Redesigning Workflows with AI: From 100 Steps to 10
- Severin Sorensen
- May 2
- 8 min read
If you're a CEO or team lead, you've probably encountered this: a process that was supposed to take a day takes two weeks. A simple onboarding checklist becomes a 17-tab spreadsheet. A client proposal gets bounced between legal, finance, and sales before disappearing into inbox limbo.
These aren’t edge cases — they’re standard operating procedure in most businesses.
Why? Because most workflows weren’t designed. They accumulated.
Step-by-step, layer-by-layer, we’ve added approvals to prevent mistakes, checks to satisfy compliance, and meetings to clarify what the last meeting missed. The result: bloated, manual, overly complex processes that drain productivity and morale.
But now, AI offers us something we’ve never had before: A way to start over. And to do it smarter.
Why Workflows Got So Complicated
Three forces shape traditional workflows:
Historical Bloat
What began as a simple request process gets buried under 15 years of departmental tweaks.
Fear-Based Design
One bad experience leads to three extra sign-offs “just in case.”
Human Limitations
Manual handoffs, siloed communication, and the need for reminders all slow things down.
The human cost? Disengagement, delay, decision fatigue, and sometimes, lost business.
What AI Brings to the Table
AI doesn’t just speed things up — it rethinks how work gets done.
Automation of Routine Tasks
Tasks like data entry, form population, calendar scheduling, and document prep can now be handled by AI agents or no-code automation tools.
Intelligent Workflow Design
AI can identify patterns in workflow logs, highlight bottlenecks, and suggest simplifications. It doesn’t just follow the flow — it improves it.
Adaptive Personalization
AI-powered workflows adjust based on inputs: the customer type, the deal size, the urgency, the employee's role. It’s not one-size-fits-all anymore.
Use Cases: Reducing Friction
Let’s look at three classic workflows — and how AI collapses their complexity.
Procurement
The Old Way:
Procurement involves filling out forms
Chasing approvals
Checking with finance
Waiting on vendor onboarding
The AI Way:
An AI assistant picks up a request from email or Slack.
It pre-populates the procurement form using prior data.
Smart routing sends it to the right approver automatically.
Compliance checks are run in the background.
Result:
A process that once took 15 steps and 4 departments becomes a 3-step flow in a single interface.
Employee Onboarding
The Old Way:
Manual doc collection
HR emails
IT setups
Team intros
Learning portals
Cultural immersion (if it happens at all)
The AI Way:
An AI bot greets the new hire with a personalized message.
Accounts are created automatically via identity management tools.
A tailored learning journey is delivered (e.g., sales ramp vs. engineering toolkit).
The AI tool checks progress and nudges managers on key milestones.
Result:
Engagement improves, HR saves time, and employees hit the ground running — without 20 back-and-forth emails.
Sales Operations
The Old Way:
Account Executive updates CRM manually and produces proposal
Manager reviews for accuracy
RevOps adjusts pricing
Legal scrubs terms
Client gets proposal… eventually
The AI Way:
AI captures call notes, summarizes them, and updates the CRM.
Proposal is auto-generated based on client needs and pricing parameters.
AI flags redline terms or missing data.
Smart approvals are triggered automatically.
Result:
Fewer delays, faster close cycles, and AEs spending more time selling — not wrangling systems.
Customer Support
The Old Way:
Customer submits a ticket
It sits in queue until assigned
Support agent asks repetitive questions
Escalates to Tier 2 → waits on resolution
Customer follows up via email or phone
The AI Way:
AI triages the ticket instantly based on sentiment and urgency
Auto-replies with relevant help docs or gathers missing info
For complex issues, AI suggests next steps or drafts agent responses
Resolution time and customer satisfaction scores are tracked in real time
Result:
Support feels instant, smart, and human — even if a human doesn’t step in until later. Teams scale service without burning out.
Content Creation & Marketing Approvals
The Old Way:
Marketing drafts copy
Sends it to design
Design returns assets
Edits go through 3 levels of review
Final content waits for scheduled publication
The AI Way:
AI drafts first-pass copy or variations based on brand voice
Suggests design templates or autogenerates visuals
Reviews content for tone, compliance, and grammar
Internal reviews are managed via smart prompts or auto-summarized change logs
AI handles A/B test setup or scheduling
Result:
What once took 2–3 weeks of back-and-forth now ships in days. Brand stays fresh. Teams stay agile.
