Ignoring the Absurd: The High-Stakes of Overlooking Automation

As a founder and Chief AI Operations officer at BforeAI, I’ve dedicated my career to building companies that are at the forefront of AI and automation. My passion stems from a simple, frustrating truth: so many of us, even in the most tech-forward environments, are blind to (or afraid of) the most obvious opportunities for automation. We see what we call “low-hanging fruit” (tedious or repetitive processes ripe for automation) and somehow, we just let them hang.

At BforeAI, we started building our company on the promise of providing security professionals with a predictive tool that would enable them to automate specific manual processes in ways that improved both speed and accuracy. In the fog of “startupland”, moving fast and trying to scale, we missed opportunities to automate our own processes. The irony is that it wasn’t out of fear of the technology or a cost cutting consideration, we were just used to doing things a certain way.

This isn’t a problem unique to my company. In my experience connecting with leaders at other businesses, from tiny startups to massive, mature corporations, the story is always the same. We get so wrapped up in complex, high-level strategy that we overlook simple, repetitive tasks that are practically begging for a robot to take over.

Automation Anxiety vs. The Backlog Burden

So, what is stopping us? The hesitation often stems from the perception that automation, while powerful, can be tricky. It’s true that automated systems often require supervision and constant tinkering with configurations, leading to the fear that they might create more problems than they solve.

When we think about automation as it relates to cybersecurity, there are undeniably deeper concerns about the potential risks. The stakes are simply higher. A common question is, “What happens, or who will be responsible for the automated actions, or more importantly, their failures?” Concerns about automation errors are valid, but, we must also consider the significant “mistakes” and liabilities incurred by not leveraging automation, particularly in our inability to address growing backlogs and the resulting resource strain on teams.

The Painful Past of Takedowns

Take the process of takedowns, for instance. For most companies, it’s a constant, painful game of whack-a-mole. You have to manually identify a malicious website, collect all the necessary evidence, draft a legal notice, and then submit it, often to multiple hosting providers, registrars, and other third parties. It’s an endless, reactive cycle that requires a team of people and countless hours of tedious, administrative work—all while the threat is actively causing damage.

Historically, it’s been a shared responsibility, with marketing teams initiating brand protection, legal teams handling the complexities of notices and jurisdictions, and now, cybersecurity teams increasingly face the burden of impersonation and phishing attacks. This distributed ownership, coupled with the inherently manual nature of each step, has led to a collective blind spot regarding the potential for automation. The sheer number of hands involved meant that the possibility of streamlining the entire workflow went largely unconsidered, perceived more as a necessary evil than an opportunity for innovation.

The traditional, manual practice of performing takedowns is:

• Tedious and repetitive: The process requires a team to manually identify a malicious website, collect all the necessary evidence, and then draft legal notices; generally for each offending infrastructure (of which a campaign can have hundreds).
• Slow and reactive: This administrative work consumes significant human effort and countless hours, all while the threat is actively causing damage and reaching more victims.
• Resource intensive: The manual process is a constant drain on skilled resources, leading to the false perception that there are simply not enough people to handle the problem effectively.

One could argue that the resistance to automating takedowns is due to fear—concerns about errors causing damage and requiring constant oversight. The process also demands nuanced judgment, not just technical skills, across legal and jurisdictional complexities, leading to a perception of limited skilled resources.

The Success of One-Click Takedowns

Our customers frequently praise the ease and speed of our takedown process. This feedback validates our core belief: that the future of security lies in full automation. The entire process, from brand monitoring to final takedown, is now handled with a single click. At BforeAI, we’re proud to have made this a reality.

The absurdity of the manual takedown process is what made it such a compelling problem for our AI engine. We realized that while the judgment needed for a takedown is nuanced, the process itself is a perfect candidate for automation. Our takedown capabilities are so smooth and unattended that we can automate the entire workflow, from proactive brand monitoring to the final takedown, without any human involvement.

• From reactive to preemptive: The automation engine doesn’t wait for a human to find a threat; it proactively monitors and identifies malicious websites and content, initiating action before it can cause widespread damage.
• Scalability and efficiency: A single click can trigger a takedown across multiple hosting providers and registrars simultaneously, a task that would take a human team countless hours and resources.
• Peace of mind: The process is so smooth and unattended that our customers can be confident that proactive actions are running autonomously, freeing their teams to focus on higher-value tasks.

The Ultimate Automation Stack: Leveraging APIs

At BforeAI, we understand that true automation means more than just a single-click solution. It means seamless integration into an organization’s existing security infrastructure. Our takedown capabilities are available via an API, allowing for the ultimate automation stack. This enables security teams to integrate our predictive intelligence directly into their own playbooks, automating the takedown process as part of a larger, end-to-end security workflow. We’re not just building a product; we’re building a system that fundamentally shifts the industry from a reactive to a truly predictive posture.

Staying Ahead: The Power of Speed

The result of this automation? A fundamental shift. Our customers are no longer burdened by tedious, administrative work and the slow, reactive cycle of manual takedowns. They can sleep soundly, knowing that continuous information updates and proactive actions are running autonomously.

So, while we’re out there tackling the big, hairy problems with cutting-edge AI, let’s not forget the absurd, mundane tasks that are still eating up our time. Our success with takedowns proves that the “low-hanging fruit” is often the most rewarding to pick. I challenge you to look at your own organization and ask: What constant, repetitive process are you allowing to continue because it feels too difficult or risky to automate? Sometimes, the silliest and most tedious tasks are just the ones we need to automate to unlock true efficiency and innovation.