AI Initiatives Deliver Limited Returns When Organizations Automate Tasks Instead of Redesigning Processes, Says Info-Tech Research Group

AI Initiatives Deliver Limited Returns When Organizations Automate Tasks Instead of Redesigning Processes, Says Info-Tech Research Group

PR Newswire

Many organizations are limiting the impact of AI by applying it to individual tasks instead of redesigning the workflows, decisions, and handoffs that shape business outcomes. Info-Tech Research Group’s recent blueprint, Reimagine Business Processes With an AI-First Approach, provides a three-phase framework to help IT, business, and operations leaders identify high-value opportunities, assess process readiness, and design AI-enabled workflows that can scale beyond surface-level automation.

ARLINGTON, Va., June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ – As organizations accelerate AI adoption, many continue to apply the technology to isolated tasks rather than redesigning the business processes that drive meaningful outcomes, according to new findings from Info-Tech Research Group. The global research and advisory firm’s blueprint, Reimagine Business Processes With an AI-First Approach, provides a structured methodology to help leaders move from fragmented AI experimentation to intentional process transformation.

Info-Tech’s research shows that business, IT, and operations teams often lack a shared way to identify, evaluate, and prioritize which processes are suitable for AI-enabled redesign. Many organizations also focus heavily on AI’s potential value while giving less attention to the risks, feasibility constraints, and readiness gaps that can affect whether a process is truly suitable for redesign.. Without that alignment, AI initiatives can remain disconnected, reinforce legacy workflows, and deliver only incremental efficiency gains. The blueprint addresses these challenges by helping organizations discover high-impact opportunities, diagnose current-state process limitations, and design future-state workflows that place AI at the core of how work is performed.

“AI will not transform organizations unless it transforms how work actually happens,” says Mahmoud Ramin, research director at Info-Tech Research Group. “Applying AI to individual tasks may create short-term efficiency, but meaningful value comes from redesigning entire workflows so intelligence is embedded where decisions are made, handoffs occur, and outcomes are shaped.”

Info-Tech’s Three-Phase, AI-First Methodology to Reimagine Business Processes

Info-Tech’s Reimagine Business Processes With an AI-First Approach blueprint introduces a three-phase methodology to help organizations move beyond ad hoc AI use cases to intentional, AI-first process design:

  • Phase 1: Discover Pain Points and Opportunities – Build a cross-functional working group, inventory key business processes, and assess each process for AI suitability, value, and risk.
  • Phase 2: Prioritize and Dissect AI-Ready Processes – Shortlist the strongest candidates for redesign, map current-state workflows, and identify bottlenecks, handoffs, decision delays, and other friction points.
  • Phase 3: Reimagine Future-State Processes With AI – Apply AI opportunity dimensions, redesign the future-state workflow, assess feasibility, and document the new process using the Process Reimagination Canvas.

The blueprint also identifies five AI opportunity dimensions that can help teams rethink workflows end to end: knowledge retrieval, language generation and summarization, forecasting and pattern detection, intelligent routing and decisioning, and computer vision and document understanding.

To support execution, the Reimagine Business Processes With an AI-First Approach blueprint is accompanied by two deliverables: a Process Discovery and Evaluation Workbook to assess readiness and prioritize opportunities, and a Process Reimagination Canvas to summarize redesigned workflows in an executive-ready, one-page format.

“Organizations often ask which AI use cases to prioritize, but the better question is which processes should change and why,” explains Ramin. “Leaders should focus on redesigning workflows before investing further in tools, so AI is applied where it can meaningfully improve decisions, reduce friction, and deliver sustained value.”

By following Info-Tech’s method, IT and business leaders can shift from task-level automation to scalable process transformation, identifying high-impact, process-specific opportunities that align with business strategy and support long-term resilience and growth. 

For exclusive and timely commentary from Info-Tech’s experts, including Mahmoud Ramin, and access to the complete Reimagine Business Processes With an AI-First Approach blueprint, please contact pr@infotech.com.

About Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech Research Group is the “get things done” partner for over 30,000 IT, HR, and marketing leaders worldwide. The fastest growing research and advisory firm, Info-Tech enables leaders to make well-informed decisions and transform their organizations through AI, strategic foresight, step-by-step methodologies, practical tools, industry-leading advisory, and training programs. For nearly 30 years, tens of thousands of private and public organizations have trusted Info-Tech to lead their most important initiatives through periods of change and deliver outcomes that truly matter.

To learn more about Info-Tech’s HR research and advisory services, visit McLean & Company, and for data-driven software buying insights and vendor evaluations, visit the firm’s SoftwareReviews platform.

Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and hundreds of industry analysts through the firm’s Media Insiders program. To gain access, contact pr@infotech.com.

For information about Info-Tech Research Group or to access the latest research, visit infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn and X.

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SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group