Automation Switch was founded by Michael Babs, a Computer Engineer with a background in product design, visual communication, and cloud computing. Michael has also been a digital infrastrcture and platform engineer for some of the world’s biggest brands across a range of sectors that include Conde Nast (Vogue, Wired, GQ, AD, Arstechnica) and Innovative startups in the blockchain (Blockdaemon) and Artificial Intelligence (Human.ai). 

I started Automation Switch to immerse myself in the ecosystem of transformative technology, believing that by intentionally seeking to learn about transformative technologies, I would be inspired and be forced to discover opportunities and contribute to the ecosystem. 

My journey started after watching a Netflix documentary, “Chasing Perfect”, about a famous car designer Frank Stephenson. In the documentary segment, he mentioned that his next major design project was for eVTOLS.

Naturally curious, I was keen to learn more about eVTOLs (electrical vertical take-off and landing), aircraft designed to use electric power to hover, take off, and land vertically.

Around this time, I also stumbled on the work of Peter Diamandis (Founder of the X Prize)  and Steven Kotler (A New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist).

Their ideas in the books “Abundance”, “The Future is Better than You Think”, and “The Future is Faster Than You Think”  excited me and broadened my mind about transformative technologies. The duo introduced me to technologies I’d never heard of while illustrating how technologies I’d heard of are being fused to create interesting value propositions across industries. 

Automation Switch was created primarily to help me learn by immersion and documenting my findings. By doing so, I believe I’ll be able to discover opportunities, be better prepared for the future and be equipped to make a positive contribution. I intend for Automation to serve and benefit like-minded people worldwide similarly.