Meet Maria Le Mura

Founder, researcher, consultant — and the voice behind Human-Centered Automation™.

I’m Maria — founder of Beyond Words VR, researcher in task automation and leadership, and author of Automate to Lead. I help founders create systems that scale their business without burning out their people.Over the past 10 years, I’ve:

Built and led teams in fast-moving tech environments
Designed automation systems grounded in real human workflows
Consulted founders across Europe on how to streamline without breaking what matters
Conducted doctoral research on the impact of automation on SME performance

My mission:
To bring clarity, structure, and empathy back into how we automate — and to help founders lead, not just react.

Why Most Automation Efforts Fail —
and What I Do Differently

I created the Human-Centered Automation™ method because too many founders automate chaos instead of fixing it.
They plug in tools, burn out teams, and still find themselves drowning in Slack and busywork.
This framework flips the script:

We start with how humans really work
We design systems around people, not the other way around
And we only automate what aligns with your leadership — not someone else’s tech stack

This method is now used in my consulting work, in my book, and in the automation plans I help clients build every week.

What I Believe

Automation should serve people, not replace them
Delegation is not abdication
Founders can lead without scaling burnout
Great systems reduce noise and increase trust
You don’t need 50 tools — just the right ones for you

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Speaker at LearnTec, BETT, ACTFL, BIG

Stevie Award Winner – Best AI in Education

eDBA research: “How automation transforms SME decision-making”

Author of Automate to Lead

Why Most Automation Efforts Fail — and What I Do Differently

What I Believe

Featured on

Why Most Automation Efforts Fail —
and What I Do Differently