Why 82% of Network Automation Projects Fail (and What the 18% Do Differently)

Network automation is supposed to save time, reduce errors, and scale operations. So why do most projects stall or fail entirely? According to Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) research surveying 354 IT professionals, only 18% of network automation initiatives fully succeed . Another 54% report partial success, and 28% have stalled or failed outright. This isn't a tooling problem — Ansible, Terraform, and NSO all work fine. It's an architecture and organizational problem . Here's what the data actually says. The Numbers: What Gets Automated and What Doesn't The NANOG 95 survey (October 2025) stack-ranked automation adoption by task: Task Automation Rate Backups 88% Device Deployment 78% Firmware Upgrades 67% Service Provisioning 59% Non-Provisioning Config 54% Firewall Rules 53% Troubleshooting 44% Capacity Planning 39% eBGP & Interconnection 37% DDoS Response 31% The pattern is clear: simple, repetitive, low-risk tasks are highly automated. Complex, judgment-heavy tasks remain ma