The UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 has wrapped, with England taking home the championship after a hard-fought and inspiring run. Whether you followed every match or didn’t tune in once, there’s something all business leaders can take away: Success—on the field or in the enterprise—doesn’t come from chance. It comes from strategy, preparation, and execution in the early rounds.

For organizations pursuing Intelligent Automation (IA), the same principle holds true. Before automation can transform your operations, it must prove itself through early, focused wins. Think of it not as preparing for a championship match—but as building a winning streak, one step at a time.

Here are four essential “wins” to set your IA program up for scale, success, and long-term impact.

Win 1: Define the Game You're Playing

In soccer (or "futbol"), no one steps onto the pitch without a clear tactical formation, and your AI strategy is no different. Too many organizations launch pilots without understanding what success looks like or which “position” AI should occupy. Whether you're playing possession-style or counter-attack, your business objectives should guide where automation is deployed first. While ideas often originate in the business units, IT leaders are the midfield maestros, coordinating the flow, building from the back, and connecting initiatives across the organization pitch. 

Top Use Cases for Intelligent Automation in 2024:

• Cybersecurity Defense: IA helps companies analyze and filter thousands of alerts, reducing false positives and improving threat detection accuracy by over 80%.

• Customer Interaction: Bots now manage more than 70% of basic customer service interactions, improving speed and satisfaction while freeing up agents for more complex needs.

• Finance Reconciliations: Automation of reconciliations improves accuracy and speed, with over 65% of companies reporting implementation in this area.

• Compliance Auditing: IA can oversee access, perform real-time checks, and ensure regulatory compliance, especially in highly regulated industries.

Tip: Start with structured, rule-based tasks. Prove value early—don’t try to automate everything at once.

Win 2: Start With a Friendly (Pilot)

No national team tests its strategy in the knockout round. Innovative teams utilize friendlies to refine their approach, build chemistry, and sharpen their game. Your Intelligent Automation program requires a pilot match and a clear, winnable use case demonstrating value and securing stakeholder buy-in. One retail group automated inventory reconciliation, reducing errors by 35%. Another implemented a digital agent in HR, accelerating onboarding by 50%. 

Ideal Pilot Characteristics: 

• Low complexity 

• High volume 

• Visible and measurable 

Business-unit support This is your warm-up; it’s how you build confidence in the locker room before rolling out across the whole organization. 

Win 3: Build a Squad that Can Win

No country wins the Euro without a deep bench. Similarly, you can’t scale IA with just a few talented players; you need a balanced squad and the right mix of experience and adaptability. According to Automation Anywhere, one of the biggest barriers to scaling automation is the shortage of skilled talent.

In their Pathfinder content, they emphasize that while organizations are eager to adopt advanced automation like Agentic Process Automation (APA), many lack the internal capabilities to design, deploy, and manage these systems effectively . The global IA and AI talent shortage will reach 40% by 2027. This isn’t a transfer window you can ignore (yes, I know this doesn’t apply to National Teams 😊). Get your internal and external team on the bus! 

What you need to scale:

• A mix of internal subject matter expertise and external implementation partners

• An IA Center of Excellence to train teams and share best practices

• External partnerships with vendors, universities, or startups to bring in fresh ideas

Don’t go into the match without substitutes; build a resilient team that adapts to injuries, red cards, and surprise opportunities. 

Win 4: Keep Score and Celebrate the Wins

Executives—and teams—need to see the scoreboard. Business leaders want to understand how automation is improving the bottom line, and employees want to know how it's making their work better.

It’s not just about cost savings (though that matters). Think: 

• Time savings 

• Error reduction 

• Compliance improvements 

• Customer satisfaction 

• Employee productivity 

According to UiPath’s 2025 “Automation Trends” report, companies that communicate IA impact internally are 2.5 times more likely to receive continued funding and executive sponsorship.

Make wins visible. Share success stories. Proving value builds momentum and helps create a culture that embraces automation.

Final Score: Ready to Win

Your Intelligent Automation journey doesn’t require a perfect bracket—just a smart start. Begin with clear goals, a strong pilot, the right team, and metrics that matter. With these first four wins, you’ll be better positioned to scale IA across your organization and drive long-term results.

IA is no longer a future-state capability—it’s becoming a core part of how successful businesses operate. Start smart, scale with intention, and celebrate along the way.