How to Start Simplifying
You don’t need to overhaul your company to get started. Here’s a simple roadmap:
Audit the Process:
Pick one — expense reports, contract review, client onboarding, etc.. Map out each step.
Ask “What Could an AI Agent Do Here?”
Look for repetitive manual tasks, information handoffs, pattern-based decisions, and bottlenecks due to approval.
Run a pilot
Consider leveraging new automation tools (see below for examples).
Don’t aim for perfection. Aim for elimination:
Cut 5 steps. Then 10. Then 20.
Tools for Consideration
Here’s a curated selection of the most powerful platforms across automation, documentation, and AI-driven process design—each with unique strengths for building a modern, intelligent operations stack.
Workflow Automation
Unlock scalable efficiency with no-code and low-code platforms that automate repetitive tasks, streamline operations, and connect thousands of apps—without needing a single line of code.
Strength: Simplicity + 6,000+ app integrations.
Use Cases: Marketing ops, lead gen, email triggers, CRM updates.
Best for: Business teams and marketers who want quick, no-code automation.
Unique Features: Multi-step Zaps, AI copilot, filters, paths, webhook support.
Strength: Open-source + advanced logic handling.
Use Cases: Custom internal automations, data syncing, API workflows.
Best for: Technical users who want control over self-hosting or deeper data manipulations.
Integrations: 400+ prebuilt nodes, and you can create custom ones easily.
Strength: Deep integrations with advanced data handling (logic, looping, branching).
Use Cases: SaaS-to-SaaS integration for mid-market and enterprise.
Best for: RevOps, marketing ops, and product-led teams at scale.
Integrations: Thousands of APIs via universal connectors + growing catalog.
Strength: Enterprise-grade automation + AI capabilities.
Use Cases: HR, finance, sales, and IT automations across platforms like Netsuite, Salesforce, Slack, SAP.
Best for: Organizations needing robust governance, error handling, and compliance.
Integrations: 1,000+ apps, plus custom SDKs.
Strength: Drag-and-drop dataflow automation (think Excel + APIs).
Use Cases: Ops workflows, ecommerce inventory syncing, bulk data cleanup.
Best for: Ops teams who need spreadsheet logic meets API power.
Integrations: Airtable, Shopify, Google Sheets, APIs, CSVs.
Strength: Developer-first automation (code + low-code hybrid).
Use Cases: Custom API integrations, webhook listeners, backend process logic.
Best for: Technical teams needing fast scripting + app integrations.
Integrations: 1,500+ services with real-time triggers.
Standard Operating Procedures
Capture, standardize, and scale internal knowledge with smart tools that turn complex processes into repeatable, easily accessible documentation for teams.
Strength: Auto-generates step-by-step guides from screen recordings.
Best for: Fast SOPs for software workflows (click-by-click).
How it works: Hit “record,” perform a task, and it creates screenshots + written steps.
AI Assist: Yes — AI can auto-title steps and explain actions.
Output: PDFs, web guides, embeds, Notion integration.
Strength: Similar to Scribe, with stronger enterprise support and analytics.
Best for: Internal SOP documentation, employee onboarding, IT walkthroughs.
AI Assist: Tango AI drafts steps and highlights decision points automatically.
Bonus: Slack/Notion/Google Docs integration for team sharing.
Strength: Full workspace with built-in AI to help write, format, and summarize SOPs.
Best for: Teams already using Notion for internal knowledge bases.
AI Assist: Yes — "Write an SOP on..." prompts generate a structured draft.
Power Move: Embed images, videos, Scribe/Tango walkthroughs in one clean docs.
Strength: Combines SOPs with checklists, forms, conditional logic, and automation.
Best for: Ops teams managing onboarding, training, or compliance workflows.
AI Assist: Draft SOP templates or suggest process improvements.
Bonus: Zapier, Slack, Salesforce, and email integrations for trigger-based SOPs.
Strength: Combines SOPs + training modules + assessments.
Best for: Growing teams onboarding new hires, scaling consistent operations.
AI Assist: Smart content blocks, auto-suggested procedures, and policy builders.
Integrations: Zapier, Slack, Google, and HR systems (Gusto, BambooHR).
