Know when NOT to automate

I sell automation for a living, so take it seriously when I say this: some of the best money I make clients comes from telling them what NOT to automate.

Here's the example I use in every class.

Two reminder messages

Imagine you've got a demo scheduled with a prospect tomorrow. Two ways to remind them:

The automated one: "Reminder: You have a demo scheduled for tomorrow at 2pm. Click here to confirm." Green bubble, obviously a robot, instantly ignored the way you ignore every appointment bot in your life.

The human one: "Hey! I'm excited to meet with you tomorrow. Are you still good for 2pm?" Blue bubble. A person. Someone who is looking forward to meeting you.

In the story I tell in class, switching from the robot version to the human version raised show rates by about 50%. Same information, radically different result, because the second message isn't really information at all. It's a relationship.

The line that decides it

Go back to the first post in this series: AI is for repetitive work, patterns, and volume. Humans are for judgment, relationships, creativity, and accountability.

That reminder text looks repetitive, which is why people automate it. But its actual job is relational: it says "a human is expecting you and cares whether you show." Automating it doesn't make the task cheaper. It deletes the thing the task was for.

That's the test I use on every workflow: what is this task actually doing? Not what does it look like. What does it do.

• Data moving between systems? Automate it. Nobody feels loved by an invoice getting retyped.
• Inventory counts, report generation, document lookups? Automate them yesterday.
• A thank-you to a longtime customer? A check-in on an unhappy one? A reminder to someone deciding whether to trust you? Human. Every time. And your competitors' bots make your human touch stand out more, not less.

Why I'll tell you no

When a client asks me to automate something and my honest answer is "that task is doing relationship work, leave it alone," I say so, even though it's me talking myself out of a paycheck. Partly because it's right, and partly because it's self-interest with a longer time horizon: an automation that quietly costs you customers is the last automation you'll ever buy from me.

Automate the paperwork. Keep the handshake.

-Thayne