The boring work goes first
Transformation plans start big. The ones that work start with the job everyone complains about.
GeorgiSofia
Every transformation plan I have seen starts big. A new platform. A new strategy. Sometimes a whole new team with a title that has “digital” in it. There is a kick-off, a timeline with colours, and a promise that in eighteen months everything will be different.
The plans that actually work start small, and a little dull.
What we did first
On our own trading desk, the first job we handed to AI was typing. Orders arrived by email and WhatsApp, in four languages, and someone typed them into the system. Product, quantity, price, delivery week, incoterms. Then the same details again for the truck. Then again for the documents.
It was nobody’s favourite job. It took hours every morning, and it happened before anyone could do the work they were actually hired for: talking to buyers, finding meat, making deals.
So we started there. The AI reads the order, fills in the fields, and a trader checks it with one click. If something is unclear, it asks instead of guessing.
Why boring wins
Looking back, starting with the dull job was the best decision we made. For three reasons:
- It is easy to measure. We knew how long typing took before. We knew how long it took after. No arguments, no estimates.
- It is easy to check. A trader can see at a glance if an order is right. If the AI gets it wrong, the mistake is caught in seconds, not discovered on a truck in Italy.
- Nobody misses it. No one fights to keep typing. There is no team defending the old way, because the old way was the part of the day everyone complained about.
What happened next
Something we didn’t plan for: trust. After a few weeks of the AI getting orders right, the team started asking for more. Could it fill in the documents? Could it rank the carrier quotes? Could it send the invoice when the CMR came back signed?
Each of those became the next small job. Documents, then trucks, then payments. Order to invoice went from almost three hours to an hour and a half. Read the whole story.
If we had started with the big plan, the new platform and the eighteen months, I don’t think we would have got there. People trust what they have seen work, one small piece at a time.
How to find your boring job
Ask the people who do the work one question: “What part of your day would you happily never do again?” You will get the same answer from three people in a row. That is the one.
It will not sound like transformation. It will sound like typing, or copying, or checking one list against another. Start there anyway. It is usually the right place.
