What should your business automate first?

Choose your first automation project based on a recurring problem and a benefit you can achieve. A new system helps only when the work it addresses and the people using it are understood well enough.

Find a difficult step in current work

Ask staff about tasks involving retyping information, waiting for confirmation, or correcting the same errors. Consider the customer’s view too: where must they ask for information they could find themselves?

For example, a scheduling problem may be conflicting reservations rather than the absence of a web form. A new form alone would simply pass the work to the next step without solving the broader problem.

Compare benefits with implementation requirements

Assess a few possible projects using the same questions:

• How often does the problem occur, and whom does it affect?
• What time, errors, or effort could the change reduce?
• Is the required information available and usable?
• Who will own the new way of working?
• How will you tell whether the solution helps?

Choose a limited scope whose effects you can monitor. High visibility or an interesting technology alone does not make a good first project.

Try it before committing to a large order

Ask the supplier to show how the proposal handles a real work situation. Examine exceptions too: what happens when information is missing or a customer changes a request? Test with the people who do the work.

Record the initial scope and what will wait until later. Comparing off-the-shelf software with a custom application helps you choose an approach. The principles for measuring a pilot’s benefits also apply without AI: measure the change in the whole task, not just the speed of one step.