If I had a choice on how to do this, I'd set up an internal productivity team that didn't aim to automate everyone's jobs away, but instead give them the tools

If I had a choice on how to do this, I'd set up an internal productivity team that didn't aim to automate everyone's jobs away, but instead give them the tools to do their jobs better. Especially when it comes to support roles, there's just no way you can take the human out of that equation (as much as Google thinks you can), but you can do a hell of a lot to make the life of those employees much easier by addressing pain points and giving them the tools they need. This isn't just a case of fixing bugs to reduce support calls, but making sure your back-office/admin setup is solid and gives them everything they need. This way, you're not automating away their jobs, you're enabling them to do it more effectively. I'm not sure how this might work outside of a software firm, but I've led a couple of teams like this in the startup world and they've easily been my favourite positions.