What is automation and how could it benefit you?

19th June 2025

By letting the simple tasks take care of themselves, you’ll have more time, less stress and might even save on costs!

In general, automation refers to the use of technology to perform tasks with minimal human intervention. To give an example, take a factory that makes cars: most of the process is done by machines automatically, only needing people to set them up and turn them on, or to complete more complex tasks.

In IT, it means the same thing. For example, you could set up an automation for an email to be sent you’d still need to establish what the email was and when to send it, but then you could automate when it goes out (say once a week) and you no longer need to think about it.

How does it work? Sensors or input systems collect data from the user or environment. Based on this data, processing logic or algorithms make rules or AI models decide what action to take. This could be “if email opened send follow up/if not, don’t send follow up”.

Then an actuator or output system carries out the action – in the case of our example, it sends the email. There are also feedback loops to consider, used in AI and robotics, which monitor automations and can adjust accordingly.

So, why is automation useful? Cost savings is probably the first to consider: there is far less time spent on repetitive and remedial tasks, so staff can be paid to do the truly important jobs only they can do. Additionally, automations make these tasks more efficient, as an algorithm can’t forget to send an email!

Furthermore, you can easily adjust business scalability with automations, with it being easier to add or remove chatbots than hire or fire staff. It also reduces risk as there is less room for human error and they automations can run whenever you want, at night or on holidays if needed.

If automations sound like a promising idea to you, why don’t you consider implementing them into your business? If you’d like any advice, please contact Interfuture Systems.