Workflow automation is quickly becoming more connected and intelligent. This guide explores benefits of workflow automation, real-world examples, and tips on setting up automation, assessing organizational readiness, and choosing the right software.
Included in this article, you’ll find the following:
Workflow automation uses pre-set rules — such as triggers, conditions, and actions — to move work through a process without manual assistance. It routes tasks, updates data, distributes alerts, and increasingly performs more complex functions.
Summary Overview
The Human Role in Automation Is Evolving: Automation has always driven efficiency, but its new role is in supporting intelligent work management. People don’t just build automations and manage tasks — they orchestrate automations and manage larger systems. After the basic tasks (the what) have been automated, we move to decision automation (the when and the why).
Success Requires Organizational Readiness: Even more than profit or revenue, organizational readiness is a critical determinant of success. Financial barriers to workflow automation have lowered, but process discipline and consistency are required before an automation software can be adopted.
Readiness Should be Evaluated Carefully: Organizational readiness depends on whether workflows are consistent and have clear inputs and outputs; it also requires standardized data fields and processes that are easy to visualize. An organization should evaluate its readiness carefully to prepare for adoption. me less reliable.
Today’s tools can branch logic across multiple steps, integrate with your other systems, and leverage AI to design and optimize workflows. Workflow automation drives efficiency, as it has for years, but now it’s also improving accuracy, compliance, and scalability.
Automation tools allow you to create if-then rules, such as “when this happens, check that condition, then do this.” The resulting automation can approve a marketing request, assign a project task, or update invoice data reliably and at scale, executing repeatable processes.
Beyond improving efficiency, automation is also reshaping how people create processes and do their jobs. me less reliable.
“Today, automation is about intelligence,” says efficiency expert Ari Meisel, author of The Art of Less Doing. “AI has made it possible to not only execute workflows but to design, optimize, and even explain them.”
That’s a big shift from a few years ago, when automation was mostly just about efficiency, he says.
“What’s changed is that humans no longer just build automations — they orchestrate them,” Meisel says. “The real value now lies in deciding what should be automated, when, and why.”
Workflow Automation Benefits
Automation improves accuracy and efficiency by replacing time-consuming tasks. That promotes cost-effective scaling. Individuals freed up from manual tasks can spend more time on strategic work. Automation also improves visibility and compliance, and new AI capabilities can help optimize workflows.
Here are the main benefits of workflow automation:
Decision Automation: “The biggest untapped opportunity right now is in decision automation,” says Meisel. “We’ve automated what: tasks, emails, scheduling. The next step is automating the when and why,” he says, pointing to resource allocation, timing, and prioritization.
“What excites me most is asynchronous automation — systems that trigger, learn, and evolve without real-time human intervention,” Meisel says. “We’re entering an era where workflows will be adaptive organisms, not static scripts. The goal isn’t to replace humans with machines — it’s to design systems that make humans more creative, calmer, and freer.”
Efficiency: Delays add up fast in most manual procedures. But with automation, tasks move from one stage to the next even when people are offline. As Meisel puts it, “if a process can be automated, a person shouldn’t be doing it.” People are reserved for higher-level work.
Strategic Focus: Automation allows teams to spend more time improving processes and planning what comes next. “Machines are great at following patterns, but only people can determine which patterns matter,” says Meisel. “It’s less about being in the loop and more about staying above the loop — managing systems, not tasks.”
Some platforms such as Smartsheet help people make or hone automations through AI suggestions, dashboards, and workflow builders. While full AI-driven orchestration is still emerging, today’s features are already expanding the human role from coordinating tasks to improving the systems that run them.
Scalability: A well-built automation scales without extra overhead. You can also clone or adapt standardized workflows for new projects with little setup and, when using no-code builders, minimal tech skills.
Accuracy: Once an automation is in place, it executes the same logic every time. Standardized processes, decisions, and actions improve accuracy and reduce manual errors in data entry and reporting.
Visibility: Automated updates, alerts, and activity records clarify the owner of every task and when tasks begin and end, ensuring accountability.
