How Leaders Can Cultivate an Automation-First Mindset While Building a Culture That Rejects Repetitive Busy Work Everyone says automation is essential, but most leaders aren't walking the talk: Here's how to foster an automation-first mindset in your company.

Amira Yahyaoui knows what it's like to lack opportunity. The anti-corruption activist was exiled from her native Tunisia when she was just 18, her citizenship records erased. Even after she arrived safely in France, Yahyaoui couldn't get a bank account, a phone number or legally attend university. She had no way to build her future.

Yahyaoui never forgot this experience, and in 2017, she founded Mos — a digital platform that matches students with college scholarships. Users fill out a single form to unlock more than $160 billion in financial aid that might otherwise remain tangled in bureaucracy. Building an equal playing field drives Yahyaoui's work. So does automation.

Mos uses big data, automation and analytics to prevent billions of scholarship dollars from going unused. I love how Yahyaoui and her team built an elegant, user-centric solution to a sticky problem. Her story also shows what's possible when leaders embrace an automation-first mindset — something I've tried to cultivate in my own company.