Spiceworks Community Digest: Keep it real

IT professionals generally agree that automation should stop where human judgment, ethical complexity, or genuine connection begins. While automation is great for repetitive tasks like patching and maintenance, the Spiceworks Community pinpoints areas where a machine’s lack of nuance creates more problems than it solves, often leading to arrogance, bias, or dehumanization.

Where Control and Trust Break Down

The most visceral reaction came from areas where automation removes the necessary “human-in-the-loop” oversight, leading to unexpected errors or consequences.

• somedude2: “Taking the control away is arrogant, it implies you have automated things so perfectly that there is no question of mistakes. That is how you get SkyNet and IT pain…”

The Human-Centric Tasks that Must Stay Manual

Several replies focused on areas that rely on subtle human judgment, empathy, or creativity, arguing that automation destroys the value of the interaction itself.

• C-T: “The automation of screening resumes needs to be trashed. In my experience, a lot of the ones that get through are buzzword bloat.”
• aJason: “Not that I think that it’s a consideration, but I would not want to automate the posts on Spiceworks… the draw of the community is the relationship and camaraderie with the others.”
• Random Parts: “Call centers. I hate calling for something and a bot, going Press 1 for… I called Best Buy last week to verify they were opened… and I got an answer much quicker when I spoke to an actual person.”
• iwan.v.kanten: “Yesterday I had to assemble an office chair for home. The feeling of satisfaction when I was finished would never be there if the assembly was automated. I love cooking. That process should not be automated for me.”

The Chaos of “Automistake”

Even for small, everyday digital assists, a lack of judgment in automation causes annoyance and introduces errors.

• Jonathan Johnson: “The number of times that speech-to-text has typed the correct word then changed it to something totally different is disturbing and aggravating.”

The consensus is clear: while automation can handle data and logistics, any process that requires empathy, complex context, ethical judgment, or personal satisfaction should remain firmly in the hands of a human.

What other areas of your job do you think should never be fully automated? Join the conversation on the Spiceworks Community.