Want to Learn How to Use AI in Business? Start With an Internal Review

Claims about improved productivity aren’t in short supply when it comes to AI. While there is a lot of truth behind them, the gains don’t magically appear the moment you purchase a batch of Copilot licenses.

To generate real, measurable gains from AI, you need to understand how you'll use AI before you go to market. It all starts with an internal review — an honest look at your own business that tells you where AI will actually pay off.

What is an internal review and why do I need one?

An internal review identifies the areas of your business where AI will have the most impact.

AI is great at things like analysing vast amounts of data, spotting patterns, summarising documents and generating text. But it’s much weaker at strategic, meaningful work: making judgment calls, managing relationships and applying context to decisions.

An internal review finds which parts of your business fall into the first category, not the second. It will give you a prioritised list of AI initiatives, an honest assessment of the groundwork you need to do first and a plan you can use going forward.

What does an internal review process look like?

An internal review is much simpler than it sounds. Here are the five stages you’ll typically follow with an AI consultant like Method IT.

1. Find where the friction lies

Start by analysing your existing workflows. Which tasks eat the most time? Where do things get stuck waiting for someone? What could be automated without anyone missing it?

One benefit of working with an AI consultant like Method is our perspective. We’ve seen where AI delivers results and where it doesn’t, so we can benchmark your processes against what’s working elsewhere.

2. Assess your data estate

AI is only as good as the data you feed it. Even if a particular workflow is a good fit for AI, it can fail if the underlying data isn’t good enough to work with. Feed an AI bad data, and you’ll get confident, fluent, incorrect answers.

Things can get even worse if you don’t have a properly catalogued and classified data estate. Without appropriate controls and classification levels, AI may surface and share sensitive information with people who shouldn't see it.

3. Check what you’ve already got

Before you buy anything, find out what you’re already paying for. Plenty of businesses already hold licences with capabilities they've never switched on. We can often implement an AI workflow with tools you’re already paying for. When we can't, at least you know the purchase is necessary.

4. Identify the right tools

Not every AI platform suits every task. One model is strong at content, another at coding and another at workflow automation. And just because you're using Microsoft 365 doesn't automatically make Copilot your best option.

We have a strong working knowledge of the leading AI platforms, including Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. And because we're not tied to any single provider, we can recommend the best platform, or combination of platforms, for your business.

5. Set KPIs to measure your progress

“Improving productivity” isn’t a measurable goal. There’s no way to actually prove AI is having the desired effect unless you apply a set of realistic and measurable KPIs during the internal review.

Here are some examples of productivity goals you can actually track:

• Cut tender drafting from three days to one
• Halve the time spent producing monthly management reports
• Reduce first-response time on support queries by 40%

If you can't define a measurable outcome for a use case, you haven't found the right one yet.

Get started today

At Method, we work alongside your business to understand your processes, find the opportunities and define what success looks like. That all happens before we talk about tools or models. That way your strategy makes the most of the technology you already own.