Which statement best describes a potential advantage of automation?

• A. Increases manual workload
• B. Frees up staff time to focus on value-adding activities
• C. No initial setup costs
• D. Reduces data accuracy

Answer: (B)

Automation reduces repetitive, manual tasks, letting staff spend more time on activities that add higher value to the organisation. By taking over routine work, processes become faster and more consistent, which frees people to focus on analysis, problem-solving, process improvement, and customer-facing tasks. While there can be upfront costs for setting up automation and ongoing maintenance, the long-term gain is the extra time for value-adding work. The other ideas don’t fit because automation usually lowers manual workload, often involves initial setup costs, and generally aims to improve data accuracy rather than reduce it.