Intelligent automation is no longer optional; it’s the engine driving the next era of enterprise decision-making and execution.

As businesses face mounting pressure to operate with greater speed, resilience and precision, automation technologies are stepping beyond routine tasks to power adaptive systems that can respond in real time. What was once considered emerging tech has become essential infrastructure, reshaping how organizations manage data, connect applications and evolve core processes, according to Steve Lucas (pictured), chairman and chief executive officer of Boomi LP.

Boomi’s Steve Lucas talks about intelligent automation.

“We’ve entered this new era. We call it the era of AI-driven automation,” Lucas said. “It means that there is no process, there’s no system, there’s no business that shouldn’t be injecting AI into everything. It really is a technology race. If we don’t do this now, your business will not survive.”

Lucas spoke with theCUBE’s Savannah Peterson and Paul Nashawaty at Boomi World, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how intelligent automation is transforming enterprise operations by enabling adaptive, real-time decision-making while emphasizing the need for human-centered control and governance. (* Disclosure below.)

Intelligent automation requires control and creativity

Across industries, organizations are beginning to deploy automation technologies that go beyond simple task execution. Thousands of self-directed agents are already in production, responding in real-time to changes in business environments. The tools behind this movement are becoming more accessible, empowering business users to design and deploy solutions without writing a line of code, according to Lucas.

“Our customers have deployed 33,000 AI agents. We’re talking model code in their customer base,” he saide. “That’s not tomorrow. That’s today. We just gave our customers the ability to literally imagine and build any AI agent they want.”

These new systems represent a break from the past. Legacy software relied on deterministic processes, if-this-then-that logic, that could collapse when variables changed. Intelligent automation, however, adapts. It keeps workflows moving by making decisions in real time, guided by intent rather than rigid scripts, Lucas explained.

“We’re going to go from a world of deterministic processes … to agentic driven processes,” he added. “The process, it flexes, it bends, but it doesn’t break. That malleability that we’re gifting business and technology, that’s what we’re delivering”

Yet unlocking this potential brings new challenges, particularly around trust and governance. As organizations allow automated systems to take on more responsibility, they must also introduce oversight tools to ensure consistency, reliability and alignment with business objectives. Monitoring systems that act like air traffic control for digital agents are becoming a core part of intelligent automation platforms.

“We’ve launched what we call an AI agent control tower,” Lucas said. “Our agent control tower will allow you, me, to sit, watch all the AI in my organization and make sure it stays on track.”

At the heart of this transformation is the human element. Intelligent automation isn’t removing people, it’s amplifying them. Business professionals are now able to apply their domain expertise in new ways, designing automated systems tailored to their needs through intuitive, prompt-based interfaces. This broadens the scope of who can innovate and accelerates the pace of digital transformation, according to Lucas.

“If I can write a prompt in English, I can build AI agents,” he said. “I think we’re empowering humans that have very specific skills to now create agents.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Boomi World:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Boomi World. Neither Boomi LP, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE