Eberjey

Tony Schmitt

Business Technology Visionary

Rethinking the Purpose of Automation

Early in my career, I noticed the biggest wins rarely came from the most sophisticated technology — they came from removing small, repetitive friction points quietly draining hours out of people's days. That realization — work smarter, not harder — became an operating philosophy rather than a slogan.

In my current role, I spent my entire first year building automations for menial, repetitive tasks with clear paths to automation. Even something as basic as automating invoicing orders saved at least 10 hours a week for the staff responsible, freeing them to focus on higher-value parts of their jobs.

What struck me wasn't just the efficiency gained, but what happened to the people whose time got freed up — they didn't just work faster, they took on work that had been sitting on the back burner. That reframed automation for me: not as cost-cutting, but as capacity-creating.

That mindset now shapes every initiative I lead. My first question isn't "what can this technology do?" It's "where is friction costing us the most, and what would removing it mean for our people?"

Building Innovation on Strong Foundations

I approach innovation, security and reliability as a hierarchy, not a balancing act — reliability and security set the boundaries innovation has to operate within, not the other way around.

We recently evaluated a security platform meant to streamline onboarding and SSO. The demo looked seamless, but once we started testing integrations across our platforms, we were told to simply trust the process — even as each connection required jumping through hoops we were told wouldn't be necessary, work we'd then have to repeat at go-live. It wasn't the "connect and go" experience we'd been sold. The more roadblocks we hit, the more it pointed toward staff downtime beyond what I considered acceptable.

  ​I approach innovation, security and reliability as a hierarchy, not a balancing act — reliability and security set the boundaries innovation has to operate within, not the other way around.  

That experience reinforced a principle I hold firm on: a compelling demo isn't evidence of reliability. If a vendor can't show transparent, repeatable testing across every platform we depend on, the innovation isn't ready for our environment — no matter how promising it looks. Security and reliability aren't checkboxes to clear before innovating; they're the foundation that determines whether an innovation is usable at all.

The Human Side of Transformation

One of the most valuable lessons I've learned is that the technical rollout of a change is rarely the hardest part — bringing people along with it is.

When I began automating repetitive tasks early in my current role, I ran into real pushback. Some staff worried the automations were a first step toward replacing them, not helping them. That reaction taught me something important about leading transformation: you can't just implement the "what" and expect trust to follow — you have to be deliberate about the "why."

I made it a priority to have direct conversations with affected staff, explaining not just how the automation worked, but what it meant for them personally — less time on tedious tasks, more room to grow into higher-value work. That reframing mattered more than any technical detail of the rollout itself.

Building a high-performing team, I've learned, means building trust first. People do their best work when they believe change is happening for them, not to them.

The Two Sides of AI Adoption

AI is, without question, the trend that will most shape IT's future — and it's playing out on two fronts at once.

The first is adoption. Many of the same concerns I saw during our earlier automation efforts — fear that new technology means being replaced rather than supported — are resurfacing around AI. The leadership lesson is the same one: educate, don't dictate. Showing staff what AI adoption actually means for their day-to-day work, versus sticking with present workflows, is essential to getting real buy-in rather than quiet resistance.

The second front is security, and this one is escalating fast. As we adopt AI to strengthen our defenses, malicious actors are using the same advances to sharpen their attacks. It's no longer a question of if AI reshapes the threat landscape — it already has. IT leaders who aren't actively tracking these developments risk falling behind attackers who are moving just as fast. Staying ahead of this shift isn't optional anymore; it's a core responsibility of the role.

Technology through a Business Lens

My advice is simple: stop thinking like a technologist first and a business partner second — flip that order.

The IT leaders who earn a real seat at the table aren't the ones who can speak most fluently about the newest tool or platform. They're the ones who can answer a harder question: what business problem does this actually solve, and for whom? Every initiative I've led that succeeded started with that question, not with the technology itself.

Pair that with healthy skepticism. Don't take a vendor's word that something "just works" — test it, verify it, and be willing to walk away if it doesn't hold up under real scrutiny.

And never underestimate the human side of change. The best strategy in the world fails if the people executing it don't trust why it's happening. Technical skill will get you in the room. Business judgment and the ability to bring people with you are what keep you there.