Do You Know Where to Use AI for the Biggest Business Impact?
A practical guide for determining internal and external AI use cases
Why Use Case Discovery Matters
Organizations are eager to harness AI but projects are often scoped around vague ambitions or "shiny" capabilities rather than delivering specific business value. Successful AI transformation begins with identifying the challenges—what's not working and why? Challenges can be identified in both internal and external processes.
Here's the catch: everyone has to be on the same page. A unified discovery approach ensures you don't miss high-impact opportunities and establishes a repeatable playbook for scaling AI across your organization.
Key Insight
AI transformation is not a matter of technology alone—it starts with discovering the most valuable use cases for your organization.
Internal Challenges
Automating back-office processes, employee workflows, knowledge management, and operational efficiency
External Challenges
Enhancing digital products, customer support, personalization, and engagement across apps, websites, and service channels
The Unified Use Case Discovery Framework
There are five key steps to help you and your team identify use cases for AI transformation. This systematic approach ensures you capture both internal and external opportunities while maintaining focus on business value.
01
Establish Processes
Set up the right team and documentation approach
02
Brain Dump Ideas
Collect all potential use cases across domains
03
Map Journeys
Visualize customer and business workflows
04
Capture Details
Document structured use case information
05
Prioritize Holistically
Evaluate impact, feasibility, and strategic alignment
Step 1: Establish Processes
Collecting the use cases is really only half the story. Understanding how to go about getting the inputs needed is the other half. Setting up the right processes ensures you capture valuable insights from across your organization.
Invite the Right Mix of People
Product, business, tech, support, marketing, and—for external use cases—customers.
Encourage Storytelling
Ask for real examples, "a day in the life," and what "great" would look like.
Use a Template
Provide a worksheet or digital form for each use case.
Push for Specificity
Avoid vague or generic descriptions—get to the real workflow, queries, and desired outcomes. Make sure this is all clearly documented!
Document Nuance
Capture a summary of the potential unwritten rules, workarounds, and best practices that you'll need to fully document if the project goes into implementation.
Step 2: Brain Dump Ideas Into Internal and External Buckets
Throw out ideas and see what sticks. Think both broadly and specifically, and don't be afraid to share. As you and your team toss ideas out, start bucketing these use cases across two main domains.
Internal Processes
Consider repetitive, rules-driven tasks that are creating bottlenecks and slowing processes:
- Contract review
- HR onboarding
- Invoice processing
- Compliance checks
External Processes
Reflect on how customers interact with your business:
- Customer support
- Intelligent search
- Digital onboarding
- Product recommendations
- In-app assistants
Pro Tip: For product enhancements that are external-facing, think about a wishlist. What would you like your product to one day be able to do? Consider the product from the customer perspective and their experience.
Step 3: Map the Customer Journey and Business Processes
Now, map out the external and internal journeys and identify where use cases from step two could fit within these journeys. This visualization helps you see opportunities and friction points clearly.
1
First Interaction
How customers discover your company
2
Onboarding
New customer setup and initial experience
3
Engagement
Ongoing product usage and interaction
4
Support
Customer service touchpoints
5
Retention
Continued value and loyalty
Mapping Internal Processes
For internal use cases it's a bit different. Rather than having to guess where points of friction may be, you have the answers at your fingertips. Talk to various teams to understand where they could use automation or are needing efficiency improvements.
- Tie pain points to specific business processes and workflows
- Consider both high-volume, repetitive tasks and "long tail" activities that cumulatively drive cost or risk
Don't Forget: Consider what happens after the customer journey as well. For example, you can also look at causes for customer churn and map use cases to those instances.
Step 4: Capture Structured Use Cases
Now that you have journeys illustrated and potential use cases mapped to each journey, use the following worksheet—or use the questions in a workshop format—to capture critical information on each use case.
Problem Statement
What is the pain/inefficiency or opportunity?
Who is Impacted?
Internal users (roles/depts) or customer segment
Persona/Segment
Target employee type or customer persona
Sample Questions/Tasks
Typical queries or actions
Touchpoints/Channels
Where does this occur?
Business/Experience Benefit
Time saved, accuracy, satisfaction, revenue
Volume/Frequency
How often? How many users/transactions?
Current Process/Pain
Description of current workflow and friction points
Potential Risks
What could go wrong?
Strategic Priority
How important is this to company goals?
Feasibility
Is needed data/process access available?
Important: Don't restrict your process to what is easy—push for what's valuable and specific. Use concrete examples, real customer feedback, and analytics to inform the list.
Practical Example: Filling the Worksheet
Here are two concrete examples showing how to apply the structured use case framework to both internal and customer-facing scenarios.
Internal Use Case
Customer-Facing Use Case
Step 5: Prioritize Holistically
Once you've examined each potential use case both internally and externally, you'll have to evaluate how possible it actually is to integrate AI into those instances. Explore each mapped out use case and score or rank based on multiple factors.
1
Impact
How will this use case impact business value, customer experience, and revenue or cost savings?
2
Feasibility
What is your data and process readiness? Is there technical complexity for this integration?
3
Risk
How will this impact your brand? What compliance or operational implications are there?
4
Strategic Alignment
Does it advance a key company initiative?
Pro Tip: Prioritize quick wins. Consider starting with simpler, internal automations to develop your AI transformation muscle before proceeding to higher-risk, external-facing projects.
It's Never Too Late to Get Started
A disciplined approach to use case discovery is the linchpin of successful AI transformation. By engaging stakeholders and cross-functional teams, structuring your discovery, and focusing on both the customer and internal experience, you lay the foundation for repeatable AI projects that deliver real value quickly.
Start with this framework, and iterate as you learn. The journey to AI maturity begins with asking the right questions and capturing the right details.
Start Today
Begin your AI transformation journey with a systematic approach
Iterate and Learn
Develop your AI muscle through continuous improvement
Deliver Value
Focus on measurable business impact and customer experience
For further guidance, templates, or workshop facilitation, contact us directly or schedule a demo.