The fastest enterprise AI wins are unglamorous. They sit in document-heavy, high-volume processes where the output is easy to verify and the audit trail already exists.
Finance: three reliable starting points
- Supplier invoice capture and coding, with exception-only human review
- Collections correspondence drafting against a live AR position
- Variance narrative drafting for management reporting, reviewed by the controller
Service operations: three more
- Case summarisation and next-best-action suggestions for agents
- Knowledge-article drafting from resolved cases
- Intent-based triage and routing on inbound service requests
Guardrails that make it fundable
Scope the data a capability may reach. Keep a human approval step wherever the output is financially material. Log prompts and outputs for audit. Publish an acceptable-use position so adoption does not outrun governance.
How to measure it
Baseline handle time, rework rate, and cost per transaction before enablement. Re-measure at 30 and 90 days. If those three numbers have not moved, the pilot has told you something useful — move the capability, not the goalposts.
