Map the Human Task Before AI

Unit ID: PAW-M10-U01 Estimated active time: 20-25 minutes

Map what happens now

Before deciding where AI helps, write down how the task is done today — including the parts that are annoying, and the parts that only work because a particular person knows something.

You cannot improve a process you have not described.

Look for the real cost

People assume the slow part is the writing. Often it is not.

It is gathering the information, chasing an approval, or the twenty minutes of deciding what the message should actually say. Adding AI to the writing step then saves very little.

The current-state map

CURRENT STATE

Step   What happens          Who    Minutes   Annoying?   Depends on
                                                          knowing...
----   -------------------   ----   -------   ---------   -------------
1
2
3
4

Total minutes:
Slowest step:
Riskiest step:
Step that only works because one person knows something:

The last row is the one worth staring at. That is where the process is fragile, and it is rarely where AI helps.

Judgement steps stay human

Mark each step as mechanical (reformatting, summarising, drafting) or judgement (deciding, weighing, committing).

Mechanical steps are candidates for AI assistance. Judgement steps are not, and Module 11 makes that a gate.

Some steps should be removed, not automated

Mapping often reveals a step that exists for no current reason — a report nobody reads, an approval for something already agreed.

Deleting it is a bigger improvement than assisting it, and it costs nothing to run.

Mini practice

Map one repeated task in its current state.

Mark each step mechanical or judgement.

Identify one step to delete and one to assist — and check they are not the same step.

Mark complete