# 20 things to do before you add AI to your business

A practical readiness check for teams who want better operations—not another shiny tool.

**Audience:** Business owners, operators, and team leads

**Outcome:** Identify what to automate, what to keep human, and how to test results before rollout.

## Understand the work

- [ ] **Define the outcome** — Pick one measurable business result, like turnaround time or error reduction.
- [ ] **Map the process** — Write down each step, owner, system, decision, and handoff.
- [ ] **Measure the baseline** — Record current costs, volume, cycle time, and rework.
- [ ] **Find the actual bottleneck** — Look for delays, missing information, repeated entry, and approvals.
- [ ] **Check whether a rule is enough** — A form, template, or deterministic automation may solve the problem better.

## Prepare your information

- [ ] **Identify sources of truth** — Know where authoritative customer, finance, and policy records live.
- [ ] **Clean the inputs** — Fix missing fields, duplicates, and conflicting terminology.
- [ ] **Classify sensitive data** — Separate public, confidential, and regulated information.
- [ ] **Limit access** — Grant agents and integrations only the permissions they need.
- [ ] **Set retention rules** — Specify how long prompts, files, and outputs are stored.

## Design the workflow

- [ ] **Start with one pilot** — Choose a frequent, well-defined, lower-risk process.
- [ ] **Draw the decision boundary** — Decide what an automated system may decide and what requires approval.
- [ ] **Define exception handling** — Plan for failed APIs, missing files, unexpected formats, and contradictions.
- [ ] **Assign an owner** — Give one person responsibility for results and incident response.
- [ ] **Keep a human handoff** — Make escalation clear, visible, and fast.

## Prove the value

- [ ] **Prepare test cases** — Include realistic edge cases and failures, not just ideal examples.
- [ ] **Choose success metrics** — Measure time saved, accuracy, reliability, and customer outcomes.
- [ ] **Evaluate cost** — Include vendor fees, maintenance, oversight, and integration effort.
- [ ] **Train your team** — Document the new workflow and the right way to intervene.
- [ ] **Review after launch** — Schedule checks of performance, drift, errors, and ongoing value.

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Agentic Agency · https://agenticagency.io