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RATES: where to start with AI automation

Score the work you already do on five factors and the best automation candidates rise to the top. No tool selection, no strategy deck - just your own week, ranked.

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Most AI projects start in the wrong place

You have heard that AI will change how your team works. But if you pick a tool before you pick a task, you will spend hours chasing features instead of results. It is buying a hammer and then wandering around looking for nails.

The better order is to start with the work you already do every week, score it, and let the shortlist tell you which tool you actually need.

The five factors

Score each candidate task from 0 to 2 on every factor. The letters spell RATES, which is the point - once you know them you can run this in your head, in a meeting, without the worksheet.

How it works in five minutes

Three passes. The first two take about two minutes each.

List your regular tasks

Write down what you did yesterday, what is on today, and what is coming tomorrow. Note how often each repeats. Daily and weekly items first - monthly ones rarely repay the setup.

Score each one

Give every task a 0, 1 or 2 on all five factors, then add them up. Ten is the maximum.

0 Not at all
1 Somewhat
2 Definitely

Test the top one

Take your highest scorer and give it thirty minutes with one AI tool. Track three things: time saved against doing it by hand, whether the output is accurate enough, and whether it was actually less annoying.

What the scoring looks like

Three tasks from the same operations manager's week. Same five factors, three different answers.

Write and send a sales proposal

R: 2
A: 2
T: 2
E: 2
S: 2

10 out of 10

Highest priority. Start here.

Update the production tracker

R: 1
A: 2
T: 1
E: 2
S: 1

7 out of 10

Second month, once the first pilot is running.

Attend the morning stand-up

R: 2
A: 0
T: 2
E: 0
S: 0

4 out of 10

Park it. Frequent, but there is nothing to gain.

What usually scores high

Across the teams we have run this with, the same handful keep coming top.

Meeting follow-ups Transcribe, summarise, assign the actions. Repetitive, tedious, and a mistake is obvious the moment you read it.
Proposal first drafts The structure barely changes between proposals, and you were going to edit it anyway.
Report assembly The data pull, the chart and the narrative around them, every month, to the same shape.
Routine email replies High volume, low variation, and the cost of a slightly wrong draft is one quick edit.
Reformatting documents Slides into a doc, doc into slides. Nobody enjoys it and nobody checks it twice.

Score your own tasks

Two ways to run it. The worksheet is the one we use in workshops.

// worksheet

The RATES worksheet

A spreadsheet with the five columns and the scoring key built in. Copy it, list your tasks, score them offline.

→ open // beta

The RATES assistant

Talk through your week and it scores the tasks with you. Requires a ChatGPT account.

→ open

Both use the same key: 8 to 10 means start now, 6 to 7 means next month, 5 or below means leave it alone.

Mapped your shortlist?

A Focus Call is twenty-five minutes, free, and has no pitch in it. Bring your top three scores and we will pressure-test them and map a realistic first project.

Book a Focus Call

Last updated: July 2026