{"id":2254,"date":"2026-03-31T22:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T02:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog2wrkdev.wpenginepowered.com\/citizen-automation\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T08:22:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:22:02","slug":"citizen-automation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/citizen-automation\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Citizen Automation: A Complete Guide for Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After analyzing hundreds of individuals who used our enterprise automation platform over a recent one-year stretch, we found that more than half of automation builders worked outside of IT.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Source: 2022 Work Automation Index<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While citizen automators clearly play an important part in how organizations automate today, we expect their role to only grow more significant in the years ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll explain why we believe that\u2019s the case as well as how you can fully embrace this trend. But to get us started, let\u2019s define citizen automation. <\/p>\n\n\n\r\n

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Wondering what else we discovered in our analysis?<\/h4>\r\n

Our Work Automation Index offers insights on everything from the processes that get automated most frequently to the applications that are used in automations the most.<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t Access our Work Automation Index<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t\t <\/div>\r\n\n\n\n

What is citizen automation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Citizen automation, or citizen-led automation, consists of tools or platforms that allow individuals to implement automations without having to write much, if any, code.<\/strong> Moreover, the individuals using these tools are often citizen automators, or anyone who has more business skills than technical expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can think of the relative proportion of business versus technical skills as a spectrum, where within that spectrum lies different roles: <\/p>\n\n\n

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On the far left, you have integration\/automation developers who are, generally speaking, most technically-inclined while least business savvy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the opposite end, you have non-technical business users, or individuals who both work outside of a technical function (e.g. HR) and, relative to their peers, are less technically savvy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roles in between have varying degrees of competency in the two areas; but once an employee is either a business analyst or another role to the right, and they\u2019re involved in building automations,<\/em> they\u2019re considered a citizen automator.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/em>What\u2019s a citizen integrator?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefits of having citizen automators<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s why citizen automators play an increasingly important role in how organizations transform their operations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Scales automation capacity<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Your automation developers, application admins, data analysts, among other technical personnel, are likely strapped for time. They may be able to handle a few automation requests, but pushing them to implement a significant volume of them over a short period is all but impossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our research from the State of BT<\/a> validates this idea: The business technology teams\u2019 top frustration is their inability to implement automations fast enough on behalf of their business partners.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Citizen automation neatly addresses this issue, as adding additional builders can extend capacity and trim down automation backlogs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Leads to more impactful automations<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Given citizen automators\u2019 unparalleled understanding of their respective department\u2019s applications, data, and processes, they\u2019re uniquely positioned to implement powerful automations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, given that they\u2019re the \u201cboots on the ground\u201d, they\u2019re most likely to spot any issues or improvement opportunities that arise over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that, if given the appropriate set of permissions, they can move quickly in addressing any of the challenges or optimization possibilities they identify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Reallocates technical resources effectively<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While there\u2019s obviously value in having your technical personnel build and maintain automations, doing so would distract them from other business-critical work that they\u2019re uniquely positioned to handle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes executing on core product initiatives that aim to differentiate your product, close the gap on rivals, address bugs that plague your UX<\/a>, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Involving citizen automators ensures that your IT and engineering teams can focus more on the type of mission-critical work mentioned above\u2014while still allowing them to budget time for any automation projects that require their unique set of skills.<\/p>\n\n\n

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How to empower citizen automators while keeping data and applications secure<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before using citizen automators, you’ll need to think through how you can enable them to build automations that accomplish their goals, and<\/em> provide guardrails that prevent them from seeing and modifying any data they aren\u2019t meant to access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answers to these questions come in the form of the automation platform you use and the governance model you adopt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Invest in an intuitive and intelligent automation platform<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When picking a no-code automation tool<\/a> for your citizen automators, you\u2019ll need to look beyond its no-code capabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few specific, UX-based features to look for when evaluating different platforms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Descriptions are auto-generated<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Descriptions are auto-generated for an automation\u2019s trigger and action steps to explain what, exactly, they entail. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This allows your team to easily share automations and collaborate on them. In addition, it ensures that when a citizen automator returns to one of their automations after an extended absence, they\u2019re able to get back up to speed in no time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Platform provides recommendations to builders<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The platform provides recommendations to builders as they work on their automations<\/em>. These recommendations can be based on the previous steps in the automation, the other automations you’ve built on the platform, and all of the automations\u2014both within and outside of your organization\u2014that\u2019ve been built on the platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using this machine learning-driven guidance, your citizen automators are more likely to build effective automations, faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n