Automation tools can empower employees to reimagine their business processes. This simple--yet powerful--idea has, unfortunately, often been ignored. Instead, automation tools have been used to streamline basic tasks, such as copying and pasting data between applications and sending emails to colleagues. And while these task automations come with benefits, like time savings and accuracy improvements, they fail to impact the broader workflows they're part of. So how has this task-based approach to automation gained widespread adoption?

What is the future of ITOps, and how is technology shaping that future? At a recent meet-up--co-hosted by Workato, Coupa, and VictorOps with guests from Splunk, Prysm, and Praecipio Consulting--ITOps professionals of all stripes gathered to hear a panel of industry experts address these questions. Leaders from four high-profile SaaS companies shared their insight into what the changing world of ITOps holds and how businesses can gain a competitive edge. One recurring theme all panelists agreed on is the power that emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can bring to ITOps. "We need to ask: how can you augment processes with AI and ML?" commented Sreeni Garlapati, the VP of IT at Prysm.

Our VP of Business Development, Markus Zirn, discusses two of the biggest trends in tech – Slack and AI – and how Workato brings them together to create the future of work. According to the latest okta survey, Slack is the #1 fastest cloud application in enterprises with a 77% growth rate. Slack enables team communication by providing chat rooms, organized by themes, as well as offer private messaging and private group messages. In May 2016, it counted 3M daily active users. There's no question that Slack has become nothing short of a movement to bring team communication to the 21st century.