Insights · · 3 min read
Which repeat task should you hand to AI first?
The short answer
Pick a task that comes back every week, follows rules you can write down and is easy to check. Leave work that depends on one person's judgment, or carries high stakes, for later.
Start with a list, not a tool
Write down the jobs your team does every week. Ask each person for five. You will get things like quotes, client reports, appointment reminders, product descriptions, invoice follow-ups and meeting notes. Don't filter yet.
Five questions for each task
- Does it come back often? Weekly or daily work pays back the setup. A job done twice a year does not.
- Can you write down the rules? If you can explain how to do it on one page, an agent can follow it. If the honest answer is "it depends who is asking", wait.
- Is it easy to check? The best first tasks have a clear right answer: the prices match, the dates are correct, the format is right.
- Is a correction cheap? Choose work that is reviewed before it leaves the business, so any change is made in-house.
- Will people feel the time back? Pick something the team notices. A task everyone dislikes makes the case faster than one nobody sees.
Give each task one point per yes. The task with the most points is your first candidate.
A worked example
| Task | Often | Clear rules | Easy to check | Easy to correct | Felt by the team | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly client reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 5/5 |
| Quote drafts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 4/5 |
| Social media captions | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | 3/5 |
| Pricing decisions | No | No | No | No | Yes | 1/5 |
In this fictional agency, monthly client reports score highest. They come back every month, follow the same structure, and every number can be checked against the source. Quote drafts come next: clear rules, but a person should approve each one before it goes out.
Pricing decisions score lowest. They depend on judgment and on the relationship with each client, so they stay with people.
Common first tasks by type of business
- Agencies: monthly client reports, briefs from meeting notes, first drafts of quotes.
- Service companies: sorting incoming enquiries, booking confirmations, follow-up emails.
- Stores: product descriptions, replies to common customer questions, order and stock summaries.
These are starting points, not rules. The right first task is the one that scores well in your business.
What to leave for later
- Work that depends on one person's instinct.
- Anything that needs legal, medical or financial judgment.
- A process nobody has written down and nobody agrees on. Write it down first; that alone often helps.
- Five routines at once. One routine running well teaches you more than five half-built ones.
After the first task
Once the first routine runs with its SOP, checks and approvals, look at the work with the people who use it every week. Keep what works, save every correction as a lesson, then pick the next task from your list.
More questions about the first task.
Should the first task be the biggest time sink?
Not always. The biggest job is often the hardest to write down. A smaller task that scores well on all five questions is a safer start, and it shows the team how the system works.
How many tasks should we start with?
One. Get one routine running with its SOP, checks and approvals, then add the next one from your list.
What if our processes aren't written down?
That is common. Writing the SOP for the first task is part of the work, and it often makes the task clearer for people too.