A team spends several hours assembling a weekly report. An AI tool promises to reduce the work to minutes. The saving sounds attractive. Before choosing the tool, there is another question to ask: what decision does this report help someone make?
Perhaps the report identifies exceptions that need attention. Perhaps it creates a record required by a customer. Or perhaps it has continued for years without anyone reviewing why it is produced. Each answer leads to a different choice.
If the report supports a decision, find out which information matters and how quickly it is needed. If it is a required record, preserve the relevant controls. If nobody uses it, test whether it can be stopped or reduced before automating its production.
Automation can still be the right answer. But its value depends on what happens after the output is produced, including the effort needed to check it.
Try this with one recurring task. Write down its purpose, its user and the decision or obligation it supports. Then ask what would happen if it were smaller, less frequent or absent. You may discover a useful automation opportunity. You may also discover a simpler change.