Muckwork is the invisible drag on every company. It’s the repetitive, manual, low-leverage work we tolerate because we assume it’s necessary. Copying data between systems. Triaging alerts. Clicking through approvals. Tasks that keep things running but slow everything down.
In 2006, Jeff Bezos called the backend plumbing of web apps “muck.” AWS was created to eliminate it.
Today, the same kind of work is everywhere in the enterprise. We call it muckwork.
The hidden cost
The American Productivity and Quality Center found that knowledge workers spend upwards of 20% of their time on repetitive tasks. In security alone, analysts spend 70% of their time manually investigating alerts—while burnout continues to rise.
The cost isn’t just time or money. Muckwork drains morale and results in employee churn. It leads to missed threats, dropped tickets, slow responses. It creeps into even the most critical workflows—places where the stakes are existential.
How companies have tried to solve it
We’ve thrown people at the problem.
We’ve bought more software.
We’ve outsourced it.
Each of these creates new layers. More handoffs. More tools. More complexity. None of them eliminate the work—they just shuffle it around.
Enterprise software stacks have grown 3x in the last decade. We’re not fixing muckwork. We’re cementing it into the fabric of organizations.
Why AI matters
AI changes the equation. For the first time, we have the potential for technology to not only understand tasks, but also act on them with consistency, speed, and context.
That unlocks a few things:
Important work stays in-house. No need to offshore what AI-enhanced employees and agents can do better.
Tech stacks become simpler and leaner. AI connects directly with systems and data you need to get work done.
Security improves. Less burnout, fewer vendors, known attack surfaces.
But AI alone won't fulfill that potential.
The missing piece: orchestration
AI needs access. To systems. To data. To workflows. And most importantly, to people who can orchestrate it.
Without orchestration, you end up with AI for AI’s sake, i.e. major investments and no adoption. According to McKinsey, 92% of companies are ramping investment in generative AI. Almost none have operationalized it.
Modern work in the enterprise is scattered across disconnected SaaS tools. What’s missing is the connective layer that spans data, applications, and teams.
Tines is building that layer—and we’re starting with the teams who know this world best.
Security and IT have always been on the frontlines of complexity. Thomas, our co-founder and chief customer officer and I saw this first-hand during our time at Docusign and eBay. It’s the reason we started Tines. These teams already manage sprawling toolsets, deeply understand systems, and are experts in workflows that can’t afford to fail. They are the architects of resilience—and now, they’re becoming architects of AI adoption.
We’ve seen these teams do incredible things with Tines: automating alert triage, scaling vulnerability management, streamlining onboarding and access, and now—powering intelligent workflows with AI within their teams and throughout the enterprise
But to continue to solve it for our customers, we also need to solve it for ourselves
Tines as Customer Zero
AWS had a “build for ourselves” mindset. They identified problems internally, built products to solve them, and shipped the ones that would bring value to customers. This led to tools like DynamoDB, EC2, and SageMaker.
Tines is taking a similar approach. So much so that Thomas’ full time role is now entirely devoted to leading adoption of our flagship AI tool Workbench–both externally and, just as important, internally.
Thomas is leading, but every Tines employee is responsible for identifying and testing new use cases. Our entire team is committed leading the way on bringing muckwork down to zero. We’ll be sharing new use cases and what we’re learning along the way. And we’ll be encouraging our customers to do the same.
The Autonomous Enterprise
Organizations everywhere are beginning their AI journey. It’s transformative—but it’s also uncertain.
Most will make incremental improvements. A few will get stuck in complexity and tool sprawl. But some—those who rethink how work gets done—and who crack the AI adoption code—will unlock something bigger.
They’ll reach the promised land:
A place where muckwork is reduced to zero.
Where employees are more fulfilled, not replaced.
Where enterprises move faster, stay safer, and adapt with ease.
We call this the Autonomous Enterprise.
It’s not a destination you reach overnight—but it is a path worth walking.
And the companies who commit to it will be the ones that define the next decade.
IT and security teams will be at the core and Tines is here to help
Let’s build it—together.