and automation are not only a pattern — they’re remodeling how corporations function.
In a earlier article, I shared a number of case research of AI Brokers supporting the sustainability roadmaps of small, medium and enormous corporations.
That is a part of a 4-month exploration of how agentic AI can drive enterprise digital transformations.
All of it started after I found no-code instruments like n8n, which let you design and automate highly effective workflows with only a few clicks.
My co-founder summed up the chance completely:
“We’d like a way to deploy easy and environment friendly options to scale our provide of analytics and automation.”
So we started working.
We constructed case research and prototypes to indicate how these AI brokers might help prospects speed up digital transformation.
Right this moment, AI brokers for workflow Automation symbolize over 60% of our income.
On this article, I need to share the within story of our explorative journey and the way we turned this chance right into a enterprise so you may study to duplicate our strategy.
Removed from buzzwords and clickbait articles, we’ll take a practical strategy to explaining how these instruments can convey added worth to companies with out promoting desires.
Briefly, we’ll cowl
- What kinds of examples and case research we shared to draw prospects
- The issues prospects dropped at us (and the way we hearken to their wants)
- How will we promote these options (ROI arguments and enterprise impression)
In the event you’ve been questioning tips on how to flip automation and AI brokers right into a worthwhile service, this text is an efficient inspiration to begin investigating.
How Case Research Introduced Clients to Our Door
Studying by doing
After I need to study a brand new software, I create case research.
When OpenAI launched its first GPT API, I began exploring LangChain with a case study shared in this blog.
It’s my favorite method to flip curiosity into hands-on experience.
Due to this fact, my weblog comprises over 70 case research masking analytics for provide chain optimisation, logistics price discount, and sustainability.
So after I found AI-powered workflow automation with n8n, I replicated this confirmed course of:
- Study the fundamentals of the software
- Choose an instance of an operational or enterprise drawback from the a number of tasks I performed prior to now.
- Construct a prototype and measure its impression
- Publish a case examine
My n8n creator profile turned a playground to attach enterprise and operational issues with real-world options.
This strategy sharpened my expertise and have become a lift to draw prospects in search of sensible options to their issues.
Easy methods to choose your first case examine?
I began by specializing in the most vital ache factors I had seen throughout my 9+ years in logistics — throughout 3PLs, FMCG corporations, and luxurious manufacturers.
What guide processes had been draining productiveness and limiting capability?
One instance that got here to thoughts was from the distribution operations of a style firm in China.
The pallets, shipped from Europe, had been delivered by a truck within the morning.
Sadly, we weren’t linked to the provider through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
We needed to depend on electronic mail exchanges to know what we’d obtain.
This meant warehouse admins needed to:
- Overview the emails coming from the client’s logistics crew.
- Manually enter order particulars into the system (PO quantity, supply date, SKU ID, portions)
What are the ache factors right here?
This can be a bottleneck for the reception course of.
Certainly, if the orders are usually not keyed into the system, inbound groups can’t obtain the pallets.
However extra importantly, this guide course of impacts the productiveness of admin groups that spend time on duties that don’t present added worth.
Due to this fact, I used this instance to construct my first n8n automation.
It’s a easy workflow linked to Gmail that robotically analyses all of the emails associated to inbound orders.
A GPT-powered AI node analyses the content material of the e-mail to extract the order info.
The output is saved in a spreadsheet able to be loaded into the system by a script.
For extra details about this workflow, test the whole tutorial right here
What occurred after I printed this workflow?
The Issues Purchasers Introduced — and How We Solved Them
After publishing, prospects from totally different industries and international locations started in search of assist with related issues.
That is answering a standard drawback: the shortage of interconnectivity between methods.
Earlier than, corporations would depend on guide work to bridge the gaps.
Now, we will deploy AI brokers to automate these bridges.
A furnishings firm within the Netherlands contacted us.
Part of their worth chain (small suppliers) wasn’t linked through EDI.
Due to this fact, they relied on guide processes to ship and obtain orders.
After a number of interviews with their IT crew, we discovered:
- The methods may generate EDI messages
- However they couldn’t obtain or course of incoming messages
Due to this fact, we have now proposed a workaround
- The sender would generate the EDI message and ship it through electronic mail
- An n8n workflow would accumulate the e-mail, parse the content material and save the outputs.
We now have now eliminated a big ache level for the client by “partially” automating the method.
On this instance, AI brokers present a fantastic added worth: adapting the software to the format of the EDI message.
This makes the software extra strong and adaptable to the totally different methods their suppliers are utilizing.
For extra info on implementing this answer (with the template out there), test this tutorial.
This answer has a number of benefits:
- It’s cheaper and simpler to deploy than correctly connecting the furnishings firm to every provider.
- This improves the information high quality and permits the corporate to allocate these information enter groups to customer support.
This was our first victory and proof that we will help companies with easy options.
For the next tasks, we developed a course of to qualify prospects and standardised the options design.
- Outline the issue confronted by the client
→ We have to manually enter orders acquired from suppliers. - Discover the basis trigger
→ Absence of Digital Information Interchange (EDI) connections - Design an answer
→ AI-powered workflow automation to parse EDI messages.
However, how will we promote these options?
I’ll share our methodology for promoting these automation options within the subsequent part.
How We Promote These Options
After constructing and testing these automation prototypes, the following problem was clear: How will we place and promote these options to purchasers?
