Bridging the Communication Gap to Unlock Agentic Automation ROI

Poor cross-team communication fuels AI sprawl and undermines automation ROI. See how ScriptRunner restores alignment, transparency, and secure agentic workflows.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Clear communication across teams is vital for productivity.

(00:03):
Large-scale operations often rely on cross-departmental workstreams where multiple teams are acting on the same data,
aligning on priorities,sharing updates,and delegating tasks.
When communication works, operations run smoothly.
Too often, it doesn’t.

Communication can break down for many reasons (00:21):
lack of defined processes,
diverging priorities across teams,missed handovers when people go on vacation,
or simple negligence.
This has always been a challenge.
But as agentic automation becomes central to the future of enterprise,
communication is more important than ever.

(00:41):
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Why Communication is Key in the Agentic Automation Era.
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Agentic automation promises to drive productivity by relieving human employees of routine tasks and freeing them to focus on higher-value work.
However,misalignment between teams has proven to be a major hinderance for new AI-driven initiatives.

(01:02):
By its very nature, agentic automation relies on cross-departmental collaboration.
Zero-touch automation workflows must frequently span multiple business functions to deliver a valuable end product,
meaning that IT,operations,and business teams need to coordinate closely to ensure that they run smoothly and securely.

(01:23):
Without effective communication,implementation of end-to-end workflows slows down,
expectations and priorities diverge,and inconsistencies in governance or policy leave the organization exposed to security vulnerabilities and compliance risks.
As highlighted by McKinsey’s research on operational AI adoption,

(01:44):
fragmented execution and poor coordination are among the biggest barriers to scalable,
value-driven agentic transformation.
Leadership teams can try to define communication channels and cross-functional processes,
but the pace and complexity of AI adoption often outstrip those efforts.
Establishing transparency and control while preserving autonomy and agility for individual teams has become one of the hardest organizational challenges in the age of agentic automation.

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The Dangerous Effect of Communication Gaps (02:15):
AI Sprawl.
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When an enterprise-wide agentic automation strategy is lacking, teams tend to proceed by themselves.
Instead of considering how automation fits into the broader value-creation process,
they focus narrowly on their immediate tasks.
This isolated approach hinders the full potential of agentic automation,

(02:38):
which depends on interconnected systems and coordinated execution across the business.

The unchecked adoption of AI tools by different teams has led to what analysts call AI sprawl (02:43):
the uncontrolled spread of disconnected AI systems and scripts across departments,
with little standardization or oversight.
Teams deploy their own automation tools,build custom workflows,
and experiment independently with configurations.

(03:05):
At the top level, organizations lose track of what’s being automated, by whom, and why.
This doesn’t just cause inefficiency;
it leaves the door open to serious risks.
Misconfigured automations can expose sensitive data and cause system errors that go unnoticed without proper audit trails or centralized logging.
Malicious actors can exploit these gaps to gain access or plant unauthorized code.

(03:30):
For enterprises operating under emerging regulatory frameworks for AI usage,
these lapses can lead to severe financial penalties and reputational damage.
What drives teams to go their own way?
They need quick solutions and can’t wait for lengthy approval processes.
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There’s no standardized automation strategy or infrastructure in place.

(03:52):
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Communication barriers stop teams from seeing overlaps or opportunities for collaboration.
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This needs to be remediated before agentic automation can deliver real ROI.
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The Solution (04:05):
A Centralized Platform Approach.
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The solution to the communication problem isn’t more meetings or chat tools.
It’s a platform for centralized oversight and control over agentic automations.
A unified automation platform serves as the connective tissue between teams,
giving IT leaders a transparent control hub where all automations,

(04:29):
scripts,and AI agents are managed securely and consistently according to standardized guardrails.
Importantly, this doesn’t mean taking autonomy away.
It means giving teams the freedom to innovate within a framework that ensures alignment,
accountability,and security.
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Promoting Collaboration and Synergy.

(04:50):
When everyone has visibility into existing automations,
they can collaborate instead of duplicating work.
Developers,sysadmins,and business users can see what’s already in place,
share best practices,and extend proven solutions rather than building from scratch.
This kind of transparency fosters synergy across teams,

(05:10):
transforming scattered automations into a cohesive,
enterprise-wide productivity fabric.
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Preventing AI Sprawl and Inconsistency.
A centralized platform also acts as a safeguard against AI sprawl.
Every automation runs through consistent governance layers with human-in-the-loop checks and predefined approval workflows.

(05:33):
This ensures that every process is authenticated,logged,
and compliant with policy,dramatically reducing the risk of unauthorized actions,
data exposure,or misconfigurations.
This results in a safer, more consistent automation environment that scales without chaos.
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(05:54):
Self-Service Automation.
To keep teams productive,IT can maintain pre-approved automation that provides compliant,
ready-to-run workflows to users across the organization.
These can be triggered through a self-service model,
allowing employees to perform routine tasks without waiting for IT to manually execute scripts.

This provides the best of both worlds (06:14):
empowered teams and enforced governance.
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Logging and Metrics, for Compliance and Continuous Improvement.
A centralized platform can provide detailed logging and performance metrics for every automation event,
showing who ran it,when,and what outcome it produced.

(06:34):
This documentation enables both accountability and collaboration.
Teams can review performance, debug errors together, and track improvements over time.
It also simplifies compliance audits by ensuring that every action is fully traceable and verifiable.
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ScriptRunner (06:52):
Connecting Teams Through Automation.
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ScriptRunner is purpose-built to bridge the communication gap,
bringing people,teams,and automation together under one unified framework.

ScriptRunner’s automation platform provides the infrastructure needed to bring an enterprise-wide agentic automation strategy to life (07:05):
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Centralized oversight of all automation workflows, with comprehensive logging.
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Top-down configuration and enforcement of governance, policy, and security controls.

(07:26):
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Built-in audit trails for compliance with existing and emerging regulations.
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Self-service automationfor users across the organization.
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ScriptRunner helps turn agentic automation into a source of collaboration,
trust,and measurable enterprise value.