Automate the admin, not the humanity

Read time: 2 mins

Hey there!

“Technology’s supposed to be good. We’ve just mostly been in The Empire Strikes Back period of our technology. It doesn’t have to be that way.” – Kara Swisher

If you don’t know Kara Swisher, she’s a journalist, author and podcast host who has spent decades covering Silicon Valley, interviewing the biggest names in tech, and calling out nonsense when she sees it.

Which is probably why I like her.

And she’s right.

Technology is supposed to be good.

But for a while now, it has felt a little like we’re in the part of the movie where the Empire has too much power, sinister intentions, and access to tools that could blow up the planet.

But the important part of Kara’s quote is, “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

And that’s the point for business owners.

Tech, AI and automation can absolutely make your business more valuable. They can help you reduce manual work, improve consistency, create better visibility, increase profitability, and make the business easier to scale or sell.

But only if you use them well.

Lately, we’ve had business owners tell us AI can do everything their people can do, so they don’t really see the value in their team anymore.

Which is… pretty grim.

Because in most businesses, your people are not just a cost to reduce.

They are where a lot of the value is created, through judgement, trust, care, problem-solving, relationships, and the ability to turn a standard service into a great experience.

So yes, use the tech.

Please use the tech.

But use it to augment what your people can do, not replace what makes them valuable.

The goal is not to automate the humanity out of your business.

The goal is to automate the friction, so your people can do better work, faster, with fewer mistakes, less duplication, and more space to think.

That is how smart tech makes your business more valuable.

So this week, we’re looking at how to use tech and automation well, without making your business colder, clunkier or more chaotic.

How to automate the admin, not the humanity, the Kara Swisher way

1. Know what you want tech to improve

Smart tech does not start with the tool.

It starts with the outcome.

What are you trying to improve?

Examples might be:

• Capacity
• Consistency
• Visibility
• Profitability
• Client experience
• Team effectiveness

Because the best tech should not just make the business “more automated.”

It should make the business better.

That might mean using automation to remove double handling, reminders to prevent things getting missed, templates to make work more consistent, dashboards to make performance visible, or AI to help people draft, analyse, summarise or prepare faster.

It’s NOT so people become less important.

It’s so they can spend their time on the work where their judgement, care and expertise matter most.

Ask yourself:

What do we actually want tech to improve in our business?

2. Automate what drains people

Not everything should be automated.

But a lot of repetitive admin absolutely should be.

If your team is spending time copying information between systems, chasing the same reminders, manually sending the same emails, rebuilding the same reports, or checking the same steps over and over, that is a good place to look.

That kind of work drains energy and often adds very little value.

Automation can help with follow-ups, onboarding, appointment confirmations, invoice reminders, task creation, status updates, lead tracking and basic reporting.

The point is not to make the business robotic.

The point is to free people up for the work that actually benefits from being human, like thinking, problem-solving, client care, sales conversations, creativity and leadership.

All the things a workflow cannot do properly, no matter how many apps it connects.

Ask yourself:

What repetitive work is draining our team that a system could handle better?

3. Keep humans where judgement matters

Just because something can be automated doesn’t mean it should be.

Some moments need judgement:

• Tricky client conversations
• Strategic recommendations
• Sensitive complaints
• Creative decisions
• Leadership conversations
• Sales discussion where the client is unsure, nervous or confused, etc.

You can use tech to support those moments, but be careful about removing the human completely.

That is where businesses can get themselves into trouble.

Clients get generic replies when they actually need reassurance.

Complaints get handled too slowly, or too coldly.

Sales conversations miss the real hesitation underneath the question.

Creative work starts to sound like everyone else’s.

Important decisions get made from incomplete information.

And the business becomes more efficient, but less trusted.

That is not the goal.

The best tech should help your people bring more value to the moments that matter, not automate away the care, judgement and nuance clients actually notice.

Ask yourself:

Where are we using tech to support judgement, care and creativity, and where are we at risk of replacing them altogether?

4. Use tech to create visibility, not more noise

Bad tech creates noise:

• More notifications
• More dashboards
• More data no one trusts
• More reports no one reads
• More “where are we up to with this?” conversations, despite having three different systems that are apparently meant to tell you.

Bleh.

Smart tech creates visibility.

It helps you see what is happening in the business without needing to chase everyone manually.

Where leads are coming from, who needs follow-up, which jobs are stuck, what tasks are overdue, what revenue is coming, where customers are dropping off, and where mistakes keep happening.

That visibility matters for business value.

Because a buyer does not want to hear, “Don’t worry, Sarah remembers all of that.”

A buyer wants to see that the business has systems, reporting and workflows that make performance visible and manageable.

So yes, tech should save time.

But it should also help you make better decisions.

Ask yourself:

Does our tech make the business clearer, or just noisier?

⭐ Bottom line

Smart tech should make your business better.

Not colder. Not more complicated.

Not more dependent on 47 disconnected systems and one person who knows how they all work.

Used well, tech and automation can reduce admin, improve consistency, create visibility and free your people up to do better, more valuable work.

That makes your business easier to run now, and more valuable later.

So take inspiration from Kara.

Technology is supposed to be good.

Use it to help your people shine.

And if you want help finding the right places to simplify, systemise or automate in your business, get in touch.

We’re here to help!

Speak soon,

Lynne & Steve

P.S.

Next week, we’re wrapping up our value lever series with the most important lever of all, you.

Because a more valuable business doesn’t build itself.

Annoying, but true 😉

 

 

TLDR

• Smart tech makes your business more valuable.
• Use it to:
  • improve the right things
  • reduce repetitive admin
  • keep humans where judgement matters
  • create better visibility
• Take inspiration from Kara Swisher, technology is supposed to be good.

And if you want help with this, check out our Business Consulting services page, or get in touch with us here.

 

P.P.S.

Know someone who’d get value from this? Feel free to forward it on, it might be exactly what they need to hear right now. 😉