Choosing the first process to automate

The first agent you ship sets the tone for everything after it. Pick something too ambitious and it drags on for months; pick something trivial and nobody notices. Here's the short scoring exercise we run in every discovery call.

Score each candidate from 1 to 5

Volume. How many times a week does this happen? Renewals, invoices, lead follow-ups and daily reports usually score high.

Rules. Could a new hire do it from a checklist? The more the work follows a pattern, the faster an agent learns it.

Pain. Does it block revenue or annoy customers when it's late? Waiting time is often more expensive than the work itself.

Data access. Does the information live in systems we can reach — email, spreadsheets, a CRM, an ERP — or only in someone's head?

Risk. What's the worst outcome of a mistake? Lower risk means you can move from approving every item to approving exceptions sooner.

Multiply, don't add

We multiply volume × pain × data access, then divide by risk. A process that happens rarely or can't be reached by software drops to the bottom however painful it is.

Common winners

• Policy and subscription renewals
• Invoice generation and payment reminders
• Lead qualification and first response
• Compliance and document tracking
• Daily MIS and management reports

Then keep it small

A good Level 1 agent handles one process end to end. Once it's running and trusted, the next ones are faster, because the integrations, approval flows and reporting are already in place. That's the step from Level 1 to a Level 2 team of agents.