Get ready for the bot revolution

For today's overworked, time-strapped IT employees, bots are more than simply apps that perform automated tasks, like delivering weather reports or taking pizza orders. Rather, they're a respite from endless help-desk calls, constant software updates and tedious server maintenance jobs.

Richard Borge

"Eighty percent of IT's effort is focused on mundane, grunt work — ditch-digging to keep the lights on with barely 20% spent on innovation," says Frank Casale, founder of theInstitute for Robotic Process Automation(IRPA). But bots promise to change all that, he says, by "taking on the bulk of the routine, dismal work that makes IT workers feel like human robots."

For example,AT&T is using botsto automate humdrum data-entry activities. And1-800 Flowers has rolled out botsto help customers place online orders, while TV networkCNN uses bots to deliver breaking newsand personalized stories. By handling tasks that are either directly overseen by IT, or supported by IT resources, bots are fast becoming "magical for most IT departments," says Casale.