PRACTICAL GUIDE

What should I automate first?

The best first automation candidate is not necessarily the biggest task or the one that looks most impressive in a demonstration. It is often a repeatable handoff where delays, manual work or missed follow-up are costing the business time or opportunities.

Before choosing a tool, identify which part of the work is worth improving.

By Rick Bawa · Metamorph Nexus

START WITH THE BUSINESS PROBLEM

Find the work that is slowing an outcome.

Look at where work waits, gets repeated or disappears between people and systems.

An enquiry may arrive but not be assigned. A quote may be sent without a follow-up. A report may take hours to prepare but still leave management unsure what to do next.

Start with three questions:

What outcome are we trying to improve?
Where does the existing process slow down or break?
What happens to the customer, team or business when that step is missed?

If you cannot identify the problem and its consequence, choosing an automation tool is premature.

FIVE CHECKS BEFORE YOU AUTOMATE

Five things worth checking first.

01. Does the work repeat?

Look for work that happens regularly enough for a repeatable solution to be useful. A rare exception may not justify building an automated workflow.

02. Is the next step predictable?

Can the team explain what triggers the task, what should happen next and when the process is complete? If everyone follows a different process, define it before automating it.

03. Can you trust the information?

Automation depends on the quality and availability of its inputs. Missing, duplicated or inconsistent information can create problems faster than manual work.

04. Who owns the outcome and exceptions?

Someone still needs responsibility for the result. Decide who is alerted when information is missing, a task fails or the situation requires judgement.

05. How will you measure improvement?

Establish a sensible starting measure. Depending on the problem, that could be response time, missed follow-up, manual processing time, errors or enquiries progressing to the next step.

These checks are a decision aid, not a numerical score or guarantee that automation will succeed.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT RESPONSE

Sometimes the first fix is not automation.

These four responses can be combined. They are not competing products or mutually exclusive categories.

Improve the process

When steps, responsibilities or handoffs are unclear, simplify the process and establish ownership first.

Use automation

When a task follows dependable rules, automate repetitive actions such as notifications, reminders, record updates or routing.

Use AI selectively

When the task requires interpretation, summarisation or classification, AI may help within a defined workflow. Test accuracy, uncertainty and exceptions before relying on it.

Keep human approval

When an action creates a meaningful financial, legal, reputational or customer consequence, define where a person must review or approve the result.

PRACTICAL EXERCISE

Start with ten recent enquiries.

This is an illustrative exercise, not a completed client case study. Review ten recent enquiries and record:

Where each enquiry arrived.
When someone first responded.
Who was responsible for the next step.
Whether follow-up happened.
What outcome or current status was recorded.

Then examine what the information reveals.

If enquiries are being missed because nobody owns them, start with ownership.
If ownership is clear but reminders are regularly forgotten, a simple automated reminder might help.
If incoming messages require interpretation, AI-assisted classification may be worth testing, with a person checking uncertain or consequential results.

The objective is not to automate the entire customer journey immediately. It is to identify one improvement that removes a real constraint.

MEASURE WHAT CHANGED

Improve one part, then check what changed.

Choose one workflow, document what happens today and make one controlled improvement. Compare the relevant measure before and after the change.

For enquiries, that might mean checking whether response times improved, follow-up became more consistent or more enquiries progressed to an agreed next step.

If the change does not improve the intended outcome, investigate why before introducing more technology.

START WITH THE PROBLEM

Not sure which workflow deserves attention first?

A Growth Diagnosis is a 60-minute working session focused on identifying where work or opportunities are getting stuck and what is worth addressing first.

Request a Growth Diagnosis

Learn about the Growth Diagnosis

60 minutes · Online · No fee · Requests reviewed before confirmation