Document your process before automating it with AI

Executive overview

Automating an undocumented process is like onboarding a new employee with no written instructions — they fail, and so does the automation. The fix is a structured AI-led interview that takes 20–30 minutes and produces a ready-to-hand-off SOP (standard operating procedure).

Brain-dump your process through dictation. Let AI ask one targeted question at a time. At the end, a smart model reviews the output for gaps.

If it's not documented, it can't be automated.

Why documentation comes first

• Automating without a written process teaches AI to repeat the wrong steps
• Developers and automation tools need explicit, structured instructions — not tribal knowledge
• Dictation is faster than typing and surfaces more context

The AI interview process

• Start with a base prompt: ask AI to question you one at a time, each question building on the last
• Include in your initial brain-dump: systems used, timing constraints, upstream/downstream dependencies, high-level flow
• Keep going until the process is fully extracted; then prompt AI to compile a final SOP
• Use a fast, smart model (GPT-5 on auto mode) — speed matters during the back-and-forth

Handling questions you can't answer

• Have an automation expert on the call to answer technical or ambiguous questions
• If no expert is available, ask AI to rephrase the question or make a reasonable assumption itself

Reviewing and validating the SOP

• First review by the process owner: check for incorrect assumptions or missing steps
• Second review by the developer or automation specialist: confirm everything is realistic to build
• Final review by a high-intelligence model (Claude Opus, GPT-5 Thinking, Gemini 2.5 Pro): compare the full conversation against the SOP and flag anything critical that was dropped
• Ask the AI to rewrite the SOP with flags showing what changed

Assessing the automation before you build

• Confirm the SOP describes something actually automatable with today's AI tools
• Calculate ROI: if the build would take six months, weigh that against the time saved
• Cut anything overambitious before handing off to a developer