How to pick your first automation project: a four-question filter
Most automation programmes stall on the wrong first project. This four-question filter picks one that pays back fast and builds trust.
Pick a first automation that is frequent, has clear rules, uses data you can already access, and is cheap to get wrong. Score each candidate from 0 to 2 on those four questions. Anything scoring seven or eight is a strong first project. Lead intake, invoice capture and support triage usually qualify.
The first automation sets the tone for everything that follows. Pick a flashy, ambiguous process and the project drags on, people lose faith and the budget disappears. Pick a boring, frequent, well-understood one and you get a quick win and a team that asks for more.
What are the four questions to ask?
- 01Is it frequent? A task done a few times a year will never repay the effort. Look for work that happens daily or weekly.
- 02Are the rules clear? If two experienced people would handle the same case differently, automate later. If they would handle it the same way, automate now.
- 03Is the data accessible? The inputs should already live in systems with an API, an export or a predictable email format.
- 04Is a mistake cheap? Start where an error is easily caught and reversed. Keep money movement and legal commitments behind a human approval.
How do you score candidate processes?
List five to ten candidate processes and score each question from 0 to 2. Anything scoring seven or eight is a strong first project. Anything below five should wait.
| Candidate | Frequent | Clear rules | Data ready | Cheap mistakes | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Routing new enquiries | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| Chasing overdue invoices | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Drafting contract clauses | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Which first projects usually work?
- Lead and enquiry intake: classify, enrich, route and draft a reply.
- Invoice and document capture: extract fields, match against purchase orders, post to accounting.
- Support triage: detect intent and urgency, suggest an answer, assign to the right person.
- Report assembly: pull numbers from several tools into one weekly summary.
What happens when automation cannot handle a case?
No automation handles every case. Decide up front what happens when it cannot: route to a person, with the context attached. The exception path is where trust is won or lost.
Want a second opinion on your shortlist? Try our automation readiness check or get in touch.