The direct answer
Don't start with the big transformation. Start with the task you did yesterday, the day before, and the day before that. A 30-minute task you repeat ten times a week is five hours a week. That is a part-time employee, hiding in a workflow you stopped noticing.
The fact: Salesforce researchers found sales reps spend just 28% of their week actually selling. The majority of their time goes to deal management and data entry.
SOURCE: Salesforce, State of Sales (5th edition, 2022) — Read the research
Sales is the visible case, but every function has its version. The work you were hired for competes with the work the system was supposed to handle.
The fact: U.S. knowledge workers spend 61% of their time on work about work, and believe they could save a full working day each week if their processes improved.
SOURCE: Asana, Anatomy of Work (U.S. findings) — Read the findings
Find the real bottleneck
Here is the honest test I run. For one week, I write down every task I repeat. Not what I think is slow. What actually repeats. Then I ask which of those tasks has a clear pattern: an input, a process, an output. That one is the first play.
A task with a pattern can be run by a system. A task full of judgment calls should stay with you, and the system can still do the prep around it.
The fact: Small business owners adopting generative AI expect to save more than $4,000 and 300 hours of work in a year, and 75% believe it gives them a competitive edge.
SOURCE: GoDaddy press release, March 2024 — Read the release
Where to start
Pick the repeated task. State it in one sentence. Run it through the system once. Score the draft. Adjust once. That first win tells you more about AI than any course will.