What's up with workflow automation?

So I've been talking up workflow automation and preflight lately with a group of people on a website. I started thinking to myself, what the heck is going on here? Does automation mean reduction of employees? Sure, it can. It can also mean not needing to add an employee. Or how about making the employees you have more efficient by reducing the mundane things that they do? Or what about taking the operation from eight hours a day, five days a week to 24/7? Not for all phases, but again for the mundane tasks? What about automating the delivery of files to various locations?