The short answer

A good first automation happens regularly, follows a recognisable process and has a clear owner. Choose a small part of the workflow where missing information and exceptions can be handed back to a person.

Look for repetition you can describe

Good candidates are often easy to overlook: collecting information before a meeting, preparing a standard document, routing an enquiry or updating one system from another. They are familiar enough that somebody can explain what a correct result looks like.

A task that happens often gives you more chances to test and improve the workflow. But frequency alone is not enough. If nobody agrees how the task should work, clarify the process before automating it.

Use these five questions to shortlist a task

You can compare a handful of tasks without creating a complicated scoring system. For each one, ask:

  • Does it happen often enough for an improvement to matter?
  • Can we reliably identify the starting information?
  • Can a person say whether the result is correct?
  • Is there a clear way to stop or flag unusual cases?
  • Does somebody own the process and want to help test it?

Automate a useful slice of the process

“Handle every customer enquiry” is a broad and ambiguous project. “Collect the details from a new enquiry and prepare a response for review” has a much clearer boundary.

That smaller version can be useful on its own. You can learn which inputs are inconsistent, what reviewers change and whether the handover works. Expand the workflow only when those details are understood.

Decide which steps need rules and which need AI

A fixed rule is usually preferable when the decision is precise: whether a required field exists, which team owns a category or how a total is calculated. AI can help when the input is unstructured, such as the wording of an email.

For example, a system can check that a request has an email address, AI can suggest what the request is about, and a person can approve the proposed reply. Each step has a different job rather than handing the whole process to a model.

Agree what happens when the process cannot continue

A workflow should not quietly skip a missing attachment or invent a customer reference. Decide who receives incomplete work, what they need to see and how it can be resumed safely.

Also consider repeated inputs. Receiving the same event twice should not mean sending two messages or creating two records. These everyday exceptions are part of implementation, not something to discover after launch.

The best first project has a useful result, clear boundaries and a sensible exception path.

Explore the connected topic

Put the idea to work

Workflow Automation

When the same task makes the same journey every week, there is usually a better way to move it along. We build that journey around the people and systems already involved.

How we can help