Automation Anywhere CEO Mihir Shukla on the Customer Zero Culture Program and Culture of Empowerment

We're here with Mihir Shukla. Wonderful to have you here today. He's the CEO of Automation Anywhere. Welcome, Mihir.

Pleasure to be here, Louis.

First of all, I want to congratulate you on becoming a Most Loved Workplace.

Thank you for that. The credit goes to our employees. As you know, they vote and great to have support of our employees.

One of the most beautiful things you've told me just before is the power of unleashing the human potential. I want to talk a little bit about that today, as well as, you know, why your employees think that you're a most loved workplace. And before we even go into that, love to hear more about Automation Anywhere and what it is you do, right? What you provide. Could you tell us more, Mihir?

So Automation Anywhere is an enterprise software company. We are focused on a category called robotic process automation and artificial intelligence. What this technology allows our customers and partners to do is we have lots of manual work in our workplace, whether you are processing claims, processing mortgage applications, generating reports, transferring data. And many of this work is very robotic and it doesn't bring fulfillment to us. And our technology allows customers to automate these processes easily, sometimes within matter of days. And it is so easy to use that any, virtually any knowledge worker can use it. So by bringing the power of automation to every knowledge worker, democratizing this technology and giving, putting in the hands of nearly a billion knowledge workers when we are successful, full, when we fully achieve our mission, is our goal. And that brings us to what you started with, is that is what we do. But why we do that is we have a deep belief in the human potential. And we think we weren't put on this planet to be robots. Work should be more human and workplaces should be where employees are empowered to unleash their potential. And the purpose of automation is, as our tagline says, is to allow employees to be— go be great. Um, and that, that, that, that mission drives us.

That's so cool. Number one, that is so cool that you say that. And because the software products that you create often allow for that unleashing of they do allow for the unleashing of human potential. How does that show up? How does that manifest that you've seen that excites you, that you're passionate about?

It shows up in almost every— for every employee in every workplace, and few that I have seen it in front of my eyes. And it is so delightful to see. I'll take an example that most of us can relate to. On a call center, employees, when they automate processes, call center employees are able to more focus on your needs. We all have been calls first on a long hold times, and then you're talking to the call center agent, and then in between there is silences because, you know, somebody's typing there or looking for things and searching for things. And instead of talking to you and understanding, you know, why did you call? I have an urgent need and I need this tomorrow, and what can you do about it? That's the real problem. So when you see those, we have recorded some of the calls before and after, and it is day and night difference when people are able to care for other people and solve their problems and not worried about typing it right. Amazing things happen.

It is. And it's sort of the note-taking aspect and being heard and being typed out before you and then summarizing. Those kinds of things are things that can be automated. And, you know, we're not achieving singularity yet, right? We're not quite there, you know.

Yeah, not at all. We are at the ground floor here. There is so much basic stuff that, you know, basic technology can do. And by putting power of this to everybody, I think there is so much intellectual capacity, creativity, humanness that we can unleash.

And that humanness, that your ability— what really you're doing is you're studying human behavior. And saying, well, what is it? And then really surveying, observing like you did. What is it that can be automated? And let's do that in a very eloquent way. Which kind of, it gets us to the second part of this, which is, you know, your workplace itself unleashes their own human potential. And if you said, you sort of, you drink your own champagne and you launched a Customer Zero program. And I want to hear more about Customer Zero Program, where you're the first customer of everything you do, and that's what makes AI a better place to work. So tell me more about the Customer Zero Program and how that really makes you a most loved workplace.

Yeah. So we, you know, having heard of our passion, we decided that we have to be customer. We drink our own champagne. We have to be the first customer of all of our products. Products. And it created an environment where when anything that you create, when you are the first one to consume, it creates an accountability. Sometimes if it breaks one or two things here and there, it breaks it for us and we get it right and fix it before it reaches to thousands of our customers. But it creates an environment, most importantly, where if you today, Louis Carter, work for Automation Anywhere, and if you wanted to do the most human thing, create things, listen to customers, understand their problems, and automate some of your mundane things. You, you won't have to argue about it in automation anywhere. That is the first thing everybody will help you do. Anyway, you can be empowered to do all you can do and not have to do the robotic work. You will get all the support here, um, and that creates a culture for it, uh, I'll share an example. There was a specific quarter, Louis Carter, where our legal team had just a lot of new contracts and they were working very hard. And how could you say no to more business? So, but it was a lot to handle. And our team stepped in and automated all of those processes and improved the contract. 80% of the process were automated. And thus, you know, relieving the pressure on our contracts team. Things like that would happen all the time here. And that— there's something good about that part where, you know, you are empowered to do what you would like to do.

