The Rise and Flux of the Chief Automation Officer
When I first wrote about the Chief Automation Officer a couple years ago, it felt like a defining role for the next decade. Someone had to connect the dots between all the apps, processes, and platforms that were supposed to make work smarter. And for a moment, that was true — automation was the next big thing.
But in tech, “the next big thing” doesn’t stay still for long.
From Big Thing to Background Process
The Chief Automation Officer was meant to be the bridge between operations and technology — a translator of efficiency. Yet, as AI raced onto the scene, automation became less of a job title and more of a feature. What was once a dedicated role is now baked into every SaaS platform, marketing suite, and CRM. Everyone’s an automator now, whether they realize it or not.
That’s not failure — it’s evolution. When a technology matures enough to become invisible, it’s usually a sign it succeeded.
The Flash Analogy
If you ever learned Adobe Flash, you know the feeling.
It was the future once — interactive websites, animations, multimedia experiences. Then browsers changed, standards shifted, and a whole generation of Flash developers had to reinvent themselves almost overnight.
The lesson? Specialization has a shelf life. The web kept evolving, and those who thrived were the ones who understood why things worked, not just how.
Automation is having its Flash moment. The tools are still there, but the world has moved on. What used to be a skill is now an expectation.
Generalists Win the Long Game
This is where being a generalist matters.
If you understand systems, logic, data flow, and human behavior — you can adapt. If you only know one platform or one way of doing things, you’re in trouble.
The best operators today don’t just build Zaps or workflows. They ask better questions:
What problem am I really solving?
What happens when this tool disappears?
How can I design for resilience, not just convenience?
AI didn’t kill automation. It absorbed it.
And that’s the same wave that will roll through dozens of other job titles in the coming years.
Watch for the Signs
You can always tell when a role is about to shift. Suddenly the conferences get quiet. The LinkedIn titles start changing. The tools you used to evangelize start using AI to replace the very thing you were doing manually.
That’s when you know it’s time to evolve again.
Automation isn’t over — it’s just automated. The people who saw that coming are already working on the next layer: intelligence, integration, and insight. The rest are still learning Flash.
