Follow the repeated handoff
The strongest automation candidates often appear where information is copied, reformatted, checked, and sent between people or tools on a predictable schedule.
Measure the cost of exceptions
A process that is simple most of the time may still be expensive when edge cases fail silently. Document the normal path, exceptions, recovery steps, and ownership before automating.
Design for visibility
Useful automation should make state and failures easy to understand. Include clear logs, notifications, retries, and a manual path for cases that need judgment.