Map a workflow. Score every step.
GenAI tools can draft a process diagram from a paragraph, but one-shot models miss the nuances that decide whether automation pays off — judgment calls, exception paths, criticality, data ownership. The structured worksheet captures those; the editor scores each step deterministically. Pick a worked example below, edit to match your reality, export to PDF.
How to read the evidence chips
- Green-dot chips are Tier 1 cases (peer-reviewed studies, NBER working papers, government findings). Blue-dot chips are Tier 2 (business press, corporate disclosures). Click any chip for the source detail.
- Workflow headers carry a theoretical anchor (UTAUT, Kotter, DeLone & McLean, TAM) showing the management-research model the workflow maps to.
- AI-assist time-saved figures with a green-dot chip are anchored to specific productivity studies. Estimates marked Illustrative are typical-report archetypes without a single anchoring case.
- Step durations (e.g. "60 min to define a need") are illustrative archetypes throughout. The cited cases support magnitude and direction of AI gains, not per-task minutes.
Worked examples
Initiate a product acquisition
You have decided you need to buy a tool, service, or piece of software. From here, what does it actually take to get a purchase order issued?
Audience: Any individual contributor sponsoring a purchase, not procurement specialists.
Frequency: Most people do this 1-3 times per year, which is exactly why it is painful.
Estimated time, mapped end to end
Without AI
8 hr 15 min
With AI assist
3 hr 35 min
Time saved
~57%
Step times are illustrative archetypes, not measured per-task figures. AI time-saved estimates marked with a green chip are anchored to specific cited studies (BCG-Harvard, NBER, BBVA, ZoomInfo). Estimates marked "Illustrative" are typical reports without a single anchoring case. Magnitude and direction are supported by the cited cases; absolute minutes will vary with role, team, and AI fluency.
Articulate the need and write requirements
Write down the problem you are solving, who is affected, what the solution must do, and what would disqualify a vendor. This becomes the basis for every later step.
Systems
Authentication
Standard SSO
Typical time
1 hr
IllustrativeWhy this is tedious
- •It is tempting to skip this and start shopping, which causes rework later.
- •Most people never use a template, so requirements are inconsistent.
Where AI can help
Paste a rough description of the problem and ask for a structured requirements doc with sections for problem statement, must-haves, nice-to-haves, and disqualifiers.
Ask for the standard procurement-readiness checklist (data classification, integration constraints, regulatory considerations) so you do not forget categories.
Check the approved-vendor catalog
Before you go shopping, find out whether procurement already has an approved vendor that covers your need. If yes, the path is faster.
Systems
Authentication
Often a separate login from your main SSO; sometimes role-gated.
Typical time
30 min
IllustrativeWhy this is tedious
- •Catalog search uses a different vocabulary than how you describe the need.
- •You may not have catalog read access and have to ask procurement first.
Where AI can help
Convert your need into the catalog's vocabulary - ask for 5-10 alternative search terms a procurement system might use for the same capability.
Paste catalog descriptions for 3-5 candidates and ask which one most closely matches your written requirements.
Verify the match in the catalog itself before choosing.
Identify candidate vendors
If nothing in the approved catalog fits, find 3-5 vendors that plausibly meet your requirements, including the incumbents in the space.
Systems
Authentication
Standard SSO
Typical time
1 hr 30 min
IllustrativeWhy this is tedious
- •Every vendor's marketing site sounds the same.
- •Hard to tell which vendors are in your size segment vs enterprise-only.
- •Analyst reports are paywalled.
Where AI can help
Ask for a starting list of vendors in the category with one-sentence positioning for each, then verify each independently.
Vendor lists can be out-of-date or include defunct companies. Always verify on the vendor's own site.
Paste a vendor's pricing or product page and ask for a 5-bullet summary against your specific requirements.
Compare options
Build a comparison across the candidates: capability fit, integration, pricing model, contract terms, security posture.
Systems
Authentication
Standard SSO
Typical time
2 hr
IllustrativeWhy this is tedious
- •Each vendor uses a different format for their pricing and terms.
- •Security questionnaires are buried in trust portals behind a click-through.
Where AI can help
Paste descriptions of all candidates and ask for a comparison table along the requirement dimensions you defined in step 1.
Paste a vendor's MSA or terms page and extract specific fields: data location, indemnification cap, termination notice period, AI training clause.
Treat extracted terms as a starting point. Legal still has to review.
