Millions of budding, aspiring young individuals graduate from business universities each year, only to end up doing boring and repetitive tasks. Not only does it waste their creative talents, but it is also demeaning to the amount of effort they have put in to get to that point in their life.
One Pakistani startup, AItomation, is working to change that by making bots do the tedious, yet necessary, tasks.
Meet Saad Ehsan, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at AItomation, and his brother, Umair Ehsan, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Saad, the elder one, is a graduate of the Easter Mediterranean University and soon after his graduation, he joined Nishat— one of Pakistan’s biggest textile giants.
However, the job didn’t interest him at all as he was being made to do boring, repetitive work. As a result, he left the job and with the help of his brother— who he referred to as the “smart one” while talking to ProPakistani— started his very own startup called AItomation.
Umair, 24 years old and an engineer by profession, is a college dropout who wasn’t happy with the current education system and left it to pursue his own thing. Now, he is the CEO of one of the most promising startups to come out of Pakistan in recent months.
What is AItomation and what do they do?
AItomation is a startup that automates repetitive tasks on a computer with the use of software just like the robots have done for the industrial sector. They are different from most other companies in the field because they don’t sell products. They sell customized solutions depending on the client’s demands. They sell services.
Basically, they just ask their clients what do they want to automate. Then they come up with a customized bot that can do exactly that and requires almost no manual work at all.
For example, what if you want to get real estate data from a website on a daily basis? Normally, you would have to visit it each day but not with AItomation. They will automate that for you and everyday, a bot will get you all the required data in a neat excel sheet.
They can automate almost all of the mundane tasks that employees at businesses hate to do! They can automatically post replies on Facebook pages, tweets at regular intervals, compile a list of music videos on YouTube with more than a million views and so on.
“You name it, we can automate it,” says Saad.
They have been making it big internationally too— they have clients from all over the world, from Israel to the United States to Australia. Saad’s old employer, Nishat Linen is also a client of theirs’, one of the very first.
Initially incubated at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship, they also managed to get incubated in the Founders Space, a Silicon Valley-based incubator that has been ranked as one of the Top 10 Incubators in Forbes.
“Not only do you get feedback on what you’re doing, but you can put that against perceptions and visions of people from all across the globe, which really helps you planning how you’re going to do work on your own startup,” says Umair about his experience at the Founders Space.
Their experience at Founders Space proved to be a big step in their journey. It inspired AItomation to change their model from one-time huge projects to medium-sized subscription projects. It was a big turnaround in their strategy and has helped them a lot in growing their startup.
Currently, they are looking to focus more of their efforts in Western markets, given the ever-increasing demand for automated solutions there. Saad believes that AItomation is more applicable to the markets of the United States and Europe. The Western countries have a lack of cheap labor and, therefore, rely hugely on automation of tasks for economic feasibility. This is exactly what AItomation is about and that is the market they are hoping to exploit in the coming days.
Excellent idea. Most of us Pakistanis will do anything for a song. Hire them to facilitate some lazy office worker in the west.
Thank you ProPakistani for covering this.
Aitomation(http://aitomation.com) always looks to help anyone increase their productivity.
Thank you for sharing our story. This culture of promoting and sharing is much appreciated. I would like to personally thank Samir and Propakistani for sharing our story :D
I have the same point of views that u ppl have keep it up .
May ALLAH PAK help you ppl In shaa ALLAH.
Whole system is going wrong and ppl will try to put u down but never step back and just do what u want and execute ur ideas.
Great Idea.
Quite creative and thought provoking. A true inspiration, keep up the hard work guys!
This is good but wouldn’t it lead to a job loss?
Mr. Basit
It is best you do not discourage young startups with your threats and ultimatums. These guys are doing a great job and for once , let them do it.
i am not discouraging anyone. Just pointing out a rigid fact that should be kept in mind while praising the wonders of automation. It is a TRAGEDY that machines are trying to replace the people.
I think YOU are a tragedy.
Dear Sir please see things from other perspectives. Can you stop the rise of machines or automation? do you want to? we are already behind in technology and automation when it comes to the advanced world. Yet they have more opportunities than us. So machines are not a tragedy. They are part of advancement. I hope you dont take offence to anything that i say. Also please note that a lot of people from Pakistan are happy about it. So its not just a “rigid fact”.
