How to Use AI to Automate Your Workflow: 4 Examples

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably hearing a lot about AI. And, while most of us have fooled around with LLMs like ChatGPT, the data shows that only around 28% of people use generative AI for work regularly.

If you’ve never created an AI workflow, maybe you’re even wondering what the big deal is. But here’s the thing: Chances are AI has the potential to streamline and speed up at least one of your work tasks - or maybe even part of your business.

Here I’ll help you understand AI workflows, what they can do, and how to set one up for yourself. 

What Is AI Workflow Automation?

AI workflow automation is essentially the use of generative AI to automate all or portions of a task. Because AI is great at performing many types of repetitive digital tasks quickly and effectively, an AI workflow can improve efficiency and reduce errors. AI can even analyze data and generate insights. 

While for many people, the idea of letting AI do their jobs feels scary, it can also be liberating! AI is great at many time-consuming tasks - like data entry and analysis - that don’t necessarily add value to our lives either. AI does work that can actually detract from more important and strategic (i.e., human-centric) tasks. When used properly, it can reduce repetitive tasks, increase output accuracy, and make processes more scalable. H

How to Automate an AI Workflow

If you’re interested in automating a workflow, it isn’t as hard as it sounds. Here are the key steps to take.

Determine Needs

The first step is to find some appropriate tasks to attempt to automate. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• What are some of the most time-consuming areas of your work? Which of these are more routine or don’t require complex decision-making?
• What are some of the repetitive tasks you perform in your work?
• What are some tasks where manual handling makes errors more likely?

These are some prime areas to dig into when selecting tasks to automate. The more menial and time-consuming, the better. That means that not only is AI likely to be able to handle the job, but it is also likely to have a real impact on what your workday looks like.

Map Out Current Workflows and Select Tasks to Automate

Now that you’ve dug into what you spend your time doing, think about the workflows for some of those tasks. What is the process you follow from beginning to end? Break it down step by step, and be sure to call out bottlenecks, redundancies, or repetitive tasks.

For example, let’s say you work in sales, and lead qualification is part of your or your team’s workflow. To find areas for potential automation, you could go through the entire lead qualification process. It might look like this:

1. Lead Generation
2. Initial Contact with Sales
3. Needs Assessment
4. Lead Qualification
5. Follow Up
6. Conversion or Disqualification

Now, maybe you can’t (or even shouldn’t!) automate all of this using AI, but you’ll likely find some areas that could be automated. In the workflow above, is data entry manual? In that case, lead collection could be automated. So could lead scoring and qualification. Some types of follow-up could even be automated, or at least reminders to do follow-up could be provided automatically.

Assess Automation Solutions

OK, now we get to the fun part! Once you know what parts of the workflow might be good candidates for AI automation, it’s time to start assessing automation solutions. This is where you get into the market and start looking for the tools that will help solve your problems. Define the specific tasks you are looking to automate and look for the tools to help you do that. 

In general, it can help to understand that there are general automation platforms, like Zapier, Make, and Tray.io There are also specific automation tools designed for specific types of work. When it comes to lead qualification, some of these tools include Structurely and Acquire.

So, let’s say you decide to automate lead scoring and qualification in the workflow above. Start Googling or go to the sources you trust for software and tool information to put together a list of potential tools you could use to get the job done. You’ll want to make note of each tool’s key features as well as its costs.

Assess Your Current Software and Systems

Any AI solution you choose will need to work with your current software. So, assess what software you are currently using in your workflows and which software would likely need to play nice with the automation tool you choose. Then, start assessing which tools from your initial list will work. This is how you start to narrow down your options to zero in on the right fit. 

Select the Right Tools

Then, it’s time to jump in, learn about these tools, and compare them. Overall, this process is exactly the same as how to compare software.

You’ll want to assess:

• How the tools work
• What their key features are
• How accurately they perform
• What other software/tools they integrate with (and how that compares with your software stack)
• How well they scale
• How much they cost

Many tools have free trials or plans as well, so be sure to try them out whenever possible!

