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Written foroperators
Finding automation opportunities, working out whether one is worth building, deciding when not to use AI at all, and what happens when a system makes the wrong call at 2am.
Latest · Automation
What is workflow automation? A practical definition for operations teams
A plain-language guide to workflow automation: what it is, what it is not, where AI belongs, and how to choose the first process.
August 11, 2026 · 4 min read
The archive
Everythingwe have written
- Workflow automation vs. AI agents: which should run your process?A practical comparison of deterministic workflow automation and AI agents, including where each fits and why most production systems need both.
- Internal software vs. off-the-shelf SaaS: when should you build?A build-versus-buy framework for operations teams comparing fit, integration, ownership, switching cost, implementation risk and total cost.
- We mapped invoice and PO matching. Here are 8 automation opportunities.A mapped accounts-payable workflow showing what to extract, what to compare, which exceptions need people, and what should post automatically.
- We mapped quoting and pricing. Here are 8 automation opportunities.A mapped quote workflow covering request intake, customer pricing, stock, margin approvals, quote generation and follow-up.
- We mapped stock enquiries. Here are 7 automation opportunities.A mapped stock-enquiry workflow showing how to answer availability, lead-time and substitute questions without making people query the ERP all day.
- We mapped the weekly report. Here are 7 automation opportunities.A mapped management-reporting workflow covering data collection, definitions, reconciliation, anomaly review, commentary and delivery.
- We mapped customer-service enquiries. Here are 8 automation opportunities.A mapped service workflow for order-status, history and delivery-change enquiries, with AI limited to classification and drafting.
- We mapped supplier product-data updates. Here are 8 automation opportunities.A mapped supplier-data workflow for inconsistent spreadsheets, identifiers, units, price changes, validation, approval and ERP loading.
- We mapped an order-entry workflow. Here are the 11 automation opportunities we found.One process, one afternoon of watching people work, eleven places where the business was paying for the same information to be handled twice.
- How to calculate whether an AI automation is actually worth buildingThe arithmetic that decides it, including the two terms most ROI cases leave out and the reason recovered hours are not the same as saved money.
- Seven processes I would inspect first inside a $10M distributorWhere the recoverable time actually is in a mid-size distribution business, in the order I would look at it.
- AI vs. traditional automation: when should you use each?A practical comparison of AI and deterministic software, including the inputs, decisions, costs and controls that decide which belongs in a workflow.
- What happens when an AI automation fails at 2am?The question that decides whether an automation belongs in your operations.
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