AI and automation are changing how modern businesses operate, but the opportunity is not simply about replacing people. It is about removing the repetitive, low-value work that prevents employees from focusing on the work they were actually hired to do. In this episode of GTMinDemand by MarTechEdition, Tim Rodgers, CEO of Ace Workflow, explains how organizations can rethink their workflows, identify inefficiencies, and use AI to create more effective ways of working.
Tim begins by discussing why teams still spend so much time on manual tasks despite the rapid growth of SaaS, AI, automation platforms, and AI agents. With companies using dozens of different software tools, employees often have to move between multiple systems just to complete a single task. This can result in highly skilled employees spending valuable time on repetitive activities such as copying and pasting information, searching for documents, transferring data, or manually completing processes that could be automated.
The conversation then explores where organizations should begin when trying to fix these inefficiencies. According to Tim, the starting point should be the people doing the work. Rather than designing workflows from the top down, companies should understand how employees actually work, what tasks consume their time, where information gets lost, and what creates friction. He highlights “not knowing” as a common source of frustration—for example, not knowing the status of an order, where to find a document, or how to complete a particular task.
Tim also breaks down Ace Workflow’s four-stage approach: Discover, Design, Build, and Run. Discovery focuses on understanding pain points and how work actually happens. Design involves creating better workflows, consolidating information, establishing sources of truth, and connecting different systems. Build focuses on implementing the automation and agentic workflows, while Run involves continuously gathering feedback and improving the system. A key theme is that discovery should not be treated as a one-time exercise because people, processes, software, and business structures continue to change.
The discussion also looks at how AI agents can support ongoing workflow discovery. Tim explains how voice and screen-share agents can interact with employees to understand their processes, the software they use, and the challenges they encounter. This combination of employee input and workflow data can help organizations identify inefficiencies that may otherwise remain hidden.
Another major topic is deciding what AI should handle and where humans should remain involved. Tim explains that highly repetitive tasks such as moving information between systems, classification, searching, and other resource-heavy activities can often be handled by AI. Humans, meanwhile, can remain involved where judgment, ideas, decision-making, and context add value. He shares an example involving a verification process where employees were paired with AI agents, resulting in the number of weekly verifications increasing by approximately 2.5 times.
The conversation also addresses one of the biggest concerns surrounding automation: how companies can automate without simply eliminating employees. Tim argues that organizations should understand which parts of a job employees find frustrating and which parts give them opportunities to make decisions and contribute their own ideas. The goal should be to automate work that does not add value while preserving human agency and replacing repetitive tasks with higher-value responsibilities aligned with employees’ KPIs and OKRs.
Finally, Tim discusses how AI could change the broader future of work. Instead of humans performing repetitive tasks like software, he envisions employees becoming more like “conductors” who oversee, influence, and guide automated work while remaining in control of important decisions. The conversation closes with a rapid-fire round covering creativity, efficiency, workflows, and the future of work.
Overall, the episode explores how businesses can move beyond simply adding more technology and instead rethink how work itself gets done—using AI and automation to eliminate repetitive processes while keeping human judgment, creativity, and decision-making at the center.
