The guest post was written by the global chief technology officer at Syntax.

Increasingly sophisticated processes and tasks have led to the evolution of automation tools.

There is a new era of enterprise automation. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are driving more efficient capabilities that used to be limited to simple tasks.

Business leaders can enhance an array of hyper-complex processes, such as resource efficiency, IT reliance and performance, and even decision-making by incorporating next- generation automation and following a few best practices.

Most organizations are embracing automation to maximize business processes, drive efficiency and realize ROI. 91% of enterprise leaders say automation technology has changed their business positively.

Automation’s capabilities and use cases have vastly expanded thanks to the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Many of the new capabilities are built off of the existing applications. Organizations are using automation to keep their cloud infrastructure costs under control, such as software that analyzes computing usage and scales throughput up and down to match demand.

Only in a more complex form is process efficiency still efficient.

It is possible to improve decision-making around traditional IT processes with the use of next-generation autonomous solutions.

In the past, automation was used to collect, organize, and initiate alerts that helped security engineers understand the threat and determine a course of action.

Machine learning has improved this process by automatically blocking traffic or processes, reducing the work of security engineering teams and increasing reaction and resolution time.

Machine learning-powered capabilities improve efficiency and drive innovation. Employees can focus on strategic efforts and creative projects if they are freed from dull, repetitive work.

As organizations face an ongoing talent shortage, automation has become a necessity in the remote environment.

Employees can access and use data without having to go through the IT team, freeing up power on both ends. IT employees can focus on the day-to-day needs of the enterprise if they automate certain aspects of the data security process.

As enterprises look to adopt and scale autonomously solutions, here are some critical considerations they should keep top of mind.

Democratize automation to drive innovation

Employees outside of the IT department can develop and personalize their own technology solutions.

Investing in more low-code/no-code solutions can help democratize automation and empower citizen developers.

Create opportunities for cross-department collaboration

It is possible for organizations to reduce costs and add value through technology access.

Executives can encourage collaboration between the IT department and other teams in order to encourage creativity.

Build employee knowledge and capacity

There is still a human element required to implement and manage solutions even though automation makes work easier.

There is a talent shortage that stifles innovation in many organizations. Investing in ongoing training for employees can help teams adopt new automation solutions.

Keep business value front and center

IT leaders can get distracted by shiny technology rather than practical solutions.

Don’t innovate for the sake of innovation alone, that’s a sure recipe for pushback from line-of-business teams, lack of buy-in from senior leaders and, ultimately, digital transformation efforts that fall flat

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Work with business leaders and managers to provide automation solutions that add business value. When the desired outcome and success criteria of the project are fully defined, it is sensible to only start an automation project.