Confirm budget headroom and cost code
Find the right cost center, confirm there is unspent budget in the relevant line, and identify the fiscal-year implications.
Systems
Authentication
Frequently a separate finance portal login or VPN-gated.
Typical time
45 min
IllustrativeWhy this is tedious
- •You are not sure which cost center to charge.
- •Reports are slow to load and have unintuitive filter UIs.
- •Ambiguity between calendar year and fiscal year deadlines.
Where AI can help
Ask for the questions you should ask your finance partner so the email is complete the first time and you do not need a second round.
Convert a vendor's annual price into the monthly figure your dashboard uses, with proration for the fiscal-year remaining months.
Do not paste sensitive financial figures into a public AI tool. Use the enterprise-approved tool or paste only the math problem with placeholders.
Pin down timing and dependencies
Confirm the vendor's lead time, security review duration, legal review queue, and any fiscal-year freeze.
Systems
Authentication
Standard SSO
Typical time
30 min
IllustrativeWhy this is tedious
- •Each gating function quotes a different review time and you have to chase them.
- •Q4 freezes catch people by surprise.
Where AI can help
Draft three short, specific emails (vendor / security / legal) asking each one for their committed review time so you can build a realistic timeline.
Submit the request in the procurement portal
Find the right form, fill in the 30-50 fields it expects, attach quotes / requirements / security review, and submit.
Systems
Authentication
SSO plus, often, vendor-side authentication.
Typical time
1 hr
IllustrativeWhy this is tedious
- •Field labels are written for procurement specialists, not requesters.
- •Required fields appear conditionally and you discover them only on submit.
- •The justification field expects a specific structure that is not documented.
Where AI can help
Draft the business-justification narrative from your requirements doc, in the structure procurement reviewers expect: problem, solution, alternatives considered, risk of inaction.
Paste the form's field labels and ask which ones likely need backup documentation, so you have everything ready before opening the form.
Route for approvals and follow up
Manager, finance, security, legal, and sometimes data privacy each need to approve. Track status, nudge politely, answer questions.
Systems
Authentication
Standard SSO
Typical time
1 hr
IllustrativeWhy this is tedious
- •Status pages do not say who is currently blocking.
- •Approvers ask for context already in the request.
- •It feels rude to nudge but everything stalls if you do not.
Where AI can help
Draft an approver-facing 4-bullet summary you can paste at the top of the request or into a follow-up email.
Draft a polite nudge email that references the specific approval that is pending and a concrete deadline reason.
Your process worksheet
Map a process you actually run. Each step gets a deterministic AI-suitability score so you know where automation pays off and where it does not. Saved to your browser; export the worksheet to PDF and bring it to a Diagnostic.
Reference: the ten fields the worksheet captures
The first six fields describe the step. The last four are the nuances that LLMs struggle with — the things a person who has actually done the work needs to write down before any automation makes sense.
What you actually do, in one sentence.
Every tool, portal, doc, or inbox you touch.
Where the friction is - separate logins, role gates.
How long this step takes, honestly.
Why this is tedious for someone who does it rarely.
Which of the eight patterns might safely help, and what you would have to verify.
Who actually does this step. Different roles bring different judgment.
The branch a script can't make on its own - the place LLMs are most likely to get it wrong.
The documents and fields the step depends on. Structured data makes automation tractable.
If automation gets this wrong, what is the cost? High-criticality steps need a human in the loop.
The eight AI-assist patterns
Draft
Generate a first-draft of a document, email, or form field from rough notes.
Lookup / synthesize
Synthesize a starting answer from open sources you can verify.
Summarize
Condense a long document into the parts that affect your decision.
Compare options
Build a side-by-side comparison from descriptions you paste in.
Extract structured data
Pull structured fields (dates, amounts, names) out of unstructured text.
Generate / check checklist
Produce or evaluate against a checklist for a recurring task.
Reformat / translate
Reformat content between styles, formats, or audiences.
Q&A on a document
Ask questions of a long document instead of reading it end to end.
A note on safe use
Do not paste internal financial figures, employee data, customer data, or anything covered by NDA into a public AI tool. Use the enterprise-approved AI tool when you have one, or paste only the abstracted shape of the problem when you do not. The patterns above all work fine on the abstracted version.
Bring your worksheet to a Diagnostic
Export a saved process, send it over, and we will use it to focus a 60-minute scoping call. The conversation does what the worksheet can't.