Compliance: Automation maintains a record of approvals, changes, and notifications — a vital requirement for organizations subject to internal governance or client oversight.
AI-Driven Optimization: AI features are being regularly introduced in workflow tools, and current integrations already help teams spot bottlenecks, create new logic, and summarize activity.
“AI hasn’t just sped up automation — it’s made it interactive,” Meisel says. “We’ve moved from building fixed workflows to having ongoing conversations with our systems.” Natural language capabilities allow humans to project-manage AI. “That accessibility is the real revolution, not the hype around AI-powered everything.”
Real-World Workflow Automation Examples
Workflow automation applies to nearly any procedure that follows repeatable steps. This can include approvals, handoffs, reminders, notifications, client intake, and feedback. These can develop over time into multi-step or cross-department workflows.
Below are a few ways that organizations are applying process automation today:
Approval Requests: You can automate sign-offs for budgets, creative assets, or HR forms. Instead of sending manual emails, the workflow can route each request to the right person, record the decision, and notify the requester.
Project Handoffs: When a task moves from one team to another, automation can assign ownership, designate due dates, and alert stakeholders that the next phase has begun. This keeps everything moving, which is especially useful with spread-out teams.
Invoice and Payment Processing: You can automate invoice collection, verification, and routing for approval. For example, global systems integrator Convergint used Smartsheet automation to collect and organize invoice data, shortening the process by more than 30 days.
Forecasting: Service and operations teams use automation to get updates from different systems in one forecast. Alchemy, which specializes in Workday implementations in higher education, built this type of workflow in Smartsheet and reduced time spent forecasting billable hours by 75 percent.
Status and Reminder Updates: Automated alerts flag tasks that are missing information or are almost overdue, keeping projects moving while reducing administrative follow-up.
Client or Patient Intake: Many organizations automate the procedures for new clients, patients, or partners to enter their systems. Automated intake forms can collect information once, validate it, and route it instantly to connected CRMs, invoice systems, and other platforms.
Sain Rhodes, a sales operations professional at Clever Offers, applied this approach to her company’s property listing pipeline. “Before automation, agents manually entered client information into multiple systems, cross-referenced property details with market data, and sent documents via email chains,” she says. “This led to many bottlenecks and human errors.”
She built an automated workflow to get client data once and distribute it to their CRM, accounting software, and marketing platforms simultaneously. As a result, her company reduced client onboarding time from three days to four hours, she says, enabling new deals to move to market 72 percent faster.
Client Feedback: Organizations use automation to compile and answer client feedback. Automated follow-ups can be scheduled to send immediately after a project or purchase, prompting timely input and keeping data for future analysis.
Josh Qian, the COO and Co-Founder of LINQ Kitchen, took this approach to improve how his company gathers client insights. “We used to collect client insights manually through surveys and telephone calls,” Qian says. “These methods consumed a lot of time and generated very poor response rates from clients.”
Now, an automated system sends personalized follow-ups at the end of each project to encourage responses. “Not only are these automated follow-ups increasing the number of client responses, but they are also providing us with usable data to improve our service offerings,” he says.
How to Build a Workflow Automation
To create a workflow automation, map the process and standardize all your data. Use a workflow builder to set up conditions, then create the automation. Test and record its progress and success.
Here are the setup steps to take:
Map the Process: Outline the current workflow, from initial request to final approval. Identify who’s involved, what tasks they own, what information they use, and where issues arise.
Standardize All Data: Automation depends on consistency. All system field names and categories need to be in a consistent format, as well as input and output data. Clean, structured data prevents broken workflows.
Get a Workflow Automation Builder: Some tools, such as Smartsheet, offer workflow builders that let you drag and connect triggers, conditions, and actions.
Set Your Automation: Every automation has three elements: a trigger that starts it, conditions that designate when it should run, and actions that conduct it. For example: “When a form is submitted” (trigger), “if the budget exceeds $10,000” (condition), “send an approval request” (action).
This shows the trigger-condition-action flow in Smartsheet.
Test, Improve, and Document the Automation: Conduct the workflow with test data, and fix any exceptions. Review the outcomes and adjust rules and data as your processes evolve or as new tools become available. Record how the automation works and who maintains it so that you can troubleshoot or update the workflow later.
