Useful automation & AI

A sensible starting point

There is a lot of noise about AI. For a business that makes and ships products, the useful question is narrower: which repetitive job, done every day by someone capable, could mostly be done by software with a person checking the result? If there is no such job, you do not need automation or AI, and I will say so.

Be sceptical of anything described as AI that cannot name the job it does. A good first stage is small, has an obvious owner in the business and can be switched off without anything else breaking.

Plain automation, where fixed rules do the same thing every time, is cheaper and more predictable than AI, so I reach for it first. AI earns its place where the input is messy: free-text emails, invoices laid out differently by every supplier, notes typed by different people.

Typical examples

• Reading incoming emails and attachments, and pulling out the order number, customer and request for someone to confirm.
• Reading supplier or courier invoices and matching the lines against what was ordered or sent, as part of finance and checking.
• Drafting replies to routine delivery questions, for a person to check and send.
• Sorting and tagging enquiries so urgent ones reach the right person first.
• Rules that run on their own, such as creating a task, sending a reminder or flagging an exception, when something changes in Shopify or the accounts.

Where a person stays in charge

AI can get things wrong, so the design assumes it sometimes will. The software prepares the work, and a person approves anything that matters before it goes to a customer, a supplier or the accounts.

It will not replace your staff. It takes the copying, chasing and checking off their plate, so they can spend their time on the work that needs judgement.

How a first stage works

I start on site, with the people doing the job, and pick one task worth automating. We agree what good looks like before anything is built.

Each stage has a fixed price, agreed before work starts. First stages usually cost £5,000 to £10,000 and are scoped to go live in weeks, not months. Because each stage is priced and delivered on its own, you can see whether it earns its keep before deciding on the next.

After go-live, a monthly support fee covers fixes, small changes and someone who knows the system. I’m based in the South East and work on site across the UK.