As AI pushes the boundaries of what’s possible, a cloud of speculation and uncertainty has settled over the business world. What’s real? What’s just hype? And what does AI-powered automation actually mean for your organization?
Whether you’re at a mid-market or an enterprise company, myths and misunderstandings around automation can prevent your teams from unlocking their true potential.
We sat down with Jay Tomlin, Senior Director of Product Management at Nintex, to cut through the noise and debunk the most persistent myths that hold businesses back. Here, we’ll demystify seven common misconceptions, helping you navigate the tech landscape with confidence in 2025 and beyond.
Myth 1: I don’t need to worry about automation — AI alone will make my org more efficient
AI isn’t a magic wand that instantly grants you organizational efficiency. While it can be incredibly powerful, it still requires careful guidance and human oversight.
“You still need to know what problem you want to point the AI toward,” Tomlin says.
You can’t simply tell AI to make your business better and expect comprehensive results. Instead, the most effective approach is to use AI as a strategic tool: identifying processes that are candidates for automation, building processes more quickly, and enhancing existing workflows.
Steps toward operational excellence
For companies who want to leverage AI effectively:
- Define specific problems AI can address, such as improving customer support by triaging tickets or pulling pre-existing customer information.
- Use AI to assess and streamline existing processes, looking for bottlenecks and recommending which tasks to automate to speed up operations.
- Provide ongoing human oversight and direction — for example, reviewing AI recommendations and tweaking algorithms if business needs shift.
“Let’s say there’s an end-to-end process where certain steps involve humans doing repeatable work,” Tomlin explains. “AI could potentially multiply their efforts, allow them to do ten times more work than what they’re doing today per human and accelerate the processes as a result.”
The key? Thoughtful implementation, not blind reliance.
Myth 2: Automation will completely replace human jobs … including yours
Automation isn’t about to render humans obsolete. Like previous tech shifts, it’s more about transformation than replacement.
Historically, every major technological advance has reshaped the job market. Email didn’t completely destroy postal services — it transformed communication and created entirely new types of work. AI and automation will follow a similar pattern, removing repetitive tasks while opening doors to more innovative roles.
Steps toward operational excellence
The smart approach is to view automation as a strategic tool:
- Automate tedious, low-value tasks, such as data entry or answering routine customer inquiries, to save time and resources. This frees up your team for more creative and strategic work and helps improve their job satisfaction.
- Encourage time for innovation and reflection as your teams adjust to the new cadence of work. Rather than scrambling for more manual tasks to fill their hours, your people should have time to explore new ideas, connect more deeply with customers, and consider optimizations to the way they work.
The goal isn’t to replace humans, but to amplify human potential. “AI will remove repetitive, rote jobs,” Tomlin acknowledges, “but it’ll also probably create a thousand more companies and enable people to do things we haven’t imagined yet.”
Read how New Bedford Corporation used Nintex RPA to automate billing data entry, for a 62% time savings versus manual entry.
Myth 3: Only enterprise organizations can afford or benefit from process automation
The days of automation being exclusively for big-budget enterprises with massive engineering teams are over. Emerging AI and automation tools are democratizing technology in ways we’ve never seen before.
“AI and automation tools — especially ones designed to be easy to use — allow smaller organizations to do the same kinds of work that only larger organizations could have afforded in the past,” Tomlin says.
Steps toward operational excellence
For mid-sized organizations, process automation can level the playing field, especially with the right tools. Here are some pointers:
- Don’t assume automation is beyond your budget — options exist across price points, and some tools offer a 30-day free trial.
- Look for a user-friendly automation tool with a drag-and-drop interface that’s accessible to all employees.
Once you’ve chosen a tool, start with tackling small, repetitive processes that drain team energy — this lets you demonstrate the value of process automation and get buy-in from stakeholders.
Myth 4: Automation only works in certain industries or for specific workflows
Automation works for any organization that uses processes to complete work. (Hint: that’s every organization.)
“Processes are everywhere, even in your personal life,” Tomlin says. “When you make coffee in the morning, that’s a process. You probably just haven’t taken the time to write it down and think about how you can make your cup of coffee more efficiently.”
Not every process will yield the same level of time or cost savings. But every business has a repeatable motion that’s worth inspecting, optimizing, and automating.
Steps toward operational excellence
If you’re exploring how automation can work for your company:
- Consider processes that involve paper — these typically represent an opportunity to digitize and automate for more reliable outcomes.
- Identify repetitive tasks in your workflow, like managing emails or scheduling meetings.
