If a company wants to automate an AI workflow, what kind of use case should it choose first?

Start by choosing a business problem with clear boundaries

“We want to use AI too, but we don’t know which area to improve first.” If your business has needs involving a knowledge base, customer service, sales, reporting, and approvals, you can put them all in the same evaluation table, then choose a scenario with clear boundaries, available sample data, and someone responsible for acceptance.

Here is a pilot approach for discussing requirements. The workflow in this article is an example; it does not represent a completed customer project or assume any time savings or revenue growth.

1. First, describe the work that repeats every day

“Build an enterprise AI agent” is not specific enough to define the scope of delivery. A more concrete description would be: After receiving customer documents, business staff need to extract several fields from them, fill in a form, check for missing information, and notify the appropriate person.

Breaking down this work makes it possible to identify the inputs, rules, outputs, and recipients. It also helps distinguish which steps are suitable for fixed rules, which require a model to understand text, and which must be confirmed by a person.

We recommend answering four questions for each candidate scenario: Who does the work? How often does it occur? Which step is most prone to errors today? What would the solution need to achieve for business staff to keep using it?

2. Use five criteria to choose the first pilot

• Specific problem: You can describe a repetitive task, rather than making a vague request to “improve efficiency.”
• Usable samples: You have authorized, anonymized inputs and correct outputs for comparison.
• Stable workflow: Someone can explain the basic rules, and exceptions can be listed separately.
• System connectivity: You know which spreadsheets, office tools, or business systems need to be connected, and can confirm the interfaces and permissions.
• Verifiable results: A business owner can confirm the results, with metrics, test samples, and a plan for handling failures.

For example, knowledge Q&A is a good fit for starting with internal questions about a clearly defined set of materials; document processing can start with one fixed file type; and report automation can start with one report whose metrics and definitions have been confirmed. Narrowing the scope first makes it easier to assess whether expansion is worthwhile.

3. Define “done” as deliverables that can be checked

For example, a pilot agreement for “organizing customer information” could include:

1. Input: Agree on file types, where files are received, and the data that may be processed.
2. Processing: Extract specified fields, flag missing items, and retain the source text.
3. Review: Route conflicting or unclear content to a designated person for review.
4. Output: Generate records in a consistent format; agree separately on whether to write them directly to the production business system.
5. Handover: Provide operating instructions, exception-handling procedures, a permissions list, and a maintenance owner.

During acceptance testing, check each item against samples selected in advance. Record field accuracy, omissions, the number of manual corrections, and actual processing time. The test set should include normal documents, documents with missing information, and documents with formatting issues. Set target values based on the business’s current baseline and requirements.

4. Connect the model, interfaces, and pages into a complete workflow

A demo that can produce an answer is still several steps away from something business staff can use every day: Are the permissions appropriate? Can results be traced? Are errors in the interface reported? Can repeated clicks cause duplicate entries? Can the person responsible take over unfinished tasks?

A Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) can help clarify requirements, design pilots, validate development, and provide training and handover around these questions. The specific scope of delivery needs to be determined based on existing systems, data conditions, and the division of responsibilities between both parties.

5. Prepare three documents before the consultation to get the discussion started

• A real workflow: where a task comes in and where its delivery is completed.
• A few anonymized samples: Include normal cases and the exceptions that cause business staff the most trouble.
• An existing output: The spreadsheet, report, or work record currently in use, and the person responsible for confirming it.