Real-world tips for success

- After years of seeing automation projects succeed and fail, I have distilled a set of lessons that still hold true today, now updated for the agentic era. Think of these as your field-tested guardrails for building automations that last. One, engage IT early, especially when AI is in the mix. You need them for access and infrastructure readiness. Two, document ruthlessly, full, step-by-step processes, clear assumptions, metrics. Use process intelligence tools, but validate with human expertise. Three, govern for both RPA and AI. RPA bots follow rules exactly. AI models make probabilistic decisions. Both need oversight, but the risks differ. Four, design for human-in-the-loop. Even the best AI needs checkpoints for complex or sensitive cases. Five, test like its production. Match environments, data and workflows as closely as possible. For AI, test edge cases and monitor for drift. Six, monitor…