If you find multiple processes worthy of automating, try not to get stuck in analysis paralysis. Pick a straightforward process that clearly aligns with business priorities and start there.
Myth 5: Once I automate my processes, I’ll never need to touch them again
If you’re leaning into automation, one of the advantages is your processes becoming more hands-off. But you can’t let go of the steering wheel completely.
Successful process automation is about creating a ‘virtuous circle’ of improvement based on continuous refinement.
“Start with a baseline,” Tomlin suggests. “Make an improvement, measure that improvement, get the insights, and then keep repeating until the juice is no longer worth the squeeze.”
Initially, this means frequent iterations — you need to invest time and attention to fine-tune your automated processes, testing and adjusting until they’re highly efficient. As your automation matures, there’s less work needed to maintain it, but vigilance is still crucial. What works perfectly today might need adjustment tomorrow due to organizational or market changes.
Steps toward operational excellence
For companies looking to maximize automation benefits over time:
- Set up a process governance board to review and assess automated processes.
- Assign each process a key performance indicator (KPI), such as time saved or error reduction, and track progress toward your goal.
For example, Nintex has a “cycle cost” functionality that calculates your end-to-end cost for running an instance of a workflow or process. You can determine how much you can save by introducing automation based on how often you run the process. Seeing the business impact helps you where optimization is most needed, and it helps you get buy-in and resources for future changes from the C-suite.
Myth 6: It’s not worth trying to automate multi-touch, complex workflows
In the past, automation was strictly deterministic — following rigid, predefined rules. Now, AI agents can handle more nuanced, judgment-based steps that previously required human intervention.
“With AI in the mix, your workflows can include non-deterministic steps,” Tomlin says. This means AI can now make contextual decisions, classify problems, and navigate more intricate processes across multiple systems and departments.
Reallocating critical steps to AI frees up valuable time and resources for employees to focus on high-priority tasks and bolsters the organization for long-term scalability.
Steps toward operational excellence
For companies ready to automate complex workflows:
- Use AI to handle nuanced decision-making, like classifying customer inquiries or routing tasks to the appropriate department based on specific criteria.
- Connect systems and applications via application programming interfaces (APIs) to create more cohesive, end-to-end workflows.
- Look beyond simple, linear processes like submitting a form and sending an email in favor of multi-step processes for AI like processing customer orders.
Modern automation platforms can now orchestrate complex interactions — from querying Salesforce and searching online databases to coordinating across IT systems and employee platforms. The possibilities are vast, limited only by your ability to document and design the workflow.
Myth 7: You need to lock into one automation vendor
Forget the idea that you need a single, all-encompassing automation platform. Most mature organizations use multiple automation tools that complement each other.
“Using tools that work together gives you more flexibility and power to automate more complex processes,” Tomlin notes.
For example, if you’re currently using Microsoft Power Automate, you might find that you could also benefit from using Nintex, which has unique strengths for managing long-running workflows.
However, be mindful about how many tools you use. Focus on the solutions that not only complement each other, but have long-term scalability in mind.
Steps toward operational excellence
For companies building their automation strategy:
- Explore multiple automation tools to discover what’s right for your business size, industry, and use case — but be strategic with your decision. Adding tools for the sake of adding tools might create unnecessary complexity.
- Prioritize tools that integrate with each other to improve efficiency and reduce friction between platforms.
- Adapt your automation strategy — and toolkit — as your needs evolve.
Simple workflows might need a basic solution, while complex processes could require more specialized tools. The goal is flexibility, not vendor lock-in.
Did you know? Nintex integrates with ecosystems like Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, and more, helping you get more value out of platforms you already trust and use daily.
Shifting your mindset to achieve automation excellence
Debunking these myths is just the beginning. The real work starts with understanding where your organization stands in its automation journey — and crafting a plan to advance forward. This is where Nintex’s Process Automation Maturity Model becomes your roadmap.
Organizations typically fall into two categories: Emerging, where automation is ad hoc, solving specific problems; and Mature, where automation is part of a strategic, organization-wide approach.
Assess where you are on this maturity curve, and then make changes where you can to make strides toward excellence.
Then, create an action plan. For example, your next move might be to:
- Choose a centralized process mapping and management tool
- Create a comprehensive process map of your organization
- Identify key process groups and bottlenecks
- Develop a cross-functional approach to automation
Think your organization might need some support in leveling up on the automation maturity curve? We’re here to chat. Book a Nintex demo today.