Contemplating that almost all of our leads come from my content material (Towards Data Science, YouTube, n8n Creator Page), we developed three gross sales approaches tailored to the request of the prospect.
The thought is to adapt the gross sales pitch to clear enterprise outcomes and return on funding (ROI).
Strategy 1: Automate to Enhance Productiveness
That is the first concern of our prospects.
They’re pressured to scale back prices by bettering the productiveness of their operators and admin groups.
Prospect: “A customer support admin can course of 6 orders per hour with our guide course of. What number of orders are you able to course of with AI?”
When we have now a buyer with a case associated to productiveness, we focus our questions on:
- Defining the present workflow, together with each step with an in depth description (information enter, outputs, methods used)
- Estimating the present productiveness (variety of actions per hour) and the workforce price ($/hour)
As an example, an company specializing in ESG consulting approached us to assist them automate their sustainability regulation monitoring course of.
They ask their extremely expert (excessive hourly price) ESG analysts to overview the European Parliament’s exercise stories and choose these associated to sustainability.
Prospect: “We would like these analysts to concentrate on duties with increased added worth.”
We developed a workflow to utterly automate this course of with an AI agent, offering a excessive return on funding.
ROI = Time Saved × Hourly Price of Analysts
This easy calculation is essential to convincing the choice maker that it’s price investing assets and cash in implementing your automation.
To our prospect: “This answer will prevent XXX euros per thirty days, you’ll get well your funding by YYY months.”
For extra details about this workflow, test the whole tutorial
For some prospects, the precedence is bringing extra enterprise; we will additionally use AI.
Strategy 2: Automate for Advertising and marketing & Promotion
In my startup, LogiGreen, we had been the primary customers of this sort of workflow.
As a small construction, we don’t have the monetary means to recruit a whole Marketing and industrial.
How can we construct an automatic machine of content material distribution to extend our attain?
Due to this fact, we depend on automation to advertise our enterprise — an effective way to create or curate partaking content material.
The screenshot above comes from an electronic mail generated by our absolutely automated publication.
- You will discover hyperlinks to our web site within the header and footer.
- The distribution checklist contains all our prospects and prospects.
We use n8n with GPT-4o to automate this answer.
This easy workflow makes use of a classification agent to curate a listing of articles associated to sustainability coming from a number of sources (EU information, specialised journals, social media).
The AI agent handles the editorial selections primarily based on the directions in its system immediate.
It is a superb method for us to create an internet group, keep prime of thoughts with our prospects, and share partaking content material.
To our prospects: “With this content material creation machine, you may occupy the area, present worth and create an internet group centered round your small business.”
We at the moment are promoting this “content material creation machine” to our prospects!
For extra details about this “automated publication”, test the video beneath
Some prospects that contacted us stated their prime precedence isn’t just productiveness or advertising.
Strategy 3: Automate for High quality and Error Discount
They need to guarantee high quality and cut back errors, particularly in essential reporting and compliance workflows.
As an example, a rising variety of corporations have to adjust to the Company Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
This requires publishing ESG disclosures in machine-readable XHTML format, embedded with XBRL tags.
These stories should meet strict formatting and compliance requirements to be accepted by regulators.
Prospect: “We now have points with formatting our stories appropriately.”
To help this prospect, we developed an n8n workflow that helps sustainability groups and ESG consultants robotically audit these stories.
Their analysts should electronic mail a draft of the report back to a particular handle.
The attachment is downloaded, and its content material is analysed to seek out lacking values and format errors.
The output of this audit is distributed to an AI agent that can clarify, in plain English, the errors discovered within the report.
We place this product as lowering errors to avoid wasting money and time.
Earlier than having this software, they relied on a third-party firm to test their stories.
By automating the audit course of, corporations can:
- Keep away from pricey reporting errors
- Scale back the danger of regulatory non-compliance
- Speed up turnaround time on stories
- Release knowledgeable assets to concentrate on evaluation, not formatting.
The Return On Funding right here comes from minimising rework prices and delays whereas growing the reliability of reported information.
For extra particulars about this automation, test this tutorial (together with the n8n template)
You’ll uncover that the core block of this audit software nonetheless makes use of deterministic code (for reliability).
Nonetheless, AI is bettering the person expertise by offering explanations in plain English.
To our prospects: “You don’t should be an XHTML knowledgeable to appropriate the report.”
We’re promoting this to our prospects: AI offers superior analytics-as-a-service capabilities to any firm.
Conclusion
Over the previous few months, we have now reworked automation from a private exploration right into a promising enterprise provide.
By specializing in three key approaches — bettering productiveness, boosting advertising attain, and guaranteeing high quality — we helped corporations throughout industries clear up actual issues, save time and improve their impression.
We don’t promote desires with AGI changing their total provide chain departments.
The chance right here is gigantic.
Companies search individuals who can bridge the hole between operational challenges and automation options.
In the event you’re interested by beginning your automation journey, I’ll present frequent updates on this weblog.
If you wish to implement these options for your small business, be at liberty to attach with me on LinkedIn.
About Me
Let’s join on Linkedin and Twitter; I’m a Supply Chain Engineer utilizing information analytics to enhance logistics operations and cut back prices.
For consulting or recommendation on analytics and sustainable provide chain transformation, be at liberty to contact me through Logigreen Consulting.
Samir Saci | Data Science & Productivity
A technical blog focusing on Data Science, Personal Productivity, Automation, Operations Research and Sustainable…samirsaci.com
