A one-page way to decide where to point AI. Sort your team's work by two values, what the business needs and what only your best people should do, and aim automation at the corner that frees your scarcest talent.
Two questions, not one
Every task carries two values, and they are not the same. Confusing them is the mistake that sends AI at the wrong work. Ask both:
Enterprise value. Does the business genuinely need this done?
Expert-judgment intensity. How much does it draw on scarce expert judgment, taste, and hard-won expertise, as opposed to merely time? This is about the task, not the person. Low intensity does not make the person low-value.
Sort the work
Place each recurring task in the grid.
Low judgment
High judgment
High enterprise value
Point AI here first. The grind the business needs but your best people should not be doing.
Your best people. AI assists, a human owns every call. Protect this.
Low enterprise value
Let it go. Automating it just makes noise cheaper.
Ask why your best people are spending here at all.
The corners
High enterprise, low judgment. Your first target. Automation buys the most here, not because the task matters, but because the person does. This is where a routine first-draft section, a standard report, or the analyst’s vendor email lives.
High enterprise, high judgment. The work only your experts can carry, a BLA narrative and its equivalents. AI can clear the blank page, but a human is the author of record and owns the judgment. Do not hand this over to save time; you have better places to save it.
Low enterprise, low judgment. Stop doing it. AI is not the answer to work that should not exist.
Low enterprise, high judgment. A misallocation to fix at the source. Your scarcest people are on work the business does not need. AI is a distraction from the real question.
The second-order test
The value of clearing low-judgment work is not the hours saved on it. It is where the freed bandwidth goes. So for every task you hand to AI, name the redirect out loud. If the freed time flows back into more low-value work, you saved hours and gained nothing. If it flows into the work only your best people can do, you multiplied your scarcest resource. That redirect is the whole return, and it is the number to manage.
Run it
List your team’s recurring work for a normal month.
Break the big, important items into parts. A submission is not one point on the grid; its sections, tables, and narratives land in different corners.
Place each task on the two axes, honestly.
Aim AI at the high-enterprise, low-judgment corner first.
For every task you automate, name where the freed time goes, and hold that.
Revisit quarterly. Work moves between corners as tools and people change.
The argument behind the map is Don’t Point AI at Your Best Work. Point AI at the grind, on purpose, so your genius lands only where genius is required.
## Two questions, not one
Every task carries two values, and they are not the same. Confusing them is the mistake that sends AI at the wrong work. Ask both:
- **Enterprise value.** Does the business genuinely need this done?
- **Expert-judgment intensity.** How much does it draw on scarce expert judgment, taste, and hard-won expertise, as opposed to merely time? This is about the *task*, not the person. Low intensity does not make the person low-value.
## Sort the work
Place each recurring task in the grid.
| | Low judgment | High judgment |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **High enterprise value** | **Point AI here first.** The grind the business needs but your best people should not be doing. | **Your best people.** AI assists, a human owns every call. Protect this. |
| **Low enterprise value** | Let it go. Automating it just makes noise cheaper. | Ask why your best people are spending here at all. |
## The corners
- **High enterprise, low judgment.** Your first target. Automation buys the most here, not because the task matters, but because the person does. This is where a routine first-draft section, a standard report, or the analyst's vendor email lives.
- **High enterprise, high judgment.** The work only your experts can carry, a BLA narrative and its equivalents. AI can clear the blank page, but a human is the author of record and owns the judgment. Do not hand this over to save time; you have better places to save it.
- **Low enterprise, low judgment.** Stop doing it. AI is not the answer to work that should not exist.
- **Low enterprise, high judgment.** A misallocation to fix at the source. Your scarcest people are on work the business does not need. AI is a distraction from the real question.
## The second-order test
The value of clearing low-judgment work is not the hours saved on it. It is where the freed bandwidth goes. So for every task you hand to AI, name the redirect out loud. If the freed time flows back into more low-value work, you saved hours and gained nothing. If it flows into the work only your best people can do, you multiplied your scarcest resource. That redirect is the whole return, and it is the number to manage.
## Run it
1. List your team's recurring work for a normal month.
2. Break the big, important items into parts. A submission is not one point on the grid; its sections, tables, and narratives land in different corners.
3. Place each task on the two axes, honestly.
4. Aim AI at the high-enterprise, low-judgment corner first.
5. For every task you automate, name where the freed time goes, and hold that.
6. Revisit quarterly. Work moves between corners as tools and people change.
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*The argument behind the map is [Don't Point AI at Your Best Work](/dont-point-ai-at-your-best-work/). Point AI at the grind, on purpose, so your genius lands only where genius is required.*