What Not to Automate

A wise person once said “Automate as much as you can”. While this seems like an obvious statement at first blush, on further consideration there are a number of exceptions to this rule. This begs the question: What shouldn’t I automate? When automation seems like the obvious choice, it may be because we’re blind to the consequences or cost of that automation. This talk will give you a framework for deciding if you should automate a task. We’ll discuss:

The return on investment of time to automate
The ethical considerations of automating particular tasks, such as hiring
Tasks that require human consideration
When automation goes wrong (hint: IoT might come up…)

We’ll consider this question through the lens of economics, business, ethics, and of course technology to understand the many reasons why you might not automate a process.