Hi

You've probably heard a lot about how AI can significantly enhance your business perfromance and efficiency. But if you've experimented with AI tools already, you might have noticed they don't always deliver the promised benefits. 

The primary reason many AI tools fall short is simple - these generic tools fail to align with your business’s unique ways of working because they lack a deep understanding of your business context. 

Every organisation, including yours, operates with distinct processes, information flows, and decision-making styles. Generic AI simply isn't equipped to handle these nuances.

Why Context Matters So Much

To support your business effectively, AI must comprehend your specific working methods, from daily tasks to strategic decisions. Imagine having a new team member who doesn’t understand how your business operates - they'd constantly require guidance and corrections. Similarly, AI without context can end up being more of a burden than a benefit.

Making AI Truly Useful

To leverage AI effectively, you need to provide detailed insights into your company's actual operations. Here’s how:

• Clearly document your business processes step-by-step.
• Identify critical decision points and explain how decisions are typically made.
• Specify the systems, software, and data your team depends on daily.

This thorough mapping creates a blueprint that allows AI to understand exactly what you need and when you need it, transforming it from a simple tool into a genuinely useful team member

Rather than forcing your business to adjust to off-the-shelf AI solutions, tailor the AI specifically for your operations. When your AI is customised based on real-world insights, its outputs become instantly more relevant and accurate. 

This means less time spent correcting and refining AI-produced results, freeing up your team to focus on higher-value activities and strategic goals.

Here’s how you can practically embed context into your AI:

• Create comprehensive workflow diagrams, detailing each task and how tasks interlink.
• Document real examples of completed tasks, projects, or communications, providing tangible examples of expected outcomes.
• Identify frequently asked questions within your team and document the typical responses.
• Capture team knowledge by recording typical problem-solving approaches, including exceptions and special cases.
• Regularly gather feedback from team members on AI outputs to help refine its performance over time.

Here are the questions your workflow mapping program should ask to effectively document your processes:

• What are the specific tasks involved in this process?
• Who is responsible for each task?
• What triggers each task to start?
• What tools or software are used to perform each task?
• How do tasks interact or depend on each other?
• What data is required to complete each task?
• How is success or completion of each task defined?
• What decisions are made at each stage, and who makes them?
• What exceptions or variations commonly occur in this process?
• What problems or bottlenecks are frequently encountered?
• What improvements or changes would your team suggest?

Continuous Improvement Is Essential

Your business doesn't stand still, and neither should your AI. Continually feeding updated, real-world context into your AI system ensures it remains valuable, relevant, and increasingly effective. Regularly updating your AI helps it adapt to changing business environments and evolving processes.

What Does This Mean for Your Business?

The key takeaway is that leveraging AI effectively demands a context-rich approach. Generic AI can provide superficial improvements, but customised, context-aware AI delivers real strategic value, significant efficiency gains, and measurable improvements in productivity and clarity.

Contextualised AI isn't merely about adopting new technology—it’s about optimising your entire business operation for lasting growth and efficiency.

If you're ready to explore the specific ways AI can transform your business performance, start by clearly mapping your workflows—it's your first step toward unlocking real, sustainable business improvement.

Noel Guilford