The media frequently conflate AI and automation. While they’re not the same technologies, they’re not completely different either. Many of today’s applications – especially in the business world – have very similar objectives.
Both automation and AI utilize sophisticated systems to improve workflow efficiency, increase workplace productivity and reduce manual intervention and human error.
With that goal in mind and the fact that tools often incorporate both AI and automation, you can see where much of the confusion comes from when talking about AI vs. automation..
One of the main differences is that automated systems focus on repetitive tasks based on predefined rules and required instructions to operate while AI adds a layer of intelligence that – in many cases – can autonomously learn from a defined dataset, recognize patterns, problem solve, and make decisions based on that new information.
AI’s inherent learning capabilities are the reason why artificial intelligence is being hailed as the transformative force in modern technology, capable of revolutionizing various industries through continual adaptation, evolution and improvement. AI is expected to drive significant advancements and efficiencies across numerous fields.
That’s why 84% of executives believe AI is essential for achieving growth objectives, compared to 60% for automation technologies according to Accenture’s AI: BUILT TO SCALE research report.
For the greatest gains in efficiency, cost savings, and business agility, it’s actually best to use AI and automation together as a joint solution. With AI-powered automation tools, your enterprise can realize new use cases to support employees across diverse teams, like HR, engineering, customer service, and more.
What is automation?
Automation is the use of hardware, software, and algorithms to perform tasks with minimal to no human intervention.
Automation can be rule-based or intelligent. Rule-based automation follows predefined rules and steps to accomplish tasks, whereas intelligent automation incorporates machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to independently make decisions, take action, and adapt to variations.
The tasks automation can complete vary in complexity, from automating basic customer service email responses to orchestrating the development and maintenance of customer relationship management (CRM) systems, for example.
Early forms of automation began during the Industrial Revolution and then exploded in the technology boom after World War II.
Although we don’t think of them as “automation” now, in the 18th and 19th centuries, inventions like the steam engine, the power loom, and the telegraph enabled businesses to automate a number of time- and resource-intensive tasks. These early examples of automation paved the way for the transportation, communication, and manufacturing processes we’re familiar with today.
Over time, automation has evolved from rule-based systems to incorporate advancements in ML and AI technologies. Today, we’re seeing the rise of agentic AI, which empowers systems to act autonomously, understand natural language, and perform more complex tasks with no manual intervention.
What is artificial intelligence?
AI involves training computer systems to perform tasks that have previously required human intelligence. Unlike a basic rule-based automation platform, AI can learn from data patterns and experience to perform more complex tasks and self-improve over time. According to Brookings, 30% of all workers could see at least 50% of their occupation’s tasks disrupted by generative AI, proof that AI goes beyond simple automation.
Early AI systems relied heavily on predefined, rule-based systems. But modern AI has evolved to include more capabilities like reasoning and advanced natural language processing (NLP).
- Different approaches to developing AI include:
- Machine learning: Using statistical models and algorithms to self-improve performance over time
- Deep learning: Leveraging big data to train artificial neural networks
- Expert systems: Encoding human domain knowledge as rules and logic
- Robotics: Integrating AI with machinery to perform physical tasks
- NLP and computer vision: Analyzing text, speech, and visual data
AI vs automation: What’s the difference?
AI and automation overlap in many areas, but the two technologies have distinctly different capabilities. Largely, AI and automation differ in their capabilities in decision-making and learning autonomously:
- Decision-making: Remember that automation executes predefined, specific tasks. Automation tools are not capable of autonomous decision-making. AI, on the other hand, can make independent decisions and analyze datasets to handle more complex tasks.
- Learning: AI has the power to self-improve over time with no human intervention required. It can learn from new data and interactions to deliver increasingly faster, better performance, whereas automation relies on manual updates for improvement.
Although AI and automation are different, it’s common to confuse AI and automation since they both reduce human labor and improve efficiency. To add to the confusion, AI and automation are increasingly used together in AI-powered automation tools.
It also doesn’t help that the two words are sometimes even used together - “AI automation.” With AI-powered automation, AI enhances traditional automation, enabling basic automation tools to make independent decisions and learn.
Intelligent automation: The intersection of AI and automation
Independently, AI and automation both have powerful use cases for your enterprise. Once combined, they become even more impactful.
In short, AI brings autonomy to automation tools. This is useful in dynamic environments where user queries sometimes exceed an automation’s tools predefined capabilities. When that happens, AI makes automation more adaptable.
For instance, unlike a basic automation tool, an AI-powered automation tool can make decisions to handle more complex, non-routine activities, like responding to exceptional IT support tickets. It’s the AI part of an AI-powered automation tool that uses reason, learns from data, and adapts to deliver responses to more complex user queries — without having to call in human intervention.
Intelligent automation represents the best of both worlds, which is one reason Gartner says 30% of enterprises will automate more and more of their infrastructure and operations over the next year.
Agentic AI: The latest evolution of automation
In many ways, agentic AI is ushering in a new era of automation to unlock greater productivity for enterprises. These capabilities are one reason, Forrester named agentic AI a top emerging technology in 2024.
Agentic AI uses large language models (LLMs) to perform automations for users. For example, your employee describes a certain task they want to accomplish, like resetting a password, using normal, everyday language. The AI agent can understand your employee’s goal, interpret intent, develop a plan, and make relevant tool calls to accomplish the task.
In this way, agentic AI is capable of understanding natural language, reasoning, planning, and making decisions to take independent action. This is what makes agentic AI different from other types of AI and automation.
AI agents are capable of autonomous decision-making, which means they can manage workflows, make decisions, take action, and adapt to new tasks and data without human oversight or intervention. Unlike basic AI automations, which rely on predefined rules, agentic AI goes beyond just performing tasks to actually interpret instructions, make decisions, and take action based on real-time input.
