Automation that Powers People, Processes, and Progress
From Fortune 500 companies to emerging startups, organizations worldwide are embracing intelligent hyper automation. For many, it’s more than just a set of efficiency tools—it’s a strategic imperative to remain competitive in today’s fast-changing business landscape.
As automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption grows, debates about the future of work intensify. One common fear among employees is that Intelligent Automation (IA) will replace jobs, replacing humans with digital bots. However, the reality is often far more nuanced—IA isn’t about replacing jobs, but transforming them.
To adapt to these evolving demands, governments and enterprises across the globe are investing heavily in upskilling and reskilling initiatives. The goal is not just to stay relevant but to ensure that workforces are future-ready—not left behind.
Tayyabali S. Sayed, Partner at CLA Global Indus Value Consulting, India, explores how IA routines are reshaping business operations and altering the automation narrative.
Changing perceptions
Across industries—from finance and healthcare to retail and logistics—millions of employees spend countless hours each week on repetitive, manual tasks.
Finance teams process invoices, reconcile data, and generate reports. Customer service representatives answer the same queries repeatedly—many of which, like password resets, could easily be automated. HR professionals spend significant time on data entry, payroll processing, and compliance tracking. The list continues.
These tasks, while essential to business continuity, are time-consuming, error-prone, and mentally exhausting. Many employees find themselves buried in routine work, with limited time left for innovation, strategic initiatives, or even their own professional development.
From fear to fulfillment
According to a 2025 report by the World Economic Forum, 86% of employers expect AI and information-processing technologies to transform their business by 2030. This shift could result in the creation of 170 million new jobs globally, even as 39% of current skill sets are expected to become outdated.
McKinsey further reports that while 50% of today’s work activities could technically be automated, only about 5% of jobs can be fully automated. This means that although automation will change how people work, it won’t replace the need for human judgment and oversight.
Despite widespread fears, these statistics tell a different story—particularly when it comes to IA. A global survey by Forbes Insights found that 92% of organizations saw improved employee satisfaction after IA implementation. In fact, 52% of respondents reported a satisfaction increase of 15% or more.
This shift in sentiment often hinges on a single factor: understanding what’s in it for the employee. When organizations adopt a people-first approach to automation, rather than a purely top-down or cost-cutting agenda, the narrative changes. It becomes less about job loss and more about job evolution.
Pilot programs repeatedly show that when employees see companies investing in their future—through training, transparency, and support—they are more open to automation efforts. Conversely, when workers feel excluded or threatened, they may resist automation by withholding knowledge or even complicating workflows to appear indispensable.
But once employees experience how IA frees them to focus on strategic, value-added work, the fear typically gives way to greater job satisfaction. This makes bridging the skills gap not only a strategic need—but a moral imperative.
IA beyond the routine
According to Precedence Research, the global IA market is expected to reach $54.57 billion by 2032, growing at a staggering annual rate of 28.7%.
By automating rule-based, repetitive tasks, companies are empowering their workforce to focus on problem-solving, creativity, and decision-making. Far from eliminating jobs, IA is redefining them.
Data entry clerks become data analysts. Employees move from executing tasks to managing automated systems. They stop simply reacting—and start leading. The result? A more engaged, productive, and innovative workforce.
Originally designed to handle back-office operations, IA today spans a much broader spectrum—from reconciliations and validations to audits, document reviews, and compliance management. For many, it’s been a gamechanger—reducing manual errors, standardizing processes, and supporting regulatory alignment.
By removing human intervention from low-value tasks, IA enhances both efficiency and work quality, helping businesses mitigate risks and improve accuracy across critical functions.
The emergence of agentic automation
As we move beyond traditional automation paradigms, Agentic Automation is emerging as a transformative force in the digital workforce. While Intelligent Automation executes defined tasks within predetermined rules, Agentic Automation introduces autonomous software agents—systems that not only act but reason, plan, and self-direct based on business goals.
These agents, powered by advanced AI models, can dynamically navigate workflows, make real-time decisions, adapt to changes, and even proactively suggest optimizations. Unlike conventional bots, which require clearly defined scripts, agentic systems learn and evolve, often working collaboratively with human teams.
The potential here is enormous. Imagine an autonomous agent that monitors your financial systems, identifies anomalies, and drafts reports without prompts, prioritizes customer tickets based on urgency and past interaction quality and orchestrates end-to-end supply chain processes while adapting to weather delays or geopolitical disruptions.
Agentic Automation moves organizations from reactive automation to proactive intelligence—enabling greater adaptability, resilience, and strategic foresight.
Why agentic systems are the next frontier
The integration of Agentic Automation with IA platforms marks a major step toward fully autonomous business operations. By embedding goal-seeking logic and natural language understanding into digital workers, businesses can reduce human intervention in complex processes—without compromising control or compliance.
What makes agentic systems particularly powerful is their ability to operate in unstructured, unpredictable environments. This opens up use cases in strategic planning, contract analysis, IT security incident response, market monitoring, and trend forecasting.
As organizations strive to become more agile and intelligent, Agentic Automation offers a bridge between automation and autonomy, between human intention and machine execution.
But this doesn’t render the human workforce obsolete—it makes human roles more strategic. Professionals will shift from executing tasks to supervising agents, guiding objectives, and interpreting nuanced outputs that require context and creativity.
A new automation road ahead
The future of IA and Agentic Automation lies in convergence—with AI, machine learning, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) all contributing to richer, smarter automation ecosystems.
As a result, the demand for automation architects, AI ethicists, agent trainers, and process designers is growing rapidly. These hybrid roles blend human judgment with machine capability, opening the door to more meaningful careers that evolve alongside technology.
Unlocking Human Potential in the Age of Automation
What this all means is that jobs won’t disappear—they’ll evolve. When thoughtfully embraced, automation in all its forms can uplift the workforce—shifting people from mundane to meaningful, routine to strategic, reactive to creative.
Those who lead automation initiatives, adapt quickly to technological changes, and commit to continuous learning will be the architects of tomorrow’s intelligent enterprises. And those enterprises won’t just be faster or leaner—they’ll be more human, more responsive, and more resilient.
To explore more about the transformative power of IA, read CLA Global’s 2024 article: Tracking the Rise of the RPA ‘Bots’. https://www.claglobal.com/insights/tracking-the-rise-of-the-rpa-bots/
For further information
Tayyabali Sayed
Partner
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tayyabali-sayed-836b19a8/
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