Where it leads
From scattered pilots to a company that knows where it's going with AI.
Follow one company through Realize AI: where it started, what Realize AI did at each stage, and where it leads. The sample is a manufacturer, and Realize AI works the same way for any kind of company.
Here
Copilot is in, and it isn't adding up.
Picture a manufacturer that licensed Copilot for a few thousand people. A dozen pilots later, most of the use is email and meeting summaries. The kickoff plan no longer matches what's happening, and nobody owns what comes next.
Five functions with scattered pilots and no path between them.
Pilots in four functions, with no path between them.
At the start
The company knows where to start, and what's in the way.
- Leadership gets what it needs to write its own AI strategy, including where AI-first companies are taking each function.
- Leadership picks a few goals to start, each with an owner and a target, and the workflows behind them.
- Realize AI learns how those workflows really run, from the people who do them and from the company's Microsoft 365 and other systems. Every fact shows how well established it is.
- It finds what has to be ready first: data, governance, a spending policy.
People talk openly, because the record is about the work.
Finance has a path with its next step; two missing foundations are found.
Finance first, with its next step. Two missing foundations found.
Laying the groundwork
What has to be ready comes first, with the value it opens up.
- Each missing foundation is a step on the path of its own.
- A step clears only on evidence that what it needs is in place and in use.
Two foundations cleared; one opens work in three functions.
Two foundations cleared. One data connection opens the way for work in finance, operations and service.
The first proven steps
The first changes are proven small before they scale.
- Each step of a workflow is redesigned: what changes, what AI takes on, and what stays with people.
- AI starts with as little as the risk allows, and takes on more only once the step proves reliable against its baseline.
Order to cash, step by step Three of its eight steps, as AI earns more of the work
| Step | At the start | First proven steps | Building momentum | Where it leads |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Order entryEnds running on its own | People Reps retype order emails into the ERP. Errors show up after the order ships. | Copilot assists A rep asks Copilot to pull the order from a customer's email and check it against the price list. | Agent alongside An agent reads the order inbox and enters standard orders. Anything unusual goes to a rep. | Agent on its own An agent enters standard orders within set limits. The sales operations lead owns it and reviews it weekly. |
| Cash applicationEnds running on its own | People A clerk matches payments to invoices by hand from the bank file. | Agent when asked The clerk hands an agent a day's payments and reviews its matches. | Agent alongside The agent matches payments as they arrive. The ones it can't match go to the clerk. | Agent on its own The agent matches around the clock within set limits. The receivables manager owns it and can pause it at any time. |
| CollectionsStays alongside people | People Collectors build their call list from the aging report every morning. | Copilot assists Before a call, a collector asks Copilot for the account in brief: open invoices, past promises, recent emails. | Agent alongside An agent sends routine reminders and logs promises to pay. Disputes and hard conversations stay with collectors. | Agent alongside It stops here on purpose. Collectors keep the customer relationships, and Realize AI recommends going no further. |
- People
- The work as it runs today.
- Copilot assists
- A person asks, Copilot helps.
- Agent when asked
- A person hands it a task and checks the result.
- Agent alongside
- It takes the routine work and hands exceptions to people.
- Agent on its own
- It runs within set limits, with an owner.
The other five steps move the same way, each at its own pace.
Every pilot starts with its baseline and expected return, and ends in a decision.
Building momentum
Each step is better informed than the last.
- More goals and functions join, and the path widens: what's underway, what's ready, what's blocked and what clears it.
- Many pilots run at once, each against its own baseline.
- Leadership sees early when something isn't paying off.
- When Microsoft ships something new, the company changes or results come in, the path recalculates. Nothing takes effect until the company decides.
Paths in all five functions, many proven steps, a next step in each, one stopped.
Every function on the path, with a next step in each. One pilot stopped. Onboarding, in People, waits on a foundation still to clear.
Where it leads
The company knows where it's going with AI.
Goals for the company, each function and each workflow, each with an owner.
The next step in every function, with the facts behind it.
By workflow and function, in terms the CFO accepts.
Paths in every function running on past the edge.
All on one record, and still running.
What you can count on from Realize AI
People appear as the source of what was said and as the owners of goals, so they can say how things really run.
It reads your systems with only the access your admin grants, and asks before widening it.
Kept apart from every other company's. Only the people your admin grants can see it, and every access is logged.
It's used to run your own loop, and to improve Realize AI's knowledge only if you allow it. No model is trained on it.
Nothing it recommends changes anything until your company chooses to act.
If you leave, you get the whole record, with the evidence behind every claim.
Everything Realize AI does, in brief
Where you're going
- Where AI-first companies are taking each function
- Your goals, each with an owner, a metric and a target
How you work today
- Learned from your people and your systems
- How well established every fact is
The path
- Each workflow redesigned, step by step
- Copilot recommendations under each step
- What has to be ready first
- "Why this?" on every recommendation
Proving it
- A pilot plan for every change
- Baseline and expected return set first
- Scale it, tune it or stop it
Staying on track
- Sees early when something isn't paying off
- Recalculates when Copilot, your company or the results change
- Return in terms the CFO accepts
The record
- Every plan, pilot, decision and result
- Nothing overwritten