Michael James Nicholas is the founder of Automajik, a company that specializes in implementing automation in businesses. Nicholas is a leader in the automation industry and emphasizes the importance of adaptability, automation, and innovation.
Career Evolution
Early in his career, Nicholas began working at AT&T before transitioning into the financial services industry with BMO. This experience ultimately led him to join the online startup brokerage TradeMONSTER, where he contributed to its innovative approach to trading platforms. During his time with the company, he demonstrated his ability to automate, design, deploy, and secure core network infrastructures by redesigning production and staging environments, implementing network solutions, and enhancing network security.
Nicholas’s contributions to the company were vital to its worth. TradeMONSTER merged with OptionsHouse and was later purchased by E*Trade for roughly $800 million. This acquisition was a significant achievement in his career and set the foundation for his future. Later, in 2015, he joined HERE Technologies due to his expertise in automation, contributing to their innovative solutions for automated driving systems. Nokia’s HERE mapping business was acquired by a consortium of German automakers — Audi, BMW, and Daimler — for €2.8 billion ($3.1 billion) on August 3, 2015. The deal was finalized in January 2016.
The Automation Revolution
Nicholas believes in the power of automation. In his opinion, many companies are still operating in “the Stone Age” and are hesitant to embrace the new technologies available to them. Many businesses need to make basic process improvements that significantly streamline their systems and increase efficiency. By using automation on repetitive processes, they can free up their employees’ valuable time for other tasks.
“As a human race, we all want to look out into the future. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that if you look at right now or where we are today, most people are not taking advantage of hardly anything,” Nicholas says.
For these reasons, Nicholas founded Automajik, which focuses on process streamlining and implementing basic automation in businesses to prepare them for artificial intelligence (AI) integration. He stresses that small changes in the present can help maximize a business’s potential. Additionally, he is a strong advocate for automation because he believes it will empower individuals to start their own companies.
“We’re going to see many people have direct-to-consumer individual-type of relationships and businesses where people no longer belong to corporations. People are the corporations themselves. Everybody is the CEO of their own enterprise,” Nicholas says.
Future Outlook
The impact of the pandemic continues to be visible in how people conduct business. Because online shopping platforms have now become more popular than brick-and-mortar stores, Nicholas predicts that there will be a 50% reduction in physical shopping malls over the next few years. Traditional business models are becoming obsolete, and businesses must adapt.
Nicholas believes automation and AI will make starting a business more accessible to everyone, but he also asserts that authenticity will be regarded as a valuable asset.
“I believe authenticity will be a significant trend. While AI is powerful, it often feels artificial. As AI-generated content becomes increasingly prevalent, there will be an oversaturation of artificial elements, making genuinely authentic content stand out even more. This shift will highlight the value of human touch and originality in a digital landscape dominated by AI,” Nicholas says.
As Nicholas continues to build and expand Automajik, he is inspired by technological advances to maintain his competitive spirit. He is ready for any new challenges that present themselves, and he is grateful to have the support of the people around him.
“Gold is refined by fire. Every setback is a lesson and a setup for success in the future. You can’t have success without going through the fire; that’s where all the learning actually happens,” Nicholas says.