Start Small

One of the best things you can do when implementing an AI workflow is to start small. This can help you figure out how best to use the technology and catch issues before you use AI at a greater scale. Define clear objectives for your AI integration, such as improving accuracy or speeding up a tedious task. 

Then, start with a pilot or test project on a small or non-critical workflow. This will help you determine how and whether your approach will integrate with your existing software and identify any issues or shortfalls in the proposed solution. If other people will be interacting with this workflow, be sure they are informed and trained on how it works and how to use it.

Iterate and Adjust

Once your new workflow is up and running, watch it carefully! How well is it working? How much time is it saving? And, most importantly, is it contributing enough to justify its cost? Be sure to collect as much data as possible here to truly understand how and whether your new workflow contributes to your goal. For example, let’s say you’ve created an automation that will craft personalized email content for subscribers based on their characteristics and interactions with your brand. 

In the past, perhaps each individual email was created by a copywriter, although not at the same scale. You’ll want to assess whether the new workflow creates good-quality content, and how subscribers respond. You’ll also want to understand the exact results of this workflow. Does it produce better results than the previous one? Is it significantly less time-intensive and, therefore, cheaper for the business?

Scale

Once your AI automation workflow functions well, it’s time to scale it. As long as you’re not seeing problems with it, it’s likely safe to scale it beyond the small test you started with. That said, you should still roll out any automation slowly and with caution, assessing results as you go. 

Automated Workflow Examples

Are you still a bit fuzzy on how you might use an AI automation workflow? Or are you looking for inspiration regarding how you might apply one to your work or business? Here are some common examples of automated workflows you can learn from.

Lead Management Workflow

Lead management automation can be a simple way to reduce the time spent manually sorting through inquiries. In this case, an automated workflow might look like this:
 

1. An AI chatbot automates discussions via chat, email, and phone.
2. It's trained to qualify prospects based on certain standards, such as industry and job title, behavioral data (engagement level, purchase intent), and needs/challenges.
3. This information is forwarded to sales staff, who can then concentrate on and follow up with high-intent prospects.

This workflow can potentially reduce the time the sales team spends on lower-value activities (wading through low-quality leads). Addressing high-quality leads more effectively may also increase conversion rates.

Accounts Payable Workflow

Accounts payable is another area with many tedious tasks that are pretty easily automated. Here’s what an AI automation workflow might look like here:

1. An AI extracts data from invoices.
2. It validates extracted data against purchase orders.
3. It routes invoices through approval workflows automatically.

This workflow removes the manual review of invoices, allowing payments and other financial processes to happen more quickly.

Email Marketing Workflow

AI has taken email marketing automation to the next level over the last few years. From drafting emails to segmenting audiences to tracking performance, it can do a lot of tasks that would not otherwise be possible at scale. Here’s an example of how AI-powered automation can be added to an email workflow for segmentation:

1. An AI algorithm clusters subscribers into groups based on similar characteristics.
2. AI creates tailored email campaigns for these segments.

Segmentation and tailored campaigns can certainly be done without AI. But, because this tactic has proven to work very well for increasing engagement and conversion rates, doing it at a greater scale can have powerful results. 

Employee Onboarding Workflow

Because onboarding is a series of tasks that tends to happen the same way every time, it’s an easy win in terms of adding automation to the mix. Here’s what an onboarding workflow might look like:

1. AI distributes and collects onboarding documents.
2. AI schedules training sessions based on new hire roles.
3. AI is used to assess training and onboarding success.

Automation like this takes some of the work off of the HR team’s shoulders, ensures compliance in onboarding, and can benefit new hire productivity, too. The faster a person is onboarded and trained, the faster they can contribute to the company’s goals.

Ready to Automate?

AI automation workflows can be a game-changer - and they don’t have to be that complicated to be effective. In business, any significant reduction in cost or improvement in efficiency is a win. So, if you’re considering using AI to automate some of your tasks, go for it! Find the right software, start small, and see how far you scale the results - and your business. Good luck!