AI Design Sprint: Process Automation

The AI Design Sprint™ is inspired by Google’s Design Sprint. It has been enhanced with additional methods from design thinking, service systems design, and artificial intelligence, courtesy of our Danish AI Design Agency Partner, 33A.

The primary goal of an AI Design Sprint is to fast-track AI process or product development, validate ideas, and reduce the risk of failure without building and launching the actual product. Additionally, you can eliminate complex technical jargon and adopt a straightforward, efficient framework designed by experts. This approach is both playful and practical, and no technical expertise is required, just an open mind and a desire to revolutionize your business.

If you want to learn more, we have an article that covers AI Design Sprints in detail.

Based on the principles of the Google Design Sprint, the AI Design Sprint™ workshop format aims to bridge the gap between business and AI technology. Its goal is to identify processes that can be automated with artificial intelligence and develop AI solution concepts as a team, in just a few days, without requiring technical knowledge. It combines Design Thinking, Service Systems Design, and Artificial Intelligence.

If you want to automate business processes with AI, whether you have identified them or not, there are three possible starting points for your process automation project.

A: The first option is to utilize AI Opportunity Mapping, which involves examining the entire organization to identify processes that can be automated.

B: Another starting point is our Framing method, where you focus on a specific department, such as HR, to identify the most valuable process to automate.

C: Lastly, if the process that needs to be automated is already clear, we can proceed directly to concept development.

No matter what your situation is, there is a suitable approach for you to pursue process automation.

In the paragraphs that follow, we will provide a more detailed description of the potential entry points and the general course of the process.

1. AI Opportunity Mapping

🔄 Entry point A: You may be uncertain about where to begin applying AI. You hold a leading position within the organization and have a holistic view of its operations. Alternatively, this scenario could involve an in-house transformation team seeking to identify the next AI project or perform an AI assessment of the organization.

💡 Our method: The starting point is the organizational diagram method. During this phase, the team identifies the most valuable processes within the company that can be automated. The AI Opportunity Mapping approach offers a systematic method for this purpose.

2. Framing

🔄  Entry point B: You are the department head, for instance, who is interested in exploring the potential of AI in your department.

💡 Our method: The starting point is your department that has been mapped out, along with its overall tasks. During the Framing session, we identify the areas where AI can provide the most value. Next, we move on to Concept Development.

3. Concept Development

🔄  Entry point C: Together, we have already specified a work process, or you may have come from the previous phases where you identified the process to be automated.

💡 Our method: The starting point is the mapped-out process from the framing session mentioned above. The team will develop holistic automation solution concepts for the identified process using our AI Cards. They will visualize and define the remodeled process and conduct an ethical check.

Once the concept development phase is complete, we will conduct an assessment. This is always the final step in the workshop, regardless of where you started. The team responsible for developing the AI solution concept also evaluates its technical feasibility, as well as its value for the employee and the business or business case.

Yes, there is a difference. The goal of the AI Design Sprint: Process Automation is to identify processes that can be automated using artificial intelligence and develop AI solution concepts as a team, without the need for technical knowledge.

On the other hand, the Design Sprint by Google is a distinct method for answering critical business questions by creating a realistic prototype of an idea and testing it with actual users.

We conduct AI Design Sprints™ with individual companies or with mixed company and industry clusters. During an initial discussion, we will clarify the specific requirements and collaboratively determine which workshop elements are necessary for you.

Yes, the AI Design Sprint is ideal for challenges in start-ups, medium-sized businesses, or large corporations. All you need is a relevant process automation challenge and an interdisciplinary team.

Unorganized brainstorms tend to favor extroverts over introverts and to place importance on quantity over quality. In summary, they are an unsuitable choice for coming up with necessary solutions.

Below are the main reasons you should opt for the AI Design Sprint approach instead:

✅ In sprints, group and individual tasks can coexist peacefully and effectively. Structured, timed exercises promote a variety of perspectives and developed ideas (with distractions reduced to the barest minimum).

✅ You get a tangible and reproducible problem-solving process that you can use whenever you want to advance your business process automation ideas.

✅ Obtaining authentic feedback from your target users allows you to advocate design based on data and not bias or intuition.

✅ Before investing a lot of time and money, you can secure buy-in from stakeholders right from the start.

✅ As a result, you will get anAI solution that has been prototyped and tested.

1. Working Together Alone (removing personal biases and levelling the playing field)

➡️ The group works in the same room, while each person has time and space to form their own individual ideas and thoughts.

☝️ Why? To equalize different personalities and levels of hierarchy.

2. Tangible (ideas) over Discussion

➡️ Instead of discussing and trying to convince others of our point of view, we let the ideas speak for themselves by writing, sketching or showing examples.

☝️ Why? To avoid different interpretations & misunderstandings.

3. Getting Started over Being Right

➡️ Rather than waiting until we all agree that everything is “perfect”, we make decisions, move forward, and test our hunches quickly.

☝️ Why? To break the cycle of decision paralysis & make some progress!

4. Don’t rely on creativity

➡️ Instead of expecting each person to “feel” creative at the right moment, we use the process to inspire, inform and prepare for idea generation.

☝️ Why? Because creativity is unpredictable.

You may have heard a thousand times that designers started Design Sprints. While that may be true, anyone in any industry can use this method. Anybody who hopes to advance their processes and business can run Design Sprints.

Below you will find an article that discusses the issue, but it focuses on Design Sprints in general rather than AI Design Sprints specifically.

Read on to find out more about the biggest misconception about Design Sprints.

Every company encounters complex situations, significant challenges, or risky circumstances. Teams must make critical decisions and achieve alignment quickly. As facilitation specialists, we are here to provide unbiased and structured support. Utilizing an external facilitator or consultant enables you to prevent potentially explosive situations and effectively manage difficult personalities and emotions within a group.

