Data Automation

Automation and the future: will automation make us more like the Jetsons?

Switchboard Mar 8

automate your data
Table of Contents

    Tl;dr: Probably not.

    While we aren’t likely to start zipping around in flying cars, our world is technologically advancing at a tremendous rate.

    The accomplishments we’ve made in the last decades would have been unfathomable centuries ago; in the past 20 years alone we’ve introduced smartphones, sequenced the entire human genome, and found evidence of water on Mars.

    If you had told someone in the 17th century that the answers to all their questions regarding math, science, history, art, etc. could be found within seconds through a device the size of your hand, they would have thought it was witchcraft.

    While we almost certainly won’t be using flying cars like in The Jetsons, the rise of automation will change our lives. And while change can have its ups and downs, the innovation and opportunities that will arise from these advancements will only propel humans forward in their curious quest for knowledge.

    Previously, astronauts had to undergo insane amounts of training before launching into space. Through automation and robotics, SpaceX was recently able to dock successfully into the international space station with astronauts barely lifting a finger. Automation is the technology that allows machines to complete mundane tasks, leaving us with more interesting work, using our creativity and problem-solving skills to innovate.

    The same thing is true with data automation: when organizations automate their data pipelines, they aren’t replacing data engineers or data scientists. We need those guys. Rather, automation is replacing the need to perform manual tasks, allowing these highly-educated teams to focus on more valuable work. How many data scientists really want to spend their time extracting, transforming, and loading their data (ETL), when automation can take care of it and allow them to focus on more creative work?

    The age of automation is upon us, and that’s a good thing. We did not exit the Stone Age because we ran out of stones. Sure, tech advancements can cause disruption in some cases, but they also can also lead to increased employment opportunities. Automation is the key to empowering your team to become creators and innovators. Moral of the story? Let the machines do the mundane stuff, and let the humans do the human stuff.

    If you need help unifying your first or second-party data, we can help. Contact us to learn how.

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