{"id":20099,"date":"2020-01-28T15:43:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T15:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/automation"},"modified":"2026-09-16T07:07:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:07:49","slug":"automation","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/automation","title":{"rendered":"Automation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad alignright wp-image-22900 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/automation.jpg\" alt=\"Automation\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" style=\"margin-top:0;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/automation.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/automation-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Definition:<\/strong> <strong>Automation<\/strong> is the execution of tasks, decisions, or sequences through rules and instructions that a system can apply with reduced human intervention. In a digital environment, it may use software, sensors, integrations, or models to detect a condition, process data, and perform an action. Automation does not necessarily remove people from the process: they define the objective, configure the operation, supervise results, and handle exceptions.<\/p>\n\n<h2>How Digital Automation Works<\/h2>\n<p>An automation connects an event to a planned response. The event may be a scheduled time, a database change, receipt of a form, or a call to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/api\">API<\/a>. The system then checks conditions, transforms information, and performs one or more actions.<\/p>\n<p>Although each implementation has a different architecture, it commonly combines these elements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Trigger:<\/strong> the event that starts the process, such as a date, message, or creation of a record.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rules and conditions:<\/strong> criteria that determine which execution path to follow.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Input data:<\/strong> values that the process reads, validates, or transforms.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Actions:<\/strong> operations performed in an application, file, service, or device.<\/li>\n<li><strong>State and memory:<\/strong> information that records what happened and the current point of each execution.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Error control:<\/strong> retries, limits, alerts, and alternative paths for handling failures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A simple process may perform a scheduled action. Others coordinate several applications through connectors, queues, events, or an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/ipaas\">iPaaS<\/a> platform. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/workflow\">workflow<\/a> describes the flow of tasks and decisions; automation is the mechanism that automatically executes some or all of that flow.<\/p>\n<h2>Forms and Areas of Automation<\/h2>\n<p>Automation is not a single technology. It can be classified by the signal that starts the process, how actions are performed, and the degree of decision retained by a person:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Scheduled:<\/strong> starts at a particular time or frequency, such as a periodic backup.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Event driven:<\/strong> responds to a change, request, or action in another system.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rule based:<\/strong> applies explicit conditions and previously defined outcomes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Process automation:<\/strong> coordinates tasks, approvals, and handoffs between people and applications.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Interface automation:<\/strong> reproduces actions in an application when a suitable integration is unavailable, as in some RPA systems.<\/li>\n<li><strong>AI assisted:<\/strong> uses classification, extraction, generation, or prediction to propose or execute part of a process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These forms can appear in operations, customer service, ecommerce, administration, software development, data analysis, and content management. A platform such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/n8n\">n8n<\/a> can build flows between applications, while an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/erp\">ERP<\/a> may automate operations within its own modules.<\/p>\n<p>General automation should not be confused with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/marketing-automation\">Marketing Automation<\/a>. The latter applies the concept to marketing processes such as segmentation, communications, lead scoring, or coordination with a CRM. The automation entry covers the cross-functional mechanism; the Marketing Automation entry explains that specialization and its commercial functions.<\/p>\n<h2>Design, Execution, and Supervision<\/h2>\n<p>Automating a process requires first understanding what happens, which data is involved, and where human decisions should remain. A design and control cycle can be organized as follows:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Define the process:<\/strong> identify its start, expected outcome, participants, systems, and exit conditions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review the current task:<\/strong> document steps, dependencies, exceptions, and causes of error before reproducing them in software.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Specify rules and data:<\/strong> establish valid inputs, permissions, transformations, and decisions that can be automated.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Design exception handling:<\/strong> determine what happens with incomplete data, unavailable services, duplicates, or ambiguous results.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Test under controlled conditions:<\/strong> use normal cases, boundaries, and simulated failures before expanding the scope.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Observe execution:<\/strong> record events, timing, errors, costs, and changes made by the system.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review and maintain:<\/strong> update rules, credentials, connectors, and owners when applications or the process change.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Automation should retain enough traceability to reconstruct an execution. A useful record identifies the trigger, data used, decisions applied, actions performed, and errors. It also makes it possible to detect blocked processes, repetitions, and partial results.<\/p>\n<p>Operations with significant effects may require human approval before sending, publishing, paying, deleting, or modifying information. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/ai-agent\">AI agent<\/a> may decide which tools to use within defined boundaries, but that autonomy does not replace permissions, observability, or rollback criteria.<\/p>\n<h2>Benefits, Risks, and Limitations<\/h2>\n<p>A well-defined automation can reduce repetitive work, waiting times, and variation in execution. It can also make a process repeatable in a documented way and allow incidents to be measured. These effects depend on design quality and do not by themselves guarantee lower costs, higher revenue, or freedom from errors.<\/p>\n<p>Automating a flawed procedure can reproduce its failures with greater speed or scale. Other risks include excessive permissions, loss of context, incorrect data, third-party dependencies, duplicate actions, and lack of a responsible owner. If a decision requires interpretation, negotiation, or ethical judgment, full automation may be unsuitable.<\/p>\n<p>Artificial intelligence expands the tasks a system can interpret, but introduces probabilistic outcomes. A traditional rule produces an expected output when specified conditions are met; a model may vary, fail, or generate a response that requires validation. The level of supervision should therefore reflect the impact and reversibility of the action.<\/p>\n<p>Automation is a means of executing a process, not an independent objective. Its quality is evaluated through outcomes, reliability, time, errors, traceability, and the ability to manage exceptions. Preserving these conditions distinguishes controlled automation from a sequence that works only while nothing changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Automation executes tasks and decisions through rules, events, and integrations. Learn about its components, types, controls, risks, and limitations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":79771,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1318],"class_list":["post-20099","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-automated-integration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/20099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=20099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}