What I like about that too, Mihir, is that you're able to spec or look at— you really look at your— observe your own human behavior so that you're better able to serve your customers' automation needs. So Customer Zero is I come first, I look at what I do, I practice it before I preach it and enable it for others, which is great. What a great experience.

Yeah.

So you were saying sort of, you know, what, what do you think it is that makes, that, that makes your employees say we are a most loved workplace? What do you, what do you think?

I, I think probably a few things, uh, combination of few things. I think maybe the first thing, it starts with what we do and why we do it, right? So I mentioned what we do is automation, and we use the most cutting-edge technology there is, uh, we— and, and in some areas you are inventing new things and laying out the new foundation, new, new roads And it is exciting if you are that kind of an individual who enjoys doing that. And part of what we do, Louis, is, you know, the purpose of technology is not just to make things better, faster, smarter. Obviously, that's what technology does. But I have always believed that technology allows you to do things that you could never do before. Sometimes you could never imagine before. And our team here comes together and imagines things that were never possible before. And it is— It is exciting to do that, a very creative process. So people like that. I think why we do this is probably even more important. As I mentioned, that our goal is to unleash the human potential. But sometimes we as a team talk about our role in history. If you think about it, Every software changes how you work. That is not a new phenomenon. But what is unique about us is every 100 to 150 years, human race changes definition of work itself. You know, we used to farm in fields and farms and then, you know, definitions evolve as we— as the progress is made. I think by the time we achieve our full mission we would have transformed the definition of work itself to be a lot more human. And that opportunity, regardless of who you are, comes to you at every 100, 250 years. And our ability to contribute in the society at that size and scale, in whatever little way we will end up doing that, is, is a privilege, is an amazing opportunity. And I cannot believe we have that opportunity because you have to be in the right place, right time, in the right seat with the right technology. And that is exciting. Yeah, you know, so I think that there is this foundation of why I would, you know, one of the reasons why people love it. I mentioned we work hard to create a culture where people are empowered. They don't have to do as much of mundane work. Use automation themselves. We also create a culture where, again, we work hard at it. None of these are destination, it's a continuous work in progress. But create a work-life balance. We create a stress-free day every quarter where the entire company takes a day off except maybe customer-facing, some of the members.. And next time when we meet, we talk about what did you do before we talk about work. How, you know, how was the day off? We acknowledge contributions from our team members. So every other week I have a CEO town hall where all the employees participate. And we talk about, we start the town hall by asking what or who made you proud this week. And it is amazing to see hundreds of names surface up, and some— many times they are not the same— every other week. And it reminds us what it means to be a team, a great team together, where everybody is contributing to the best of their ability. Um, we take effort to do wellness programs. Uh, we have a women's empowerment circle to coach, mentor, sponsor women. We have mental health programs. We try to do a few things like that just across the board to create an environment where it is, you know, we foster employee growth.

You know, there's so many aspects of what you said that fits our model really about collaboration and co-creation. If the first one especially, with customer zero and positive vision of your future, alignment of values with each other, how you establish respect and connect that to outcomes. Tell me about your vision and, you know, how you see the future of Automation Anywhere. Is there something that you see for the future for the company that everybody kind of can—

may—

that they believe in as well?

So I, I, yeah, I often think I'll paint my picture of what the next 500 years looks like because we all, all of us have a role to play in our lifetime contributing towards a, you know, larger story. And you kind of understand your role in the history, then everything makes sense. I think, Louis, if you think about it, the potential of the human race, um, think about 100 years from now, we'll be skiing on the slopes of Mars. 200 years from now, we'll be surfing on the rings of Saturn. 500 years from now, you'll be tapping black hole as an energy source. These are the potential of the human race. And you cannot do any of these things if 70% of our workforce is engaged in robotic work, you know, moving data from one place to other or doing something else. So you have to accept that in order to make progress, we have to use the human potential. Because that's the biggest force of all. And so what our purpose in this journey is, is we believe everything that can be automated, that should be automated, must be automated so that people are empowered, unleashed to do things that human beings do the best. And then we can do it at scale, we could do without errors and bringing fulfillment to our jobs. We also believe that talent is evenly distributed, opportunity is not. And the part— by democratizing automation, we will create more opportunities in every part of the world. There is some boy or a girl somewhere in Africa, somewhere in Kansas, somewhere in some other parts of the world that is waiting to leverage all of this technology and create the next multi-billion dollar company. By, you know, we should make these opportunities available. So I think the vision for companies is to automate as much everything that can be automated and achieve an unprecedented amount of efficiency, productivity, and scale that we've never been able to achieve before.