For more information, please read our comprehensive article on why an external facilitator should run your next Design Sprint.

Organizations and companies often face the challenge of maintaining a rapid pace of innovation while working with distributed teams. Fortunately, a fully remote AI Design Sprint can provide an ideal solution.

With the availability of necessary tools, we guide you through each step using simple tools. This ensures that the remote AI Design Sprint team does not require any specific skills or prior experience with remote work.

Dispersed teams can collaborate to solve problems fast, using a proven process that delivers precise results without using an extra budget for accommodation & traveling, renting a venue, food, etc.

There are even more benefits of running a Remote Design Sprint:

1. Take action now instead of waiting for the perfect time “when the stars align”

2. Easier to organize, even with distributed teams

3. Same quality as in an in-person sprint… if not better!

4. Easier to get busy people in who might otherwise not be able to join

5. Fully digitized – benefits of not having to type everything up

6. No need to organize a workshop room – or having to deal with subpar rooms

7. No need to buy materials – and you never run out

8. Yes, we can work on different time zones without messing your day up

9. Lower stress with fewer variables

10. We can sprint worldwide! No travel costs, no jetlag, no environmental impact

11. Show your team how to collaborate remotely, and that it’s even easier than on location

12. Build a remote collaboration culture

Conclusion: As you can see, there are a lot of benefits to running a Sprint remotely!

AI Sprint teams should consist of 3-6 participants. We need the people responsible for making decisions, your organisation’s experts, preferably with different backgrounds. These can be stakeholders or employees from marketing, design, IT, management, or any other department. Additionally, there will be a AI Design Sprint facilitator and, if necassary, a prototyping expert from our side.

Yes, we offer a variety of workshop formats, including different types of Design Sprints. For instance, if process automation is not of interest to your business, we provide an AI Design Sprint that focuses on developing AI solution concepts for both existing and new products and services. The outcome of this workshop is a tested and evaluated AI solution concept, along with a technical brief.

The core of all our workshops involves using exercises from the tried and tested Design Sprint & Design Thinking method, while adapting it to the specific needs of each challenge. For more information, please refer to our service page or contact us directly.

The core of all our workshops uses exercises from tried and tested Design Sprint method while adapting it to the specifics of each challenge. Besides the Design Sprint, we also do offer workshops for brainstorming, ideation, and problem-solving or even for marketing challenges. We recommend using our workshop methods anytime your team needs to make decisions, solve problems or discuss challenges fast + find quick direction. It will prevent your team from losing focus and replace your open, unstructured discussion with a simple process.

Here are some examples of workshops we frequently conduct for companies of all sizes.

🧩 For 1-3 day workshop formats, we offer:

↳ Scoping Workshop: A workshop to scope business challenges, define strategies for desired results, and align with stakeholders.

↳ Innovation Sprint: It quickly identifies the problem space, helping focus on the main challenge for your next innovation project.

↳ Growth Hacking Workshop: This workshop will guide your team in creating actionable growth hacking experiments in a structured manner.

↳ Marketing Campaign Sprint: For tasks such as crafting marketing strategies, promotional campaigns, and content ideas.

↳ OKR Sprint: This simple and effective OKR workshop will help your team gain clarity on which goals to focus on and how they will be measured.

↳ Challenge 360 Sprint: This helps a team align on exactly what to work on or solve, and what to ignore for now.

↳ Strategy Signal Sprint: This helps a team define an end goal and a straightforward strategy for solving a selected challenge.

↳ Plan-O-Rama: This helps a team execute their strategy.

↳ Decision Sprint: This is a general-purpose problem-solving and decision-making workshop that provides tangible, actionable results.

↳ Leadership & Executive Team Retreat: Enhance strategies, teamwork, and leadership skills in a focused workshop retreat that condenses planning into a few action-oriented days.

🧩 For 3-5 day workshop formats, we offer:

↳ Strategy Sprint: For leadership teams to design a successful strategy that positions their company advantageously.

↳ Product Strategy Sprint: Develop a coherent approach to product development, articulated in a Product Strategy with actionable steps.

↳ AI Design Sprint – Process Automation: Quickly identify easy-to-automate processes with AI and develop valuable team solutions.

↳ AI Design Sprint – Products & Services: Confidently infuse AI technology into business products or services for innovative and valuable solutions.

↳ Design Sprint: Before investing time and money, validate ideas and solve complex business issues as a team through prototyping and user testing.

and more.

Yes! The time-boxed sprint model has been adapted by many top designers and consultancies worldwide for special cases. Any situation that requires change can benefit from a customized approach. Every organization, including ours, faces unique circumstances such as diverse target groups, change requirements, and possibilities. To address these individual situations and ensure client satisfaction, we provide tailor-made workshops. If you have a specific issue, we can create a workshop or training program tailored to your specific needs.

Yes, our AI Design Sprint Training teaches you the most up-to-date version of the AI Sprint using industry-leading Design Sprint facilitation techniques. Based on our experience in running AI Design Sprints, we customize the training package to align with your organization’s workflow, catering to the needs of your team and product. Our training Bootcamp is suitable for challenges in start-ups, medium-sized businesses, or large corporations. All you need is a relevant challenge and an interdisciplinary team.

Martin Backes, a certified expert AI Design Sprint facilitator, will provide detailed explanations of all the workshop steps and share his secrets with you. By the end of this training, you will be able to facilitate your AI Sprints, recruit the ideal team, and gain comprehensive knowledge of testing and prototyping tools.

Maximize efficiency and minimize risk with process automation ideas. Empower your team to take the lead and build the best possible process.

The AI Design Sprint™ is a framework for conducting AI workshops. It is inspired by the Google Design Sprint and has been further developed by our Danish AI Design Agency Partner, 33A, who has also certified us.