In this article, I aim to critically examine the key ideas presented in the book Age of Invisible Machines: A Practical Guide to Creating a Hyperautomated Ecosystem of Intelligent Digital Workers by Robb Wilson and Josh Tyson, and to relate them to the current challenges of digital society.
The book is a large-scale manifesto of a new technological paradigm. It explores hyperautomation—the systemic transformation of work processes through AI, conversational interfaces, and ecosystems of intelligent digital workers. Drawing on their experience in designing conversational AI systems, the authors show how automation can become not merely a technological enhancement, but the foundation for a new organization of labor, company architecture, and ethics of human-technology interaction. The purpose of this article is to briefly outline the book’s key concepts, explain fundamental terms, and evaluate their relevance to today’s digital landscape.
Co-Creation and Team-Based Architecture
One of the central theses of the book is the necessity of co-creation in building a hyperautomation ecosystem. A specially designated core enablement team should implement tools, templates, training, and strategic vision, enabling every employee to contribute to the creation of digital solutions. This requires a paradigm shift—from centralized IT control to distributed digital initiatives.
The core enablement team’s mission is to get everyone in the organization involved in creating and improving the skills in the company’s ecosystem of intelligent digital workers.
Such an approach opens the door to the true democratization of innovation. But it demands organizational maturity and a willingness to move away from hierarchical control toward horizontal structures and transparent responsibility.
Microservices as a Foundation of Flexibility
The importance of microservice architecture is emphasized—each digital worker’s skill is broken into atomic blocks that can be reused and combined. This greatly enhances the system’s flexibility, scalability, and adaptability.
Microservices are the building blocks that enable the flexibility and customization needed for hyperautomation at scale.
This principle is especially relevant in Agile¹, DevOps², and lean³ development environments. However, without clear documentation and orchestration, the ecosystem may descend into chaos. Orchestration refers to the process of managing and coordinating microservices, distributed components, and digital workers to ensure they operate as a cohesive system. The author highlights the critical role of the orchestration layer—an operational level that ensures consistency, scalability, and reliability of execution.
Intelligent Digital Workers and the New Logic of Labor
Intelligent Digital Workers (IDWs) are AI systems that autonomously perform tasks—from processing requests to making data-driven decisions. Unlike traditional bots, they are not limited to simple scenarios but are capable of adaptation, learning, and contextual analysis.
Creating such workers requires collaborative architecture, design thinking, and ethical responsibility. They must be more than tools—they should be full-fledged participants in digital processes. A key concept here is human-centricity—designing around the needs of the end user.
Usability is the top factor impacting strategy adoption.
Citizen Developers: The Democratization of Automation
One major consequence of hyperautomation is the emergence of a new class of ”citizen developers”— employees without programming skills who can create and configure digital workers using low-code/no-code tools.
This shifts the power dynamic between IT departments and business units. The role of traditional developers evolves toward that of architects and mentors, while broad employee participation demands new policies for security, quality control, and knowledge support.
Open Ecosystems vs. Vendor Lock-In
Hyperautomation requires open architectures—rejecting vendor lock-in in favor of open-source, API-integrated, and modular platforms. Only then can organizations achieve the flexibility needed to adapt to rapid change and avoid technological dependence.
However, the book acknowledges the risks of this approach: security, support, and complexity. The solution, according to the authors, lies in building transparent, manageable ecosystems with high observability and resilience.
Ethical Challenges and Social Responsibility
The book devotes significant attention to ethical issues: algorithmic bias, digital inequality, and opaque AI systems. The authors insist: we must design explainable and fair systems—not ”black boxes.” Hyperautomation should expand opportunities, not reinforce exclusion.
It also addresses the displacement of human labor. What happens to those whose functions are automated? The proposed answer: retraining, participation in digital ecosystem creation, and assuming new roles as mentors and process curators.
In this context, it is also worth mentioning Yanis Varoufakis’s book Technofeudalism (Varoufakis, 2024), which attempts to conceptualize similar anxieties—but from a more pessimistic perspective. Varoufakis sees technocracy and digital platforms as foundations for a new kind of digital feudalism, where automation increases the power of digital oligarchs and deepens inequality. In contrast, Wilson and Tyson’s book proposes a proactive solution—a path where technology serves people rather than replacing them.
Relevance to the Current Landscape
The concepts described by the authors are already being realized in practical tools and approaches. Open-source models like Meta’s LLaMA and others demonstrate that powerful AI solutions can be created independently of vendors. Similarly, the rise of low-code platforms like n8n and Flowise (often integrated with ChatGPT) makes hyperautomation accessible to people without programming backgrounds. These tools are actively used to automate complex workflows, integrate AI, and create autonomous digital agents.
The book’s predictions align with contemporary trends: increasing investment in open-source AI, systems built around ChatGPT, and the appearance of banks and insurers that function entirely on AI. At the same time, concerns over digital control, ecological impact, and job displacement are intensifying.
Legislative initiatives (e.g., the EU AI Act), open letters from experts, and international ethical guidelines point to the need to balance innovation with the protection of human rights.
Conclusion
Wilson and Tyson’s book is not merely a guide to building AI systems. It is a philosophy for a new digital society—one in which humans remain at the center and technology serves their development. Hyperautomation is a powerful tool, but only when applied responsibly, inclusively, and with a human-first mindset.
For organizations, it represents both a challenge and an opportunity: to redesign processes, increase efficiency, and unlock the potential of their teams. For society, it is a chance to build a fairer and more technologically mature world. The main goal is to ensure that invisible machines do not lead to invisible people.
¹ Agile — a flexible project management methodology based on rapid iteration and feedback.
² DevOps — a culture and practice combining software development and operations with a focus on automation and continuous integration.
³ Lean development — a methodology focused on minimizing waste and optimizing processes through constant refinement.
References
- Wilson, R., & Tyson, J. 2022. Age of Invisible Machines: A Practical Guide to Creating a Hyperautomated Ecosystem of Intelligent Digital Workers. Wiley.
- Varoufakis, Y. 2023. Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. Bodley Head.
- Meta AI. 2023. LLaMA 2. https://ai.meta.com/llama. 21.05.2025.
n8n.io. 2024. Workflow Automation Platform. https://n8n.io. 21.05.2025. - FlowiseAI. 2024. Low-code platform for building LLM apps. https://flowiseai.com. 21.05.2025.
- OpenAI. 2024. ChatGPT. https://openai.com/chatgpt. 21.05.2025.
- European Commission. 2021. Artificial Intelligence Act Proposal. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021PC0206. 21.05.2025.