The 12 boring AI use cases — wallet card
These are the unglamorous, high-ROI use cases that appear most consistently when operators go looking for a first AI project. None will impress anyone at a dinner party. Every one sits on a process you can already describe, produces an output you can already check, and runs at a volume where small per-task savings add up to real money.
| # | Use case | What it replaces | Where to start |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Document extraction | Manually pulling line items from invoices, forms, claims, contracts | The document type your team processes most often |
| 2 | Email and ticket routing | A human triaging inbound requests to queues | Your highest-volume inbound channel |
| 3 | Data cleanup and reconciliation | Matching records across systems that disagree | Two systems with the same data that never agree |
| 4 | Exception flagging | Reviewing every item when 95% are routine | Any approval or review queue with a low exception rate |
| 5 | Quality inspection | Human attention on a repetitive check against a standard | The check that degrades at end of shift |
| 6 | Route and schedule optimization | Dispatchers or planners approximating the best sequence | Any fixed daily routing or scheduling problem |
| 7 | Predictive maintenance | Reactive repairs after equipment fails | Equipment with sensor data already being collected |
| 8 | Inventory and demand reconciliation | Manual forecasting and stockout firefighting | Your highest-cost stockout or overstock item |
| 9 | First-pass drafting of routine documents | Writing from scratch against a template every time | The document your team drafts most often the same way |
| 10 | Meeting and call summarization | Manually writing up notes; output reviewed before use | High-volume recurring meetings with consistent follow-up needs |
| 11 | Search and retrieval across your own documents | Staff hunting through archives, folders, and inboxes | The question your team gets asked most that requires digging |
| 12 | Status-update and reporting automation | Assembling the same report from the same sources every week | Your most time-consuming recurring report |
How to use this card
Read through the list. Circle the one or two that map to where your own money leaks. Then ask: Do I have a process I can describe? An output I can check? Volume where small savings compound? If the answer is yes to all three, that is your first project.
Circle the one you'd bet on first
| Use case you circled | The specific workflow at your company | Rough volume per week | What "right" looks like in numbers |
|---|---|---|---|
The test before you move forward
- ☐ The process already exists and is documented (or I can document it in a day)
- ☐ I can define "correct output" clearly enough to check it
- ☐ The volume is high enough that 5–10% improvement pays for the effort
- ☐ A human currently does this task the same way, repeatedly
- ☐ The data the task runs on is accessible and reasonably clean
If you cannot check all five boxes, solve the gap before you evaluate any tool.
Want a second set of eyes on this in your firm? The no-sell promise applies — if it isn't a fit, I'll tell you in the first ten minutes.
Book a 30-Minute Call →