October 29, 2025 |

We are living in the age of automation, artificial intelligence, and a whole lot of unquestioned assumptions.

And one of the biggest assumptions is that automation is always desirable. If something can be automated, it should be. That’s the reflex. The irony is that the more automated the world becomes, the less alive it feels.

Automation is antisocial.

Even when it is dressed up as “personalization,” it is coldly impersonal and calculated. The feeds we scroll through, the emails we never send, the decisions we never make — all shaped by systems that act on our behalf but never with us. Automation saves us from effort, but it also saves us from engagement.

Every act of automation removes a little friction, but friction is where relationships, trust, and judgment live.

The meeting that takes five minutes longer, the customer email that isn’t templated, the spreadsheet we double-check — these are the small acts of attention that make things human.

We are slowly automating away our capacity for discernment. Even our “personalized” digital experiences are anything but personal.

The algorithm doesn’t know you; it predicts you. And prediction is the opposite of intention. Automation acts for us, but not from us.

That distinction matters.

Because intention begins with awareness. It requires noticing, choosing, questioning. Automation begins with assumption. It replaces judgment with habit. It’s efficient, but hollow.

The Law of Return on Information suggests that the more information we collect, the less value each new bit provides — until eventually, the flood of data undermines meaning itself. The same is true for automation.

Each new system of convenience adds another layer of detachment, another abstraction between humans and their work.

We end up managing the tools that manage the tools — and mistaking that for progress. This doesn’t mean automation is the enemy. It means automation without intention is.

Human-centered systems aren’t anti-automation; they are pro-intention. They start by asking: What is this system for, and who does it serve? Not everything that can be automated should be.

• Automation scales efficiency.
• Intention scales meaning.
• And meaning — not motion — is what keeps a system truly alive.

The organizations that thrive won’t be the most automated. They’ll be the most intentional. The ones who know which friction to keep and which to eliminate. The ones who choose what to automate — and what to protect.