Applications have long been the core building block of the enterprise tech landscape — but change has quietly snuck up on us. A collection of diverse yet coevolving automation technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), low-code tools, native integration platforms (iPaaS), process intelligence, chatbots, and machine learning are increasingly being woven into a loose fabric atop the application layer. They abstract features and functionality of the underlying apps to make them accessible for a broad spectrum of users. This report shows how the “automation fabric” is the layer where work gets done — and how it’s becoming the new playground for digital transformation.