This section does not teach you how to do these things. It’s intended to provide idea vectors for you to pursue.
Every business has manual processes bleeding time and money - AI-powered automation can eliminate 60-80% of routine tasks while improving accuracy and speed.
Business process automation
- Automate invoice processing and payments
- Set up automated employee onboarding workflows
- Create automated inventory reorder systems
- Build customer follow-up sequences
- Automate expense reporting and approval processes
Marketing automation workflows
- Email drip campaigns and nurture sequences
- Social media posting and engagement automation
- Lead scoring and qualification workflows
- Automated webinar registration and follow-up
- Customer segmentation and targeted messaging
Sales process automation
- CRM data entry and lead management
- Automated proposal generation and sending
- Contract signing and approval workflows
- Sales pipeline progression automation
- Commission calculation and reporting
Customer service automation
- Ticket routing and escalation workflows
- Automated response systems for common inquiries
- Customer satisfaction survey automation
- Refund and return processing workflows
- Knowledge base content updates
Data management automation
- Automated data backups and synchronisation
- Report generation and distribution
- Data cleaning and validation workflows
- Cross-platform data integration
- Automated compliance reporting
Specific platform specialisations - examples
Platform-specific expertise combined with AI enhancement creates premium service opportunities businesses pay top dollar for specialists who can maximise their existing tool investments. Go and learn the tools!
Zapier automation services
- Connect apps and automate data flow
- Create multi-step workflow sequences
- Set up conditional logic and filters
- Build custom webhook integrations
- Optimise workflow performance and costs
Microsoft Power Automate solutions
- Office 365 workflow automation
- SharePoint document processing
- Teams notification and approval flows
- Dynamics 365 integration workflows
- Azure service automation
Make (formerly Integromat) workflows
- Complex multi-branch automation scenarios
- Visual workflow design and optimisation
- Error handling and retry mechanisms
- Advanced data transformation
- Custom API integrations
Notion workspace automation
- Database automation and updates
- Template and page generation workflows
- Content publishing and distribution
- Team collaboration automation
- Project management workflows
Industry specific automation
Industry expertise combined with AI automation creates high-value, specialised services - businesses pay premium rates for solutions that understand their unique challenges and regulations.
E-commerce and retail
- Order processing and fulfillment workflows
- Inventory sync across multiple platforms
- Customer review and feedback automation
- Return and refund processing
- Supplier communication and ordering
Real estate
- Lead nurturing and follow-up sequences
- Property listing syndication
- Client communication automation
- Document collection and processing
- Market analysis and reporting
Healthcare and wellness
- Patient appointment reminders and confirmations
- Insurance verification workflows
- Medical record processing
- Billing and payment automation
- Treatment follow-up sequences
Professional services
- Client onboarding and project kickoff
- Time tracking and billing automation
- Document approval and signature workflows
- Resource scheduling and allocation
- Performance reporting automation
Manufacturing and operations
- Quality control check automation
- Maintenance scheduling workflows
- Supply chain communication
- Production reporting and analytics
- Safety compliance tracking
Specialised automation services
Document Processing Automation
- PDF form extraction and processing
- Contract parsing and data entry
- Receipt and expense categorisation
- Legal document routing and approval
- Compliance document generation
Communication automation
- Multi channel message distribution
- Meeting scheduling and coordination
- Follow up reminder systems
- Status update notifications
- Emergency alert workflows
Financial process automation
- Accounts payable/receivable workflows
- Budget tracking and reporting
- Expense approval processes
- Financial reconciliation automation
- Tax preparation and filing workflows
HR and people operations
- Employee performance review cycles
- Benefits enrollment automation
- Time-off request and approval
- Training completion tracking
- Compliance monitoring workflows
Implementation and support services
Implementation and support services create recurring revenue streams - once you build trust through successful automation, clients rely on you for ongoing optimisation and expansion.
Workflow design and consulting
- Process mapping and optimisation analysis
- Automation opportunity assessment
- Custom workflow architecture design
- Integration planning and strategy
- ROI calculation and reporting
Setup and configuration
- Platform account setup and configuration
- Workflow testing and optimisation
- Error handling and troubleshooting setup
- Security and permissions configuration
- Performance monitoring implementation
Training and documentation
- Staff training on workflow management
- Custom documentation creation
- Best practices guides
- Troubleshooting procedures
- Ongoing support and maintenance
Conclusion
The trick here is to get the trust of an organisation.
Companies have hundreds if not thousands of repetitive tasks.
Your problem here is - HUMANS do that work today.
Those humans probably arn’t going to want you in there automating their roles.
You also need expertise. Domain expertise, development expertise, the AI mindset, and the persuasion skills to get the meeting.
Perhaps the only way to go about this is just show people what’s possible, and either go to the top and get their attention - or start at the bottom and pitch up.
This is incredibly difficult right now.
The tools are powerful and the demand is urgent, but also be pragmatic that not every human is going to want to do this.
The other option is to look for use cases that are new, and don’t impact a human - yet, to get the trust then move it to the centre.