Start from the job, not the industry.

Also called: New matters, new clients, new jobs, referrals, applications

Intake arrives on whichever channel the sender prefers and stalls on whoever happens to be free. The details needed to start are almost always present somewhere in the message and its attachments, and someone re-types them anyway.

What the agent does

Captures every enquiry into one queue regardless of channel, extracts the details from the message and the attachments, checks them against your intake checklist, drafts the record in your system and tells the sender what is still missing.

Where the human gate sits

The record stays in draft until a person accepts it. Acceptance decisions, conflict checks and client verification are never made by the agent.

What gets measured

Elapsed time from first contact to the work actually starting, and the share of files opened without a follow-up chasing details that were already supplied.

Also called: Tier one support, status enquiries, internal how-do-I questions

The same questions arrive every week with a documented answer that takes longer to find than to give. Each one is a small interruption to someone whose time is worth more than the answer.

What the agent does

Answers from your own documented material only, quotes the source alongside the answer, and hands anything it cannot support to a person instead of composing something plausible.

Where the human gate sits

Replies are drafted for release until accuracy is proven on a category. Complaints and hardship signals stop automated handling outright, and every automated reply says it is one and offers a route to a person.

What gets measured

Deflection rate on the categories in scope, the reopen rate on deflected items, and the escalation rate, which matters more than the deflection number on its own.

Also called: Contract review, application assessment, form processing, file notes

A person opens a document in one window and re-types it into another, or reads twenty pages to find the four things that matter. It is careful work that does not scale by hiring.

What the agent does

Reads the document, extracts the fields and clauses that matter with each value linked back to the page it came from, applies the same checks every time, and hands over a pre-filled draft rather than a blank form.

Where the human gate sits

The reviewer validates instead of starting from scratch, and the values the agent was least confident about are shown first. Nothing is filed or sent on the agent's own authority.

What gets measured

Handling time per document, correction rate per field, and how many documents needed a second pass.

Also called: Outstanding items, information requests, debtor follow-up, signature chase

Work waits on someone else. The follow-up happens when a person remembers, which is rarely the same week twice, and the thing that stalled a file for a fortnight is usually one document.

What the agent does

Tracks what each open item is waiting on, follows up on the schedule you set with the right attachment, records the response against the file and stops the moment the item arrives.

Where the human gate sits

Escalation thresholds and tone are yours. After the attempts you set, or on any file you mark sensitive, it stops and hands over. Anything with a contractual consequence stays with a person.

What gets measured

Days an item stays outstanding, the number of files stalled beyond your threshold, and how many reminders a person still had to send.

Also called: Re-keying, double entry, system to system handoff, the spreadsheet in the middle

Two systems that do not talk to each other, with a person in between copying fields across. The cost is not only the hours, it is the errors that surface three weeks later.

What the agent does

Carries the fields between the two systems, normalises formats, flags anything ambiguous rather than guessing at it, and logs every value it moved and where it came from.

Where the human gate sits

Ambiguous records queue for a person with the conflict shown. Records that would overwrite existing data are held rather than written.

What gets measured

Hours spent re-entering, the error rate on what was entered, and the number of records that needed correcting after the fact.

Also called: Accounts payable, PO matching, reconciliation exceptions, month-end close

High volume, rule dense and unforgiving of error, which is exactly why it consumes a team and exactly why it cannot be handed to an unsupervised agent.

What the agent does

Reads and codes invoices, matches them line by line to the purchase order and receipt, clears the routine reconciliation matches and assembles each exception with the supporting detail already attached.

Where the human gate sits

Approval and payment release stay with a person under your existing delegation limits. Journals are drafted, never posted. A change to a supplier's bank details is a stop condition, not a field update.

What gets measured

Cost and handling time per invoice, exception rate, days to close and days sales outstanding, all against a baseline taken from your own finance system.