🔮 Welcome to The Automation Tarot

A Mystical Guide for the Modern Enterprise

So you’ve drawn your first card...
Now what?

Whether your fate revealed The Rogue Bot, The Process Whisperer, or the dreaded Excel Crash, you’ve just stepped into a world where digital transformation meets divine comedy. This deck is a parody, but it’s rooted in real truths we’ve lived through with hundreds of teams across industries like manufacturing, energy, finance, and healthcare.

Use this page to explore the full Major Arcana of Automation, laugh knowingly at the pain, and if it resonates, reach out. Because while Tarot is mystical, transformation shouldn’t be.

The Cards & Their Interpretations

Read on to explore the full deck—and what it might reveal about you, your team, or your next system failure.

0. The Freelancer (The Fool)

Tagline: Blissfully unaware of bots.
Meaning: You’re at the start of something, but still doing everything manually.
Interpretation: This card signals fresh opportunity. It’s time to level up from spreadsheets and Ctrl+C. Explore where simple automation could change your daily grind.

I. The Citizen Developer (The Magician)

Tagline: Will code for coffee.
Meaning: You have tools, energy, and optimism. But no guardrails.
Interpretation: Great things are possible if IT and business collaborate. Time to build a sandbox, not a sandcastle.

II. The Process Whisperer (The High Priestess)

Tagline: She knows where the real bottlenecks hide.
Meaning: You sense friction that others miss.
Interpretation: Trust your instincts and your dashboards. This card calls you to lead by insight, not gut feel alone.

III. The COE Queen (The Empress)

Tagline: She scales what others can't.
Meaning: You nurture automation into maturity.
Interpretation: You’re not chasing shiny objects. You’re building frameworks. This card honours enablement and long-term thinking.

IV. The Governance King (The Emperor)

Tagline: Thou shalt not skip documentation.
Meaning: The only way to scale is through structure.
Interpretation: This is your cue to review processes, policies, and RACI charts. Boring? Yes. Essential? Also yes.

V. The SAP Sage (The Hierophant)

Tagline: He speaks fluent transaction codes.
Meaning: Your organisation runs on legacy, and you know where the bodies are buried.
Interpretation: This card calls for respect. Integrating old and new requires patience, fluency, and an ABAP decoder ring.

VI. The Human-Bot Union (The Lovers)

Tagline: The perfect digital relationship.
Meaning: People + automation > either alone.
Interpretation: Check your handoffs. Are your bots helping or replacing? Real value comes from collaboration.

VII. The Agentic Engine (The Chariot)

Tagline: Build faster. Think smarter. Orchestrate everything.
Meaning: You’ve got momentum. But is it pointed in the right direction?
Interpretation: Speed alone isn’t strategy. This card calls for purposeful orchestration, not just more tools. Align your vision, rein in the chaos, and steer toward outcomes, not output.

VIII. The Change Champion (Strength)

Tagline: ROI in one hand, empathy in the other.
Meaning: True transformation needs soft skills.
Interpretation: This card highlights your role as a bridge between ambition and reality. Lead with clarity and care.

IX. The Rogue Bot (The Hermit)

Tagline: No governance. No version control. Just vibes.
Meaning: Something’s running… but no one knows what it does.
Interpretation: Investigate your rogue assets. This is a warning to bring shadow automation into the light.

X. The System Update (Wheel of Fortune)

Tagline: Patch notes: unknown. Risk: certain.
Meaning: The landscape just shifted.
Interpretation: Expect disruption. But it’s also a chance to reset and stabilise—if you act proactively.

XI. The Auditor (Justice)

Tagline: She sees all. Documents everything.
Meaning: It’s compliance time.
Interpretation: If you’re hiding spaghetti bots or inconsistent logs, this is your wake-up call. Do it right—or be ready to explain.

XII. The Manual Rework (The Hanged Man)

Tagline: Rejected. Restart required.
Meaning: You missed a requirement.
Interpretation: Time to pause and learn. The pain of rework is your teacher. Fix root causes, not just symptoms.

XIII. The Process Sunset (Death)

Tagline: RIP, legacy workflows.
Meaning: Something has to end.
Interpretation: Transformation can’t happen if you cling to the past. Let go with purpose. Reinvent what matters.

XIV. The Integration Layer (Temperance)

Tagline: Middleware with middle-child energy.
Meaning: You’re the unsung hero keeping everything flowing.
Interpretation: This card reminds you that harmony lies in connection. Make sure your systems (and teams) can talk.

XV. The Licence Trap (The Devil)

Tagline: Locked in. Usage? Optional.
Meaning: You’re paying for tools you’re not using.
Interpretation: Re-evaluate your stack. Are you solving problems, or adding complexity?

XVI. The Excel Crash (The Tower)

Tagline: Unexpected error. File not saved.
Meaning: Something just broke—badly.
Interpretation: Don’t rebuild the same way. Use the chaos to redesign better foundations.

XVII. The Process Analyst (The Star)

Tagline: She sees what others miss.
Meaning: Hope, clarity, metrics.
Interpretation: This card signals a clear-eyed path forward. Follow the data—not the hype.

XVIII. The AI Black Box (The Moon)

Tagline: Insight or illusion?
Meaning: You’ve got powerful models—but unclear logic.
Interpretation: Push for explainability. What looks magical may be masking poor assumptions.

XIX. The Executive Sponsor (The Sun)

Tagline: Everything works when they believe.
Meaning: You’ve got top-down support.
Interpretation: Capitalise on this moment. With the right sponsor, transformation gets wings.

XX. The KPI Review (Judgement)

Tagline: Go-live is over. The numbers don’t lie.
Meaning: Now we measure.
Interpretation: This is your reality check. Time to show the value—or adjust course.

XXI. The Agentic Enterprise (The World)

Tagline: Human and digital workers in flow.
Meaning: The goal realised: autonomy, integration, intelligence.
Interpretation: Celebrate—then scale. This card confirms you’re doing it right. Now go bigger.

Want a Future You Can Predict?

The cards may be playful, but the work is real. At Ashling Partners, we’ve helped hundreds of teams move from pilot paralysis and rogue bots to orchestrated, agentic operations.

Ready to explore how?
Let’s decode your future: no mysticism required.