Agentic AI is also more advanced than generative AI. Generative AI creates content (like text, images, and code) based on learned patterns; it’s incapable of driving decision-making or taking independent action.
Because of its autonomous reasoning, planning, decision-making, and action-taking capabilities, agentic AI can dramatically improve automation tools. In turn, businesses can achieve greater efficiency, stronger adaptability, better employee and customer experiences, and time and cost savings across diverse industries, departments, and projects.
Discover the new era of automation: Agentic AI.
The benefits of AI in automation
There are many ways AI-powered automation tools and AI agents can support your business, from increasing efficiency and agility to saving time and money.
Increased operational efficiency
AI-powered automation tools, particularly those with agentic AI, can significantly improve your business’s operational efficiency. With the ability to autonomously reason, plan, make decisions, and take action based on real-time data, agentic AI can take over mundane, repetitive tasks for your employees, relieving bottlenecks, streamlining workflows, and speeding up operations.
Because agentic AI continuously learns and adapts to new situations to self-improve, you can count on ripple effects of increased efficiency, like more sustainable growth.
By automating and taking over time-consuming tasks, agentic AI enables your team to respond to greater ticket volumes and resolve more user queries—without requiring more resources. This means you can direct more resources towards higher-value, strategic initiatives to drive long-term growth.
Faster, more data-driven decision-making
Unlike basic automation tools, AI-powered automation tools can make decisions and take action without human intervention. This is made possible via predictive analytics capabilities, which analyze vast amounts of data in real time, identifying patterns and trends to intelligently predict how certain actions today will drive future outcomes.
AI-powered automation tools can also leverage ML and deep learning (DL) to improve their abilities over time for faster, more data-driven decision-making.
Beyond boosting productivity and streamlining business processes, optimized decision-making leads to better resource usage, less waste, and lower operational costs.
Cost savings
One of the most powerful advantages of AI in automation is its ability to bring your enterprise substantial cost savings. AI powers up basic automation tools to take over manual, mundane, and routine tasks that would otherwise cost your employees time, energy, and resources.
For example, with a tool like Moveworks Copilot, your business can automate tasks across diverse departments, including:
- IT: Provisioning software, troubleshooting, resetting passwords
- HR: Searching benefits information, sending communications, looking up PTO balances
- Finance: Approving invoices, streamlining payroll, generating financial reports
By taking these tasks off your employees’ plates, AI-powered automation tools empower your teams to get more done in less time with fewer resources. This way, you can accomplish more tasks and even scale as needed without increasing headcount or other operational costs.
Strengthened adaptability
Using AI in automation levels up your enterprise’s basic automation tools, enabling them to independently make decisions, take action, and adapt to new and changing conditions in real time. Ultimately, this strengthens your business’s agility, allowing you to pivot quickly in the face of evolving market conditions, overcome sudden challenges, and stay ahead of your competitors.
Plus, with the ability to analyze real-time data and leverage predictive analytics, AI-powered automation tools can identify patterns and trends to intelligently predict how certain actions will drive different outcomes in the future. These tools can then automatically adjust workflows as needed to address new demands, like increases in ticket volumes, to keep your business nimble, efficient, and ready to scale.
Use cases for intelligent automation tools
There are many ways businesses are using AI-powered automation tools to improve efficiency, strategize, enhance customer experiences, predict shopping trends, and better support your employees across different departments, such as with human resources, engineering, and customer service.
Human resources
With AI-powered automation tools, particularly those that leverage agentic AI, you can empower your HR team to save time and better support employees across your enterprise.
Specifically, agentic AI can help your HR team with talent acquisition, onboarding, and benefits enrollment by handling tasks like:
- Scheduling interviews
- Creating job descriptions and postings
- Comparing candidate pools across different sources
- Helping new employees get access to tools and software
- Setting up direct deposit
- Analyzing employee profiles to suggest personalized onboarding programs
By taking over repetitive, time-consuming recruiting tasks, agentic AI allows your HR team to focus on what they do best: being true talent advisors.
Engineering
Integrated into your engineering department, AI-powered automation tools give your engineers intelligent support to help them work smarter by unifying systems, delivering knowledge, and automating mundane tasks.
For engineers, it’s particularly important to have unified search, which gives them one centralized place to instantly find specs, processes, and documentation, saving time and energy daily.
Additionally, agentic AI can help engineering teams by:
- Delivering real-time visibility into system health and changes
- Automatically notifying engineers of outages, performance issues, and other critical events
- Automating provisioning for instant access to containers, databases, and other cloud resources
Customer service
For customer service teams, introducing AI-powered automation tools can significantly improve efficiency by empowering self-service. Instead of waiting for business hours or a free representative, customers can get instant assistance or answers to their questions via a conversational chatbot.
With agentic AI, automated customer support tools can even troubleshoot and resolve customer issues completely autonomously, with no human input required.
It can also support sales teams by providing instant answers to questions and giving sales representatives one centralized place to get all the information they need for follow-up messages.
Implement an AI automation solution in your organization
When searching for an AI automation solution, look for a tool that can deliver a real, meaningful impact in your enterprise via greater efficiency, cost savings, agility, and scalability. Today, the market has quickly become saturated with dozens of AI and automation tools, but many of them are flashy, rigid solutions that may not align with your enterprise’s existing workflows or overarching business goals.
For true efficiency gains, cost savings, and improved business agility, look for an AI-powered automation tool that can autonomously make decisions, take action, and self-improve over time to support diverse departments across your enterprise, now and into the future.
Explore our list of the top solutions to find the AI automation tool that can take your enterprise operations to the next level.
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