In this video, learn how to automate work with approval requests in Smartsheet.
Workflow Automation Readiness
How do you know if you’re prepared for automation? Readiness isn’t about budget or company size — it’s about how clearly work is defined. You need well-structured processes and detailed documentation.
“In 2019, I said companies needed to be making at least $300,000 to justify automation,” Meisel says. “Today, I’d lower that dramatically. With AI-native tools and low-code platforms, automation is no longer a cost center — it’s a competitive baseline. … The new threshold isn’t revenue, it’s readiness.”
Even the best automation software can’t fix inconsistent processes. Automation amplifies what’s already in place, so process discipline comes first. A readiness scorecard can help you determine whether your organization is ready for automation.
Workflow Automation Readiness Scorecard in Excel
Use the workflow automation readiness scorecard to see if your organization has the right foundation.
Download a Workload Automation Readiness Scorecard for Excel | Google Sheets
How to Choose Workflow Automation Software
Finding the right workflow automation software starts with your goals, flows, and technical level. Start by identifying your users’ needs and evaluating your triggers and conditions. Then review the software’s dashboards and integration capabilities, as well as AI capabilities. The best tool is usually the one your team will most likely use and sustain.
Here’s how to select automation software:
Identify Your Users’ Needs: List the processes you’re targeting and who will be managing them, ensuring that tools match skill levels. Less technical people will likely prefer low-code or no-code builders with visual flow design.
Evaluate Triggers, Conditions, and Actions: Every platform handles automation logic differently. Look for rules that let you trigger workflows from changes, forms, or events, with conditions to branch out the logic. Choose software that supports the specific events and decision points your processes rely on.
Assess Integration Capabilities: Automation works when data can freely move between systems. Make sure you select software that integrates easily to prevent data silos and duplicate entry.
Review Dashboards: Dashboards and reports show you how well your automations are performing. They help you monitor workflows, measure impact, align teams, spot bottlenecks, and see time saved.
Consider Governance and Scaling: System controls mean a lot when multiple departments use the tool. Scalable software lets you start in one place and expand.
Assess AI and Automation Maturity: Most tools now include AI-assisted features. Evaluate how these fit your needs — whether surfacing data, suggesting logic, or eventually building more adaptive workflows. “That’s the real frontier: people learning to collaborate with their systems, not just configure them,” Meisel says.
Smartsheet combines workflow automation and data integration in one platform, helping teams coordinate work consistently. With its no-code builder, you might automate everything from simple approval requests to complex, cross-team processes using triggers, conditions, and actions.
Smartsheet has workflow automation software that extends across systems with integrations for Salesforce, Jira, and other platforms. Smartsheet also includes AI-assisted features to predict bottlenecks, find optimizations, and recommend next steps.
You can monitor workflow performance through real-time dashboards and reports, standardize recurring business processes such as onboarding or budgeting, and customize templates from the Automation Template Gallery.
In short, Smartsheet acts as the orchestration layer that connects teams, systems, and data — replacing manual busywork with connected, intelligent processes that keep work moving.
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Workflow Automation FAQs
Approval requests, project handoffs, assignments, and information updates are commonly automated. Many teams also automate invoices, onboarding, customer notifications, and recurring status reports. The best candidates are repeatable, rule-based tasks.
A workflow process is automation-ready when it’s consistent, repeatable, and documented. It should follow standardized rules and have high volume, along with clear inputs and outputs. If you use templates, that is a strong indication that your workflow might be ready for automation.
Inconsistent data and poorly defined rules make automation difficult. Automation depends on accuracy — when inputs or responsibilities are vague, workflows can fail or create duplicate work.
Workflow automation has a narrower scope than business process automation. Workflow automation usually refers to individual tasks, sequences, or workflows, while business process automation usually refers to cross-departmental end-to-end processes.
The best workflow automation software for your organization depends on your team’s goals, systems, and technical level. Smartsheet is a strong, flexible option, as it offers a no-code builder, scalability, and AI features.
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