Alright, so you guys claim that you are creating jobs. In this country where 70% of the population is already in poverty, how can you claim to create jobs. This is not a developed country where you can easily implement automation. If you talk about the industrial revolution common laborers were ABLE to perform the task they were handed. How can you claim in this country where literacy rate is so low and people are already hunting for jobs in a jobless environment that people would be able to easily find jobs after post-automation transition?
had you ever find what is truly reason behind this poverty ? we paid taxes on each and everything.This country made million of USD from people taxes but we have poverty why because we select corrupt people
This is a very solid point Khalid. I agree with you.
You started it and no one can stop you from it. Then why you all are arguing with someone who is just expressing his opinion and he just told a fact. Automated things (hardware or software) r reducing human work and as a result it leads to job loss. What so bad in it?? He never said you are doing something wrong or you should not do this.
O bhai larr kyun rahe ho? Everyone has a POV and all have right to express it. Even he said “This is good” and just raised a question and just read what you answered? Totally irrelevant and arrogant.
In short-term, maybe. But in essence, what they are doing is that they are reducing the talent loss which is dedicated to such kind of useless tasks which can be easily carried out by a bot. This can result in those individuals being focused at better and more creative projects that can contribute a lot more to the company. This is way better for long term success.
Human beings are destined to do far more intellectual jobs, rather than these menial and repetitive tasks. The same thing happened at the time of industrial revolution when machines took over the human assembly line. See how superior the human race has become since then intellectually. If it were not for machines, we would probably be writing these comments on a piece of paper with our own hands.
Brilliant idea…. This is the best i have ever seen.
Unique idea
Amazing work Umair and co! Love Aitomation and hope they revolutionize the workplace !
keep it up aitomation team. The concept of automation not only speeds up boring, repetitive tasks without errors and delays. It is opening of a new dimension to uncharted territories.
Thank you. This is exactly the idea :D
Sounds amazing! It will help save costs and increase productivity for companies. Way to go guys!
GREAT IDEA.
wow simply awesome……amazing idea…I think it can do wonders and revolutionised the world..one of a kind idea
This is very innovative! The inspiration behind the work is truly remarkable. Its amazing to see startups from Pakistan doing such quality work! Kudos to team!
That’s a Tremendous & Awesome Idea by brilliant young men from Pakistan
Appreciated ???
Brilliant idea. keep it up Aitomation team
What an innovative approach. You guys are doing great.
Akheeer idea !!!
Great to see how you guys have made giant strides in such a short time, best of luck and keep up the good effort.
Can it do all the sprint task assign on weekly basis so that I don’t have to code? :p
May Allah grant U more prosperity: Saad Ehsan, Umair Ehsan.
It is a great idea, let’s hope to say bye to all boring repetitive tasks soon. :D
Best of luck guys.
It is inspiring to read about companies that are at start and doing well in the market. Takes a lot of hardwork! Good work!
This is not a good startup for Pakistan. Maybe it can work in US or European Country. This will only lead to more jobs losses in an already poor country. These kind of startups should not be encouraged. They will lead to people losing their livelihood.
Sir, We respect your opinion. Although i would like to say that please try to see things from different perspectives. Our startup is not based on replacement of workers. Rather it is meant to do menial tasks, repetitive tasks to free human beings. “These kind of startups should not be encouraged” Although you say this, there are plenty of people who have encouraged us as well and believe it or not, they are in Pakistan.
i work as a data entry operator for the most part. Means my job can be possibly automated. So does that mean i am useless because all my tasks are reduntant. Believe me, You dont know fear of being replaced thats why you say that. You just promote your company. This is not good neither admireable.
Sir, When did i say that your job or any job is useless. If you mean “menial tasks” i did not mean it this way at all. This is meaning that some tasks can be easily automated. It did not mean to disrespect you or anyone else. All people who work hard are noble. Our focus is mainly to increase productivity of people. I didnt mean any offence to you. If you have taken any, i apologize.
This idea is going to change not only Pakistan but also the world. Great job guys!
Thank you so much. Although i have to say, that a lot of other companies are doing it as well not just us. Where we essentially differ from them is that we sell automation as a service.
What an innovative start-up idea, its about time that human mind is put to better use. All the best Aitomation!
Yo its aitomation
Amazing n Good luck. But bots can’t replace human. They will ultimately need human interference. For example, A bot can’t reply to any type of query but can post just a pre-written text in replies. Even FB messenger has this feature for pages. So at the end, a human will be needed for exact replies according to comments.(a boring task).
But we know this is just a start and have wide scope for doing tasks. Keep it up.
Is it ethical to mention the name of illegitimate occupation (not even worth calling a country or state) on one of the top Pakistani Tech news forum when even Govt of Pakistan declined to accept its existance.