If you serve on a FTSE 100 board, you are under pressure to close the UK’s productivity gap without adding unnecessary cost or risk. Strategic automation can help, but it depends on choosing the right processes, selecting tools that fit the work and preparing people for change.
The first decision is where to begin. I advise leaders to focus on processes where automation can address a clear business problem, then agree how they will measure the results. That makes it easier to judge whether an investment is delivering lasting gains—and whether it is worth extending.
Identify Where Automation Can Lift Productivity
Where can automation make the greatest difference? Start by tracing how work moves through your organisation, from customer requests to financial reporting. Identify repetitive tasks, manual hand-offs, backlogs and frequent errors. These can absorb skilled employees’ time without improving the result.
Compare delays and costs across business units to find bottlenecks and unnecessary variation. Then consider how they affect output, service quality and employees’ capacity for higher-value work.
Use operational data alongside the experience of frontline staff. This helps distinguish isolated frustrations from persistent losses in productivity. I’d prioritise processes where automation can reduce friction, free up capacity and improve performance across the organisation.
Match Automation to Your Business Needs
Once you have identified the processes that constrain productivity, choose automation to suit the work. Consider how complex and variable each task is, and where human judgement is needed.
Use robotic process automation for stable, rules-based transactions. Workflow platforms can coordinate approvals and hand-offs. AI may help when work involves unstructured information or pattern recognition. Different functions may need different tools.
Before deciding, check how each option connects with your existing systems, handles exceptions and supports audit trails. In regulated settings, make sure decisions can be explained and accountability is clear. Keep people involved where context, trust or discretion matters. I advise growing businesses to start with the task, not the technology.
Prioritise Automation Investments
Compare each automation proposal on expected productivity gains, total cost and delivery risk. Use the same scoring model across business units, so leaders can judge opportunities on consistent terms rather than on the strength of the pitch.
Estimate outcomes that can be measured, such as shorter processing times, fewer errors, lower operating costs or greater capacity. Count the full cost of implementation, integration, maintenance, cybersecurity and compliance, not just the purchase price.
Assess whether the organisation has reliable data, the skills to deliver the work and the systems and processes it depends on. These factors can delay benefits and weaken the case for an investment.
Rank proposals by strategic value and realistic payback. Build a balanced portfolio: quick wins may be worthwhile, but they shouldn’t crowd out projects with greater long-term value. Set clear measures of success, review results regularly and be prepared to redirect funding when evidence doesn’t support the original assumptions.
*This is general information, not financial, legal or investment advice.*
Plan for Workforce Change
Plan workforce change alongside automation, not after it. As you prioritise investment, map which tasks are likely to change, disappear or emerge across your organisation. This gives leaders a clearer basis for deciding where people will be needed and what support they’ll require.
Consult employees and unions early. Their practical knowledge can help you spot risks, improve implementation and build trust. Be clear about what’s known, what remains uncertain and when you’ll share further decisions.
For each future role, identify the skills required. Assess gaps by team and location, then fund targeted training, apprenticeships and redeployment before new systems go live. Give managers clear guidance so they can support employees through the transition and answer questions honestly.
Set measurable goals for reskilling, internal mobility and employee outcomes, and review progress regularly. I’ve seen workforce planning work best when it’s treated as part of the technology decision, not a separate exercise. Connecting automation to credible career pathways helps retain expertise and gives employees a fair opportunity to share in productivity gains.
Manage Automation Risks and Governance
Treat automation governance as part of the investment decision, not a control to add after deployment. Before approving a system, decide who’s accountable for its decisions, the data it uses and the outcomes it produces.
Set clear limits on what the system may do, when a person must review its actions and how staff can challenge or correct errors. Put in place controls for privacy, cyber security, bias, safety and regulatory compliance, tailored to the intended use.
Ask suppliers to disclose material system changes and support audits. Name an executive who remains accountable, and give the board regular updates on risk. Agree incident procedures, escalation routes and who’s authority to stop the system. These decisions should be made before launch, so the organisation can respond promptly if automation behaves unexpectedly.
Measure Automation’s Productivity Gains
How will you know whether automation is improving productivity? Set a baseline before deployment, then compare results against it. Measure output per employee, cycle times, error rates, service quality and total cost—not simply the number of tasks automated.
Compare results across teams, allowing for differences in demand, staffing and seasonal patterns. Include implementation, maintenance and training costs when calculating the net gain. Ask employees whether automation has removed bottlenecks or merely shifted work elsewhere.
Review the measures regularly and assign leaders to investigate gaps between expected and actual results. In my experience advising growing businesses, the most useful measures are those that help leaders make a decision: whether to refine the process, pause further investment or extend automation to other areas.
Scale only when productivity gains persist without damaging quality or resilience. Then prioritise the opportunities with the clearest business value.
Conclusion
The UK productivity gap will not be closed by automating for its own sake. Start by mapping how work gets done, then decide which tasks are suitable for automation and which tools fit the need. Prioritise investments where expected gains in time, quality or capacity justify the cost and risk.
Consider how roles may change, and involve employees early. Set clear accountability for decisions, with appropriate controls for data and security. Then measure processing times, quality and capacity before and after implementation. I advise leaders to treat automation as an operating decision, not a technology project: its value depends on whether it improves the work that matters to the business.
