We want to free up our staff for high-value strategic work, but we are struggling to agree on which low-value tasks should be automated first. How do we prioritize our AI operations-improvement projects?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To identify the best starting points for automation, look at your weekly Scorecard and your team's daily frustrations. Do not guess what needs fixing. Instead, ask your team to track their time for one week and identify any task that is repetitive, structured, and takes more than two hours of their time. These are the low-value administrative tasks that keep your employees from focusing on high-value work.

Look for workflows that involve moving data from one system to another, drafting standard communications, or compiling reports. Once you have a list of these bottlenecks, prioritize them based on two criteria: ease of implementation and financial impact.

A great first project is one that requires minimal technical setup but saves your team significant hours every week. Avoid complex, custom integration projects that sound like expensive science experiments. Focus instead on using simple AI tools or off-the-shelf automation platforms to streamline these highly repetitive tasks. By starting with these quick wins, you build momentum, prove the value of automation to your team, and immediately free up capacity to focus on your Rocks and long-term V/TO goals.