AI for SMEs: examine the work before choosing a tool

You may be considering an AI assistant (An AI assistant is a chat program such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity: you write in plain language, and a language model answers.) for email or an add-on for your accounts software. Before buying either, ask about the task: what comes in, who handles it and what needs to be ready at the end?

Look at one workflow (A workflow specifies what information goes in, what happens to it and who checks the result.) first. Then decide whether it needs AI. A template (A template is a prepared structure, for a document, an email or a folder for example, which you only complete for each case.) in software you already use may be enough. Or you may need a connection between two programs, or a clear rule about who takes over a task.

A good tool can improve the wrong step

A demo often has complete data and predictable steps. In daily work, attachments go missing, names differ and someone has to judge an exception. Examine the workflow using one of those cases too.

An enquiry arrives by email. Someone copies the details into a spreadsheet, checks a price and creates a PDF quote. A tool might speed up the copying. If the same details are then typed in again, the handover remains the problem. Follow the work through to the finished quote.

Follow one task through to approval

Choose a task that will come up again this week: recording an invoice, preparing a quote or compiling a report. Use an actual instance, not the process described in a manual.

Walk through the last instance with the person who handled it. Ask them to show you the email, files and programs they used. Write down the steps nobody has documented, too:

• What started the work: an email, a call or a deadline?
• What happened next, and in which programs?
• Which details were copied, retyped or searched for?
• Where did the task get stuck, and what was holding it up?
• Where did someone have to judge an exception or give approval (Approval means a person decides before an AI-prepared message goes outside your firm or money is spent.)?
• How was the finished result checked?

A list of steps and handovers is enough to start. ‘Where does the time go?’ shows how to observe the work over a week.

Let the system prepare. Let people decide.

Now mark the steps a system could help with: extracting details from documents, drafting a response or flagging missing fields. Also mark where expertise, an exception or approval is needed. A draft is not a checked result.

At Jules Solutions, we set a clear boundary: nothing we build sends a message outside your firm or spends money before a person has the final say. For your own workflow, ask not only what AI could prepare, but who will check its work.

Our examples of first projects , such as handling supplier invoices and preparing weekly reports, show what AI could prepare and what people need to check and approve.

Three options for the same workflow

Once you know the steps and exceptions, check these options in order:

1. Use what you have. Check whether your software already has templates, rules or a useful search function. That may solve a step without adding another system. Read more in ‘The cheapest solution might already be installed’.
2. Set up and connect. If details are moved between programs by hand, check whether you can connect them. If AI needs to read documents or prepare drafts, consider an AI harness (An AI harness is the workspace on your computer in which AI reads files and carries out agreed steps.). Establish which data goes where and who checks the result.
3. Build for the specific task. If existing tools do not cover a recurring workflow, a custom solution may make sense. Agree what it must do, who will maintain it and what happens when something fails.

A spreadsheet formula may be the right answer if it handles the step you observed. Before having something built, agree its scope, price and who will look after it once it has been handed over.

Test one workflow in daily work

Start with a task whose result you can check. Try the new workflow in daily work, then review it after two weeks with the people using it: which cases work, which still need manual handling and what needs adjusting?

Involve the person who does the work today. Decide who checks the results and who looks after the system after handover. Choose what to observe before you start. For enquiries, you could count how often missing details hold up the work.

If you need a starting point

If you have not chosen a workflow yet, take the free interview. It asks about your work, one question at a time; after level two, your report shows where it pays to start. You book a free 20-minute call with Jules on the contact page.