Field Note · 2026

Stop automating broken work.

Before asking how AI can do a task faster, ask why the task exists in that form.

Organizations often automate the visible task: write the brief, route the request, prepare the report, move the content. But the task may exist because of a legacy workflow, a duplicated record, an unclear owner, an approval habit or a limitation in the old technology.

Optimization asks how the work can happen faster. Redesign asks why it happens this way at all. The second question may remove a handoff, collapse two decisions, or make a brief unnecessary before an automation model is ever selected.

The useful sequence is simple: understand the work, find the reason each step exists, remove what no longer earns its place, then automate what remains. Faster waste is still waste.