Strength: SOP and process documentation + in-browser coaching pop-ups.
Best for: Training within the flow of work (like an SOP + assistant hybrid).
AI Assist: Smart recommendations based on role or system usage.
Unique Feature: SOPs show up contextually in tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, etc.
Strength: Video-based SOPs with voice + screen recording.
Best for: Explaining nuanced tasks, showing tone, or demoing tools.
AI Assist: Summarizes recordings, chapters steps, and generates transcripts.
Use it with: Notion, Trainual, or Confluence for embedding into SOP documents.
Strength: Static image + video capture with annotations.
Best for: Annotated screenshots, process visuals, or hybrid image/video SOPs.
Use Case: Detailed how-tos with visual references.
Confluence + Atlassian Intelligence
Strength: Robust SOP documentation with enterprise search and permissions.
AI Assist: Drafting content, summarizing pages, linking similar procedures.
Best for: Engineering, DevOps, and enterprise orgs.
Bonus: Seamless Jira integration for dev processes.
Strength: Internal wiki with browser extension for fast answers.
Best for: Embedding SOP knowledge into sales, support, and ops teams.
AI Assist: Suggests updates, detects outdated cards, and summarizes SOPs.
Use Case: Teams that want SOPs “where work happens” (Slack, Salesforce, etc.).
AI-Powered Process Insights & Automation (Beyond Manual Triggers)
Leverage intelligent systems that observe behavior, learn patterns, and autonomously take action—eliminating the need for manual data entry or predefined triggers.
Type: Browser automation assistant
Core Power: Watches your browser and automates recurring tasks from observed behavior.
Standout Features: auto-generates workflows from your actions, prebuilt playbooks for LinkedIn, Google Sheets, Notion, etc., works natively in Chrome
Use It For: Auto-logging leads, scraping data, syncing meeting notes, compiling reports
Strength: No-code + proactive recommendations + context-awareness
Type: No-code AI for decision-making on unstructured data
Core Power: Trains custom models to classify documents, images, emails, etc.
Standout Features: learns from historical examples, routes incoming data (e.g., customer emails, form uploads) automatically
Use It For: Tagging documents, processing invoices, routing support requests
Strength: Trigger-less classification + human-in-the-loop options
Type: Event-driven security/workflow automation
Core Power: Listens to events from APIs, platforms, or webhooks; takes action automatically.
Standout Features: no-code logic builder, pulls from structured & unstructured data (logs, alerts, etc.)
Use It For: IT, security, and internal support workflows
Strength: Quiet, backend automation that listens and reacts
Type: Process orchestration with AI-driven intake
Core Power: Automates “last-mile” tasks using AI + form-based interactions + backend triggers.
Standout Features: Detects process friction (e.g., follow-ups, routing issues), automates human-in-the-loop steps
Use It For: Procurement, legal ops, IT ticketing where forms + routing rule
Strength: **Process-aware orchestration that eliminates manual coordination
Type: Digital workforce platform
Core Power: Prebuilt AI bots for tasks like invoice processing, onboarding, compliance.
Standout Features: AI bots adapt to processes from usage history, embedded risk/compliance handling
Use It For: Back-office finance, HR, regulated workflows
Strength: AI bots + domain-specific intelligence = zero-manual workflow
Type: Vector-based data enrichment and automation
Core Power: Turns raw customer/product/ops data into semantically searchable, actionable pipelines.
Standout Features: Use of embeddings and RAG-like search on internal data, “flow” builder for triggerless agent-driven automation
Use It For: Customer support triage, sales insight generation, content tagging
Strength: Context-aware automation on dynamic, unstructured data
Type: Event-listening automation for SaaS apps (esp. internal tools)
Core Power: Works silently in the backend of your apps, listens for event signals.
Standout Features: Built-in webhook monitors, low-code control over triggers
Use It For: Internal tool workflows where webhook events are key
Strength: App-connected without the visual builder overhead
The 10x Organization
This isn’t just about speed. It’s about focus. AI-augmented organizations don’t spend time on process maintenance. They spend time on strategy, creativity, and culture. They move faster because they’ve removed friction, not just added horsepower.
As you look across your company, ask yourself: “What if we designed this process today — with today’s tools, today’s expectations, and today’s talent — how would it look?”
The answer will rarely involve 100 steps. It may not even involve 10.
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