The strongest AI opportunities usually begin as specific operational bottlenecks: information must be found, documents interpreted, responses drafted, or systems updated repeatedly.
Choose a workflow, not a model
Describe the input, current steps, output, reviewer, cost of delay, and consequence of error. That reveals whether the right tool is deterministic automation, an AI-assisted step, or a controlled agent.
Use the right level of autonomy
Low-risk, reversible actions can tolerate more automation. Consequential actions should use suggestions, confirmations, approval queues, permissions, and audit trails. Autonomy is a risk decision, not a maturity badge.
Evaluate against representative work
A promising demonstration is not production evidence. Build a set of typical, difficult, and unacceptable cases; score useful dimensions such as extraction accuracy, groundedness, routing quality, or reviewer acceptance.
Integrate the whole system
Production value depends on source permissions, retrieval freshness, structured validation, API behavior, cost and latency limits, human correction, monitoring, and escalation. The language model is only one component.