Automation is meant to reduce admin and boost productivity — but sometimes it introduces chaos instead. One South African corporate experienced this first-hand: the more excited they became about automation, the higher their notification overload, frustration with process, and “bot fatigue.” Kodah stepped in, transforming their bloated digital workflow into a sleek, powerhouse engine — proving that more bots doesn’t always mean better results.
The Problem: Automation Overkill
This team started with the best intentions, converting every manual step into an automated trigger:
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Notifications for every status update
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Multiple assignment automations per task
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Automated prompts for daily stand-ups, feedback, and customer updates
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AI-powered recommendations blasting through every chat message
Instead of smoother work, the team was drowning in noise. Projects slowed, meetings multiplied, and no one could tell which alert actually required attention.
What began as an automation revolution had become a digital rebellion — bots were controlling people, not the other way around.
Kodah’s Rescue Plan: Audit, Simplify, Humanise
Kodah began with a full automation audit. Every workflow, trigger, and notification chain was mapped from the ground up.
Their approach included:
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Identifying overlapping and redundant automations
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Trimming triggers that didn’t serve a real human or business need
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Consolidating like automations to minimise unnecessary steps
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Role-aware triggers, ensuring each team member only received relevant alerts
Reporting was overhauled too: dashboards now showed only actionable insights, eliminating vanity metrics and clutter.
The Power of Human-First Automation
Kodah championed a human-centred approach to automation:
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Bots worked silently behind the scenes, facilitating processes without adding noise.
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Employees had dedicated focus time, with calendars cleared of unnecessary alerts.
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AI features were deployed tactically — for example: transcribing meeting notes into tasks, suggesting task priorities, and predicting risks without creating notification floods.
Results: Bots for the People
After Kodah’s intervention:
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Notification volume dropped by 70%
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Project handover periods became 35% faster
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“Bot fatigue” lifted and team satisfaction soared
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Managers received actionable insights, not digital noise
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Employees described work as “flowing naturally, not managed by robots.”
Key Takeaways: Automation Done Right
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Less is more – automate only tasks that truly relieve pain points
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Regularly audit – what was useful at launch may become redundant as teams grow
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Personalise for people – one-size-fits-all rules are rarely effective
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Educate and iterate – train users to manage, adjust, and optimise automations
Kodah’s approach proves that automation isn’t about the most bots — it’s about the right bots, tuned to the rhythms and needs of real people.
When bots do the work for you, teams thrive. When bots create chaos, teams rebel. Kodah shows you how to get automation flowing, not overwhelming.