👉 Read the story of my writing journey.

What Your Machines Should Do: The Science and Strategy of Human-Centered Automation

Coming NoV 2026 ● Pre-order for 15% off

This book is a field manual for steering automation to extend human capabilities and drive business results. It addresses the Automation Strategy Gap, where aspirations of fully automated futures become disconnected from organizational readiness and customer value.

The book frames AI as the latest chapter in a long history of automation, drawing on decades of durable lessons from human factors, HCI, cognitive science, systems thinking, and management theory to help you automate with intention. Readers gain frameworks and tools to set deliberate direction (where the organization is going and why), directed progression (how to sequence automation rollout to get there), and grounded tactics (day-to-day decisions about how to automate).

TestimonialS

“Despite our general eagerness to increasingly automate our work and lives, the future of human potential requires us to do more of what humans can uniquely do. In an era of cognitive offloading, Hutka's timely book illustrates the costs, the opportunities, and the necessity of cognitive expansion.” — SCOTT BELSKY, Founder of Behance, author of The Messy Middle

“A delightful, surprisingly refreshing read on one of the hardest questions in tech... A must-read for product designers, PMs, business strategists, and frankly anyone trying to tame the AI beast.” — TATJANA DZAMBAZOVA, Head of AI at Motif; formerly Emerging Technology PM, Autodesk, IDEO alumni

“In this timely guide for product leaders, Hutka shows that the shortest path to choosing what to automate is the most intentional one.”— KIMBERLY PETER, Director of Design Research + Activation, RBC, and Co-Founder of The Banking on Impact Project

“Beyond the comfortable bromides of human-centered design, you'll find Hutka's thinking at the edge, where the ethical and pragmatic are not parallel, but convergent. Like another great Canadian, Hutka is skating to where the puck is going.” — MICHAEL DILA, Director Policy Futures Lab, Americans for Responsible Innovation

“This book puts current discussions about AI into human, social, organizational, and historical context using rich and compelling examples that help readers understand how human choices about automation echo across technologies and sectors. Hutka makes crystal clear the case that AI strategy is human strategy first and foremost and provides concrete approaches for navigating strategic choices about automation.”— ERIC T. MEYER, Dean & Chancellor's Professor of Social Informatics, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley