Deployed Intelligence

Workflow assessment and AI planning

Assess where AI could support your organisation’s work.

Deployed Intelligence is a workflow-analysis methodology being developed by Ben Cunliffe at deployed.nz. It examines opportunities for AI assistance and automation alongside the human expertise, relationships and authority the work depends on.

Discuss a workflow assessment Read about the method

For organisations

A scoped workflow assessment

Begin with a role, a recurring task or a small group of connected workflows. The scope, available information and practitioner involvement are agreed before work begins.

A provisional map of the work
A structured account of tasks, steps and handovers, with assumptions and gaps identified for discussion with people who know the work.
Candidate changes to investigate
Opportunities for AI assistance or automation, considered alongside conventional software and changes to the process itself.
Controls and unanswered questions
The information, permissions, human involvement and checks a proposed arrangement would depend on, including facts that still need to be established.
A basis for pilot planning
Options for further testing, with assumptions about data access, review effort, integration and operating conditions made explicit.

An example of the questions involved

Preparing a recommendation

A familiar task can contain several different opportunities for assistance. The useful assessment considers what each part requires and how the parts connect.

Illustrative workflow. These are options for discussion, not results from a client assessment or a test of system performance. A real workflow may branch, repeat or involve additional steps.

  1. Gather information

    Search and retrieval tools could help assemble relevant documents and records.

    Which sources are authoritative, and can the system access the information needed?

  2. Prepare a draft

    A language model could help organise the material and produce a factual first draft.

    Can a reviewer check its claims against the sources and recognise important omissions?

  3. Weigh the options

    A system could help compare options and surface questions for the person forming the recommendation.

    Which priorities, relationships and contextual judgements need to inform the assessment?

  4. Approve and communicate

    Software could support document preparation and routing within agreed permissions.

    Who has authority to approve the recommendation, and what must be checked before it is communicated?

The effort involved in review, handovers and exceptions matters as much as the apparent suitability of individual steps.

The approach

A map that can be questioned and refined

Language models help describe and assess the work. Their outputs provide a starting point for inquiry, with practitioner knowledge needed to test the representation and resolve important gaps.

Explore the methodology

  1. Describe the work in context

    Use role and workflow information to identify tasks, steps, variations and dependencies.

  2. Examine possible arrangements

    Consider the demands of the work separately from assumptions about a particular system and the authority it could be given.

  3. Identify what needs to be established

    Use targeted practitioner questions and further investigation to refine candidate opportunities, constraints and testing priorities.

Research status

Development and testing

Internal experiments have examined task decomposition, rubric application and sensitivity to model, prompt and context choices. Practitioner research is being developed to compare these representations with professional experience.

The methodology has not been established as a predictor of system performance or productivity gains. A candidate identified through an assessment still needs testing in its intended setting.

Read about the research and its limitations

Led by practical experience

Deployed Intelligence is being developed by Ben Cunliffe through Deployed Intelligence Labs Limited, the company behind deployed.nz. Ben has more than a decade of experience in senior roles across New Zealand government and Parliament, alongside private-sector experience.

Enquiries

Discuss a piece of work

Tell us what you are considering and what you would like to understand. An initial conversation can establish whether a scoped assessment or research collaboration would be useful.

hello@deployed.nz

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Your enquiry is sent to Deployed Intelligence Labs Limited through Formspree. Please do not include confidential business information or personal information about staff.