Towards the end of each year, Gartner releases its predictions for the upcoming year. These predictions start a lot of conversations, get lots of coverage in the tech press, and are always useful.

There’s also a lot of them. Besides Garter’s two Top 10 Trends lists (Strategic Technology and I&O), Gartner has recently released dozens of its “Predicts 2019” papers. To help prepare for the new year, we've scoured Gartner’s trend and predictions, explaining eight of their 2019 automation expectations below.

A few major themes stick out:

• AI is being used to optimize IT Automation
• IT Automation is being used to optimize Big Data
• As processes are simplified, Big Data will become accessible to the broader workforce
• The role of IT is changing

Overall, 2019 looks to be a busy year for IT Automation, AI, and Big Data.

The 2018 Gartner Symposium/ITxpo was held in the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is an annual series of conferences held around the world. From Orlando to Barcelona to Tokyo, the conferences are attended by CIOs, senior IT leaders, and market-leading vendors, all of whom converge to listen to and to learn from the best minds and thought leaders in IT.

This year, Gartner Symposium/ITxpo’s capstone event was held in Orlando, Florida, attracting over 9,000 IT leaders for five days of insights, networking, and keynotes. The event, held October 14-18, featured executive Gartner analysts, guest speakers, and over 350 sessions covering business strategy, leadership, and technology and information.

These three themes (business strategy, leadership, and technology and information) were essential to the Gartner Opening Keynote on Day 2 of the event.

Enterprise Automation and Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is a necessity for businesses and organizations in a variety of industries. If a business in today’s landscape isn’t benefiting from digital transformation, chances are their competition is. Which is why the “How?” behind digital transformation has become such a pressing issue for IT and business leaders.

In the webinar, “3 Essential Keys to Redefining IT Automation for Digital Business Success,” hosted by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), Dan Twing, President and COO of EMA, and Ben Rosenberg, President of Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. (ASCI), discussed the major steps, milestones, and hurdles faced by businesses pursuing digital transformation.

The major theme of their discussion was speed: If IT wants to drive business growth, then IT must operate at the pace of business. Businesses today require agility, innovation, and speed, and IT teams need to implement processes and infrastructure capable of achieving similar velocity.

Digital Transformation

The new maxim is that “every business is a digital business.” We hear it in earnings calls when the CEO talks about digital transformation, customer-centric services, or a digital-first mindset; the titles of new books allude to the maxim, start-ups identify it as a lifestyle, and thought-leaders can’t stop promoting it.

But how susceptible are business leaders to these constant calls for digital transformation? And what about Workload Automation? Are business leaders turning the corner on Workload Automation?

The answer, surprisingly, is that they’re turning the corner faster than most IT professionals.

Microsoft held its annual Ignite conference last week, drawing over 30,000 developers and IT professionals to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

Key Points

1. Microsoft is focused on establishing a future for AI by ensuring that edge connectivity and cloud computing are secure and widely available.
2. The three themes of Microsoft Ignite 2018 were Security, AI & Big Data, and IoT & Edge Computing.
3. Microsoft is partnering with SAP and Adobe to deliver the Open Data Initiative.
   

While Microsoft had a list of exciting product announcements, speeches, and sessions throughout the week (ICYMI, they’re available online), the keynote address given by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and the context his keynote added to the conference, is getting much of the post-conference attention.

Automation architects are popping up in both mid-sized firms and large enterprises like AstraZeneca, HP, and ADP. A quick search on Glassdoor, Indeed, or LinkedIn confirms the trend: “Looking for strong automation architects.”

But what exactly is an automation architect supposed to be doing, and how do you know if your company needs one?

‘Digital’ and ‘IT’ probably are not the first words that come to mind when you hear the word ‘finance.’ According to McKinsey&Company, though, they should be.

In the recent publication, “Memo to the CFO: Get in front of digital finance- or get left back”, authors Kapil Chandra, Frank Plaschke, and Ishaan Seth outline the increasing need for digitalization in finance as CEOs seek real-time data that can support business decisions. While Chandra, Plaschke, and Seth advise CFOs to hop on board the digital finance train, as they may miss out on significant business development opportunities otherwise, they also recognize that “the rapid arrival of innovative technologies plus a general shortage of top technology talent” prevents CFOs from driving full speed ahead.

Data without insight has little value. That's why we have Data Warehouse professionals to turn those zeroes and ones into actionable insight that helps organizations make better decisions, earn new customers, identify new opportunities, and turn existing customers into ambassadors for their companies’ products, services, and brands.

But there is intense pressure to innovate faster than the competition. Coupled with the difficulty of finding and retaining properly-trained IT staff, initiating digital transformation takes a secondary role to putting out the fires and surviving.

You can adapt to the changes, or risk being left behind. Automation can help; although, while most organizations have some automated processes in place, few have an automation strategy.