Automating simple processes is easier than ever before

What is process automation?

In every business, there are a lot of processes that no one likes to do and are done by hand even though they could be automated.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has been around for a long time but doesn´t seem to be accessible for small businesses and their tech skills.

In the age of AI, automating processes means connecting tools, creating AI agents, and making your job easier.

What should you automate first?

It´s important to go and look at every function of your business to best determine where you can get the most results from the least effort, as this is what you want when beginning with automation.

Some functions could be eliminated and some will simply get more systemized.

The most common “starter” automation are processes in:

• HR - Scoring CVs, Creating appealing Job postings, Evaluating candidates, Entering Data, Onboarding, Training, Employee support

• Sales - Lead generation Chatbots, Personalized experiences, Sales assistance and coaching, CRM Automation

• Marketing - E-mail Automation, Content Creation, Strategy, Company-wide advice and coaching

These are just a few examples you should look at, you know your business best, I think you are slowly getting ideas for which processes could be automated.

These are generally activities that include:

• Data Entry and analysis

• Making minor decisions

• Creating Text-Based Content

• Extracting information

• Connecting different software

• Customer Service

1. Develop or optimize your Process Map

If you have a current process map, it is important to format it into an easily readable format. This way, you ensure everyone can read it without issues. By formatting, I mean:

• Visualizing Processes by Department

• Assigning Process owners and chain of command (Who is responsible for who/what).

• Determining the type of process. (Core processes, Support processes, Long-tail processes)

If you don´t have one, make sure to read a few articles on process mapping and Workflow mapping. In general, process mapping includes just listing out everything that is done in your business. Workflow mapping would include visualizing each step so anyone can follow it almost as a guide.

To create a process map, make sure to use a diagram tool such as Whimsical.com or Creately.com. These tools are easy to use and don´t take a lot of time to build out what you need with them.

I have also found a great GPT that does this for you, you just list out all the processes and it creates an outline of a process map for you.

Make sure to get feedback from employees and adjust accordingly. You want the processes to reflect your actual processes. If you didn´t have the map till now, distribute it to those who need it and inform the whole organization about the chain of command.

2. Prioritize

Now, we need to prioritize what processes can be automated. Evaluate the priority of process automation based on these few questions:

• How often is the process performed? (Rarely = 1, Very Often = 5)

• How time-consuming is the process? (Minimal Time = 1, Very Time-Consuming = 5)

• How prone to error is the process when performed manually? (Rarely = 1, Very Prone = 5)

• How repetitive are the tasks within the process? (Not Repetitive = 1, Highly Repetitive = 5)

• Can the process be easily standardized? (Hard to Standardize = 1, Easily Standardized = 5)

• How complex is the process? (Very Simple = 1, Highly Complex = 5)

Again, I found a great GPT for this, you can just input and describe your processes and ask it what to automate first. But be aware chatGPT doesn´t know your business as deeply as you do, make sure to provide it with additional information about your business or evaluate on your own.

You should know best what things that are currently done by hand and are very repetitive could be automated, in the next step, we prioritize even more by assessing the feasibility of automation.

3. Estimate if it´s worth it

To find out whether it makes sense for you to implement this automation at all, you need to find out the ROI (Return on Investment) of the automation.

You can do this by doing a quick cost-benefit analysis:

1. Define what will the automation include

   Which processes exactly will be automated and what is the goal of automation i.e. “to save 3 hours a week of 12 employees”.

2. Estimate costs to build it

   We recommend building simple automation of digital tools and text-based tasks where generative AI can help. This way, you will see quick wins and cut costs.

3. Do research

   1. If you are automating digital tools, check if they have integrations of APIs on Zapier.com, Make.com…

   2. If you are automating the creation of text or data analysis, simply ask chatGPT if it will be possible and how would it proceed. You can even use Copilot from Microsoft for this.

   3. If you want to make a complex automation, check out case studies and/or post a job to freelance sites to see whether is someone able to help you.

4. Build it out

Your goal as a founder is not to sit down and start building automation from scratch.

Go and find people skilled in the topic you need help with:

• API Connection software such as Zapier and Make

• AI Building tools and GPTs

• Robotic Process Automation and Programming languages

Best Tools For Automation:

We gathered all our favorite tools for automating a business from the most simple to the more complex ones.

• Zapier.com - A No-Code tool allowing you to simply automate almost any of your digital processes.

• Airtable.com - Great SaaS for creating databases - easily automated through Zapier

• Cflowapps.com - Focused on task management and workflow building, check out their free trial.

• Axiom.ai - Powerful Chrome extension for automating Web browsing

• Youai.ai - Mindstudio, a powerful platform allowing you to build any AI for your company

The Future

Soon, businesses of all sizes will automate their processes to some extent. Whether these are only AI chatbots and automated marketing communication or complex AI agents assisting in a human-like way.

We recommend monitoring the possibilities, considering what processes are good to be the ones for testing and executing heavily when there is enough information gathered.

This will ensure you will stay ahead of your competition and possibly make your business more successful thanks to lower costs, optimized processes or more efficient processes resulting in your employees getting more done in the same amount of time.

Wrapping up

If you got here, I am sure you have a lot of information in your head on how to implement AI and Automation in your business. To avoid decision paralysis, list out 3 cases that come first to mind, choose the easiest one, and try to automate it with the tools I provided.

If you are still unsure how to do that, feel free to answer this e-mail and I will be happy to help you.

Next week, we are going to explore AI´s impact on sales and it´s use cases in detail.

See you soon!