Business · Free tool
AI Automation Opportunity Finder
The AI automation opportunity finder helps you decide what to automate first. Choose processes such as invoicing, data entry, customer enquiries or reporting, or add your own. For each one, say how often it happens, how long it takes, who is involved, whether it follows rules and what mistakes cost. You get estimated hours a month, a ranking by impact and feasibility, a suggested approach and a three-phase roadmap.
Free, no sign-up Runs in your browser
AI Automation Opportunity Finder
Customer enquiries near the top of your list? The AI chatbot requirements generator turns that into a project brief.
Everything runs in your browser. Your answers, including any hourly rate, are not sent to our server unless you choose to send the report with an enquiry.
How to use the AI Automation Opportunity Finder
- 1 Tick the processes your team spends time on, or name your own.
- 2 For each process, enter how often it happens and the minutes it takes.
- 3 Say how many people are involved, whether it follows fixed rules, whether the information is digital and what a mistake costs.
- 4 Optionally enter what an hour of staff time costs you, then press Find my opportunities.
- 5 Start with phase 1 of the roadmap, and measure the time before and after.
What it does
- Hours a month for each process, worked out from your own numbers
- Ranking by impact × feasibility, with a risk level for each process
- Suggested approach: simple automation, AI-assisted, digitise first or keep manual
- Three-phase roadmap that starts with low-risk quick wins
- Optional hours × your hourly rate, with no invented savings
- Download as Markdown, print or save as PDF, or send the report to us
Useful for small business owners short of time, operations and office managers and teams deciding where AI could help.
Limitations
- The hours are estimates from your answers, not measurements; measure a process for a few weeks before you change it.
- It does not estimate savings. Automation rarely removes all the time a process takes, and set-up and checking take time too.
- The scores are a simple, published method for ordering the work, not a guarantee that a process can or should be automated.
How the hours are worked out
For each process you enter how many times it happens, per working day, week, month, quarter or year, and the minutes of staff time it takes each time. The finder converts that to times a month and multiplies:
Hours a month = times a month × minutes each ÷ 60
A month counts as 52 ÷ 12 weeks or 260 ÷ 12 working days. For example, 20 enquiries a working day at 5 minutes each is 20 × 21.7 × 5 ÷ 60 ≈ 36 hours a month. If you enter what an hour of staff time costs, the report adds hours × your rate. That is the cost of the time today, not a promise of savings.
How the ranking works
Each process gets two scores from 1 to 5:
- Impact rises with the hours spent (under 1, 5, 15 and 40 hours a month are the steps) and adds up to a point when mistakes are costly.
- Feasibility is 5 for work that follows fixed rules, 3 for a mix of rules and judgement and 1 for mostly judgement. It drops by 1 if some information arrives as emails, PDFs or chat messages, by 2 if it is mostly paper or phone calls, and by half a point when more than three people are involved.
The ranking multiplies them (a maximum of 25). Risk combines the cost of a mistake with how much judgement the work needs. The method is deliberately simple, so you can check and adjust it.
The suggested approaches
- Simple automation: fixed rules and digital information. Templates, integrations and schedules are enough, and AI is not needed.
- AI-assisted, with a person approving: work that needs some reading or judgement, such as sorting enquiries or pulling details from documents.
- Digitise first: paper or phone-based work. Capture it in a form or system before automating it.
- Keep manual: tiny processes, or judgement-heavy work where mistakes are costly. AI can still draft for the person doing it.
For AI-assisted work, the risks OWASP lists for AI applications still apply, misinformation among them. So the report always keeps a person checking costly outputs.
Reading your roadmap
Phase 1 (the first three months) takes up to three low-risk simple automations from the top of your ranking. Phase 2 (months 3–6) digitises paper steps and pilots AI-assisted work. Phase 3 (months 6–12) leaves the higher-risk work until the earlier phases have shown results. Measure each process for a few weeks before you change it, and again after, so you know what actually changed.
If customer enquiries rank highly, the AI chatbot requirements generator helps you plan an assistant, and the WhatsApp Business readiness checker covers WhatsApp. For invoicing, our free invoice generator is a quick start. When you are ready to automate, our AI and automation service can help with the first phase.
Frequently asked questions
Which business processes are easiest to automate?
Repetitive work that follows fixed rules, happens often and uses information that is already digital: sending invoices and reminders, copying data between systems, confirming bookings, updating stock from sales and producing regular reports.
When should I use AI rather than simple automation?
Use ordinary automation (rules, templates, integrations and schedules) when the steps are fixed. AI helps when the work needs some reading or judgement, such as sorting enquiries, pulling details out of PDFs or drafting replies, and a person should check its output before it takes effect.
How are the hours a month calculated?
Times a month × minutes each time ÷ 60, from your own answers. Daily processes count working days: a month is 260 ÷ 12 working days, or 52 ÷ 12 weeks.
Does the report tell me how much I will save?
No. It shows the time a process takes now and, if you enter an hourly staff cost, hours × your rate. That is what the time costs today, not a saving: automation rarely removes all of it, and setting it up and checking it take time too.
What should stay manual?
Processes that take under an hour a month, and work that is mostly judgement where mistakes are costly, such as final payroll approval or sensitive customer decisions. AI can still prepare drafts or summaries for the person doing them.
Is it safe to put customer or staff data into AI tools?
Check what the provider does with your data, where it is stored and what your contract says before you use it. If the data is personal, Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) applies; the Data Protection Commission's guidance covers security safeguards and data processors. Take legal advice if you are unsure.
Sources
Phoot Technologies
Want help automating the top of your list?
We review processes with you, automate the ones where it pays off, and keep a person in control of AI. Send us your report and we will suggest a first step.
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