In plain language
It turns a known process into consistent steps so people do not have to perform every handoff manually.
Example
A paid invoice automatically updates the CRM, creates an onboarding task, and alerts the account owner.
Related terms
Workflow · Trigger · Action · Conditional Logic
Common misconception
Automation does not fix an unclear process; it usually reproduces unclear rules faster and at greater scale.
Implementation guidance
Document the manual process, define ownership and exceptions, make repeated runs safe, add monitoring, and preserve a manual recovery path.