While automation is definitely part of the goals of artificial intelligence, and in particular automating things that require human cognitive capabilities, simply automating things doesn't make them intelligent. Have a good conversation with your crock pot lately? Increasingly, customers are also becoming aware of the differences of automation and intelligence. This despite the fact that many vendors are selling their wares with a claim that they have AI capabilities, even though their products don't seem to provide much evidence of that. However, with the increasing requirement for cognitive forms of automation, vendors are listening and starting to add more aspects of intelligence to their suites, especially the so-called robotic process automation (RPA) vendors.

The latest generation of the artificial intelligence platform Amelia is close to achieving "near human cognitive capabilities", according to its developers.