What I love about what you said, it has such a meta, uh, relationship, right? Because we're looking 500 years down, right? Whether we're surfing the rings of Saturn, uh, or the, the incredible— or taking in the energy of a black hole, which would give us the ability to, to, uh, go faster into alternate universes. That's right. And there's, there's an amazing, um, power in where we're going, and power and energy as well, energy sources. And the— when we open our minds to that possibilities and think that far out, 500,000 years, and, uh, and place that in our present, what we're actually saying, I believe, is we have a new relationship with, with technology. Because in 500 years, likely there will be robotics, and we have to relate to robotics. We have to be, uh, empathetic to to the robotics and say, I understand. Oh, you're in trouble. Let's spec. I will help you. And I will teach you. And thus, you will teach me. And we will both be human, whatever humankind really means. Yeah.

I think the journey to harness the power of technology is not a new phenomenon. When the steam engines came, people had similar concerns to computers, to internet. And yet there are more higher-paying and more fulfilling jobs today than any other time in history. It's just a fact, right? So I think we have to continue to harness the power of technology so that from quality of life improvement to everything else that we have accomplished continues it. We always have to be cognizant that whether it's automation or any other technology, it is a force for good. It is a subject that is close to our heart, and we mention it with many of our employees, which we talk about this together. Say, The key question around that is, is world a better place because our company is in it? And you start with that question, because that's a foundational question. And the answer has to be resounding yes. And then we answer, why is it that way? Why is automation force for good? And are we harnessing technology to make world a better place? And If you like, I can share some of, some of the things we have attempted in that area. But it is an integral part of the conversation for us, and not an afterthought.

It is. I like how you said that. Is the world a better place as a result of us being in it? And the other question, you know, just in relationship is, is the world a better place as a result of us being partners, as a result of us being together? Are we better off?

And you have to ask yourself that question.

And especially especially for the future, because the future could easily go to a place that isn't trusting. And the core of all of this is trust— for automation to trust us, for us to trust automation. Because when we don't trust automation, automation doesn't trust us. We cannot progress.

That's right. You know, one of the examples we use with us and our customers is 98% of our body is automated. The reason why I'm able to have this delightful conversation with you is because I don't have to think about breathing. Isn't that wonderful?

It's an involuntary response, involuntary.

That's right.

Yes. It's a lovely thing. And to make those things that we, we do— well, exercising, eating properly, nutrition, meditation, life balance. These things that we take for granted, and we automate and make them involuntary as if we're doing an asana, we're doing our Ujjayi breath, the Ujjayi breath every 30 seconds, and our involuntary breath every moment. It's a lovely way. What you're doing and what you're in your company is truly revolutionary.

It is exciting for us and our customers. And this is a journey with our customers and partners. We collaborate with them. You know, path to future is often uncertain and you discover it together. But it is so fulfilling at various levels. I'll tell you, Louis Carter, I was in one of our events before COVID And I was meeting customer and young daughter of one of my customer came and said, give me a card and say thank you. And I said, why? And say, you know, my mom used to come back from work at 8 o'clock and now she comes back at 5. You know, from a child's perspective, that was the most important thing, as it should be. Then I asked the mom and she said, look, I'm in finance towards the quarter-end close, you know, whatever it takes towards the end of the quarter. And now the automation takes care of it. And I'm back home. When you hear stories like that, you, you, it fills your heart.

What's so cool about that here is that is actually automation. We look at the systems thinking element, the systems variables of a human system. And what you said is, I'm going to look at this from an engineering mindset. If we don't allow for this work-life balance, and we don't allow for the breath and the— then family will suffer.

That's right.

Our life will suffer. Thus productivity will go down. It's, it's systems thinking. It's automation. And your beautiful mind and the beautiful minds of everybody at Automation Anywhere have identified that and solved for it.

Yeah. We are excited with the journey. As I said, none of these are destinations, but wake up every day more excited than ever. I'll share this for our current and future employees. I think the impact we will make in next 5 years on this space will be more than last, more than last 20 years combined, because technologies are ready, markets are ready, customers are ready. And the last 2 years have proven that this is not optional anymore. You know, just to look at our current supply chain challenge, you can't assemble a car without getting some of this automation going. So you can't stock the shelves of the grocery store without automation anymore. I think next 5 years would be one of the most impactful for technology. I can't wait to see the impact.

And I too, I can't wait for it, Mihir. I can't wait for it to see the skyrocket of your wonderful company continue to grow. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you, Louis Carter. Appreciate it. Thank you. It's a pleasure.