Automation: what to automate first

Not the hardest task. Not the most annoying one either. Here is the actual order.

Everyone wants to automate the thing that irritates them most. That is usually the wrong first move. The best first automation is boring, frequent and rule-based, and it proves the approach works before you bet on anything harder.

The test

Point at a task and finish this sentence: "This happens every ___ and the steps are always ___." If you can fill both blanks without saying "it depends", it is a candidate.

The order we use

• Data that gets retyped. Orders from email into the system. Invoice lines into accounting. This is pure loss and the easiest win.
• Reports someone assembles by hand every week or month. The data already exists; the assembly is the waste.
• Routing and triage. Which inbox, which person, which priority. Rules first, AI where the rules run out.
• Drafting. Replies, quotes, summaries. AI drafts, a human approves. Never the other way round.
• Decisions. Last, and only where the cost of a wrong call is low and reversible.

What to leave alone

Anything that happens twice a year. Anything where the person doing it is also the person who notices when something is off. Anything a client experiences as care. Automate the work behind the relationship, not the relationship.

How long it takes

The first item on that list is typically a one to two week build, because it is small enough to be finished. Finished automations compound. Half-built ones become another thing to maintain.

If that is your week too, thirty minutes is enough to find out.

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