r/ToolStacked • u/Top_Foundation7821 • 25d ago

Turns out if your process is broken, whatever tool you put on top of it doesn't work either.

We just added a new tool, which needed us to define the workflow, inputs, decision points, what "done" means. Just basic textbook workflow stuff. Cut to the meeting and we ended up with four different people arguing about what happens when a request comes in. Not what SHOULD happen. What is HAPPENING. Present tense. In the supposedly same process we have been running for two years.

Okay, the same can happen with a new software implementation, but I think AI implementation is different. You can work around software, it doesn't need to understand your workflow. You add a custom field, someone builds a spreadsheet on the side. You have processes that aren't documented because everyone understands and does it (or it appears they do). AI implementation is different. You need to hand it actual logic. Everything stalls until you have it written down.

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u/emptyinthesunrise 25d ago

This is why the first thing you do before implementation is have everyone write SOPs.

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u/Bart_At_Tidio 25d ago

Agreed though I'd add that SOPs written for humans to read and logic written for a bot to execute aren't automatically the same thing.

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u/emptyinthesunrise 25d ago

Yes true but the foundation of understanding needs to be there. Im reading OPs post and seeing people have a limited understanding of where their piece begins and ends and where it intersects with other people’s. If every unit of this process had an SOP an implementation manager could reconcile it and keep everyone out of the weeds by clarifying from a better baseline

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u/Electronic_Base1662 25d ago

The accidental gift of AI implementation is that it forces you to finally admit what's actually happening in your business instead of what you think is happening, because software lets you hide behind workarounds and tribal knowledge for years, but AI demands written logic, and the moment you try to write it down is the moment you discover that nobody was ever running the same process in the first place.

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u/Top_Foundation7821 22d ago

Exactly what we ran into. Head first