Its always nice to have your opinions and thoughts backed up by a trusted source. I wrote back in February (PPC bid management software) about my thoughts on why software will never replace human intervention in management of PPC campaigns and this week a similar post has appeared on Search Engine Journal, this time in relation to SEO tools. The post written by David Harry argues, much like I did, that a good search marketing tool is only as useful as the person wielding it and the the analysis and interpretation of the data produced by search marketing tools is where the real value lies.
I encourage you to have a read of the article, it makes some valid points surrounding the use of tools for SEO, many of which can be applied to automation of other processes both online and offline.