The Microbiology discipline of pathology is a critical healthcare service to public health and clinical practice. The modern Clinical Microbiology Laboratory has numerous barriers to overcome to remain competitive while maintaining the high quality of testing for the patients they serve. Skilled workforce shortages is a global phenomenon for which 77% of employers in the Healthcare and Lifesciences industry report difficulty filling roles1. Persistence with manual and time consuming processes are counterproductive to addressing the pressure to improve turnaround times and presents inherent human error risks. With an ever increasing workload and the Medicare Benefit Scheme rebates for pathology often inadequate to cover testing costs, diminishing returns are felt by addressing with manpower alone. Leveraging technologies such as automation systems, molecular platform integration and Artificial Intelligence (AI) analysis algorithms into the workflows, is key to increasing efficiencies and improving quality of work by process standardisation and minimising error risk. This presentation delves into the automation solutions being adopted into the pre-analytical sections of a large clinical Microbiology laboratory. Integration strategies, Implementation, future directions and change management considerations are discussed.