Audit. Find out how the work actually moves, and where AI is already in it.
A plain-language map of where time, effort and information are leaking, and a list of every place AI already touches the business.
What this phase is for
You cannot fix what you have not seen. The audit is a week of looking at how work really moves through the business, from the first enquiry to the last follow-up, and writing down where it slows, stalls or leaks. It is also where you find every place AI is already in the business, because it is in more places than you have counted.
Do it yourself
- Pick one workflow. Enquiry to booked job. Job to invoice paid. New client to onboarded. One, not the whole business. The one that annoys you most is usually right.
- Follow one real item through it. Take last Tuesday's enquiry and trace it: who touched it, in what tool, how long it sat, where it was retyped, where it was chased. Write each step on one line.
- Mark the four leaks. Next to each step note any of: waiting (it sat), retyping (someone copied it), chasing (someone had to ask), deciding (it needed the owner). Those are where time goes.
- Find the AI that is already there. For each step, ask who used an AI tool, which account, and what went into it. Include the AI features inside software you already pay for, and the meeting recorder someone connected. The Exposure Check is the ten-question version of this step.
- Put a number on it. Hours a week across the team, times what an hour costs. Rough is fine. If the number is small, stop here and be glad; that is a real outcome.
- Ask the person who answers the phone. They know where it actually breaks. The owner's version and the front desk's version are never the same, and the front desk is usually right.
A plain-language map of where time, effort and information are leaking, and a list of every place AI already touches the business.
The AI lens on this phase
Before AI, an audit found wasted time. Now it also finds where client information is moving without anyone deciding it should. Treat every AI tool you find as a step in the workflow with its own owner, its own account and its own rules, and carry that list into Map. When you reach an AI use that touches client, patient or customer information, run the twelve-question assessment on it before you decide whether it stays.