Ask a supervisor what happens when the most experienced person takes a week off.
If the answer is that the team saves difficult decisions until that person returns, the business has a dependency. It may also have a very capable employee who has been compensating for gaps in the operating process for years.
The objective is to make that knowledge usable by the people responsible for the work. An AI assistant can help later. First, the business needs to understand what the expert knows and when it applies.
Capture decisions, not just instructions
A procedure can explain which screen to open and which fields to complete. The experienced employee knows why the normal sequence sometimes produces the wrong answer.
That customer always sends a revised quantity after the first purchase order. That material needs a different setup when humidity changes. That supplier’s promised date requires a confirmation call. That project code should not be reused for an additional scope of work.
Some of those judgments are valid operating knowledge. Others may be workarounds the business should stop using. Recording them without review preserves both.
Have the process owner ask the expert to walk through recent difficult cases. What signal changed the decision? What information was missing? What happened when the normal rule was followed? Who should be allowed to make that exception?
Give the knowledge a home and an owner
Data Curation & Governance applies to operating knowledge as much as it does to item numbers. Each rule needs a clear scope, source, reviewer, and review date. A recorded conversation is useful evidence; it is not automatically an approved procedure.
Separate established policy from personal preference. Keep confidential customer or employee information out of material that will be broadly accessible. Where conditions vary by product, site, or customer, say so explicitly.
The department manager should own the approved record. The experienced employee supplies the expertise and helps validate it. A trained backup should be able to use it without needing a second, undocumented explanation.
Test whether someone else can do the work
Workflow Optimization is where the documentation earns its place. Give the backup a real case with supervision available. Watch where they hesitate, improvise, or call the expert.
Those moments identify missing context. Update the instruction and repeat the exercise. Include a clear escalation route for cases outside the approved rule. The goal is not to remove judgment; it is to make the boundaries of judgment visible.
Leadership also needs to make participation practical. Give the expert time for the work and explain how it will reduce interruptions and support the team. Expecting someone to document a full job while carrying the same workload is a weak implementation plan.
Let AI retrieve what the business has approved
Only after the content and workflow are dependable should AI help people find instructions, summarize an approved process, or suggest the relevant exception rule. Responses should identify the source and its date, and direct unresolved cases to the owner.
The assistant must not turn an old anecdote into current policy. Someone needs responsibility for updating the source material and reviewing recurring unanswered questions after launch.
For the next 30 days, have one department manager choose a recurring task with a clear backup gap. Capture five difficult cases, approve the decision rules, and have the backup execute the task under observation. Track interruptions, handoff time, and avoidable errors.
That creates a defined path toward lower risk exposure, better throughput, and more reliable coverage. Finance and the process owner can then decide whether an AI retrieval layer adds enough value to justify its cost.
The strongest outcome is a team that can operate reliably while its best employee is away. That employee should be an asset to the business, not the only place the business exists.
Related perspective: Culture Is the Best Indicator of Whether AI Will Succeed