The Automation Map: find what to automate first.
An Automation Map is a one-page inventory of the repetitive work inside a company, scored and ranked so the first automation is the one with the highest return and the lowest risk. This is the blank version of the map Aldenebai fills in with you on the Automation Audit. Use it on your own; print the page or save it as a PDF from your browser.
Five steps, one afternoon
The map works because it forces two things most automation plans skip: a number for every job, and a written reason for every job you decide not to touch.
Inventory the repetitive work
Walk each team. For every job that repeats, write down who does it, how often, how long one instance takes, and which tools it touches. Include the ones nobody thinks of as work: the weekly spreadsheet, the copy-paste between systems, the same reply to the same question.
Score each job
Four columns. Volume: instances per week. Minutes: time per instance. Error cost: what a mistake costs in money, trust, or rework. Reversibility: can a mistake be undone in a minute, a day, or never.
Rank by return and risk
Volume times minutes gives hours a week. Weight it by error cost. Sort. Then draw a line: everything above it that is reversible runs on its own; everything irreversible keeps a person on the button.
Write the honest "not yet"
Some jobs need judgment, context, or data a machine does not have today. Write them down with the reason. This column saves more money than the ranked list, because it stops the wrong project.
Pick the first move
One job: high volume, low risk, inputs and outputs you can describe in a sentence. Name the target before you build. "Sixty percent of the top five ticket types resolved without a person" is a target. "Better support" is not.
The blank map
Print this page or save as PDF| JOB THAT REPEATS | WHO | PER WEEK | MIN EACH | HOURS / WK | ERROR COST | REVERSIBLE? | TOOLS | VERDICT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example: answer how-to support tickets | Support, 2 people | 180 | 9 | 27 | Low | Yes | Helpdesk, docs | Automate first |
| Example: approve refunds over a threshold | Finance lead | 15 | 12 | 3 | High | No | Billing | Human gate |
| Example: negotiate supplier terms | Ops director | 2 | 90 | 3 | High | No | Email, calls | Not yet |
Verdicts: Automate first (high hours, reversible, clear inputs), Automate with a human gate (high hours, irreversible steps), Not yet (needs judgment or data a machine does not have), Leave manual (too rare to matter).
The map is free either way. The call adds the engineer.
You can fill this in alone and get most of the value. What the Automation Audit adds is the person who has built these systems: which of your jobs map to a system that already exists in production, what each would take to integrate with your tools, a realistic estimate, and a blunt opinion on where AI is not the answer yet.
Where the ranked jobs usually land
Name the job. We'll map the machine.
The free Automation Audit fills this map in with you, in 30 minutes, and sends it back written within 48 hours.