A useful first workflow has a recognizable beginning, a result you can inspect, and a person who can decide whether the result is good enough.
Write down the current process
- Trigger: What starts the task? For example, a new document arrives.
- Input: What information is available? Name its format and where it comes from.
- Work: What does someone do with that information today?
- Result: Where does the finished work go?
- Review: Who checks mistakes and exceptions?
Choose a task you can describe with a small synthetic example. Leave confidential material out of the initial example; you can agree on the right handling and destination before using real data.
Make success observable
“Use AI in the business” is difficult to evaluate. “Prepare a reviewable draft of these five intake fields from a sample document” gives you something to check.
Useful measures include time per completed item, items needing correction, turnaround time, and the amount of work someone must redo. Record the baseline before deciding what improvement is realistic.
Keep the first version small
Start with one input type, one review step and one destination. Agree on what happens when the tool is unsure or fails. A reliable exception path is part of the workflow.
For a personal project, the same approach works: turn a set of hobby notes into a checklist, organize a collection, or prepare a plan you can edit. The desired result and review process still matter.
Use the solution brief template to bring those details into the conversation.