Answer

Where should I start with AI in my company?

Start where work arrives, not where you imagine AI is exciting. List the three channels that bring you the most repeated work, usually phone, email and web enquiries, and automate the one with the highest volume and the clearest rules. That is a 1–14 day project and it produces the numbers for everything after it.

Last updated: 22 September 2026

The three-question filter

For each candidate process ask: does it happen at least twenty times a week, can a new colleague be taught it in a day, and is the output checkable in seconds. Three yeses mean it is a good first project. One no means put it second.

Typical first projects that work

These four cover most Hungarian SMEs and none of them requires changing how the company works.

01An automatic SMS within 5 seconds of a missed call
02A reply draft, 90% finished, for every incoming email
03Supplier invoices read and prepared for bookkeeping
04Web enquiries answered and qualified within minutes

What to avoid first

Do not start with a company-wide assistant that knows everything, and do not start with the process your most senior person does once a month. Both are expensive to build, slow to validate and hard to judge afterwards.

Asked next

Do we need a strategy first?

No. One working automation teaches you more about where AI fits in your company than a three-month strategy document, and it costs less.

Which department should own it?

Whoever feels the pain. If the phone is the problem, the person answering it should be in the room from the first day, because they know the exceptions.