Riemersma, F. (2023). Martech for 2024. https://chiefmartec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/martech-for-2024-report.pdf

Strong, J. (2024, March). Our Declining Trust in AI (31). Retrieved March 26, 2024, from https://play.prx.org/listen