I think that in many regards, automation is more or less fully used only in the IT industry itself, and maybe a couple more where computers actually are front and center. A lot of others, after having bitter experience with computers, seem more skeptical, maybe justly so.
Startups like you say seem to crop up now and then, but it seems to me that while you could have some dolce vita as an individual, this approach won't make a company rich.
I’ve seen countless processes that were locked in place to protect the status of prima Donnas in Legal or Finance, which must rubber stamp projects or infrastructure requests. So nothing gets done except what suits those inside the broken process.