Details on the WINs Network

This week’s post is a departure from my typical approach, moving from broader reflections into the specifics of actionable frameworks. Last week, I introduced the, highlighting its potential to clarify and focus your organization’s generative AI strategy. Today, we’ll dive deeper, taking a serious and practical look at how this method can concretely identify the impacts—and opportunities—AI brings to your everyday work. If you’re interested in understanding how WINS applies to your specific workflows, reach out—I’d be happy to help you conduct a personalized WINS evaluation.

Understanding WINS

If your job involves creating, consuming, analyzing, or transforming WINS, you’re not just likely to benefit from AI—you’re in its direct path of influence. The more your role is centered around these types of information, the more impact AI can have—either through automation, acceleration, or augmentation. 

Evaluate your workflows:

• Classify your tasks using the four categories below. As you do this, estimate what percentage of your work falls into Categories 1 through 3 (WINS-ready work) versus Category 4 (non-WINS work). This ratio will help you later prioritize where AI can have the most immediate impact and where it can be safely ignored for now.
• Identify digitization levels and immediate AI opportunities. As you do this, don’t just estimate the percentage of work—estimate the cost. How much of your organizational spend (time working, time waiting, tools, labor, or outsourced services) goes toward WINS-ready work (Categories 1–3) versus non-WINS work (Category 4)? This cost-based ratio will be critical later for understanding the financial opportunity of AI adoption. If a large percentage of cost is tied up in WINS-ready tasks, that’s where AI can provide the greatest ROI. If some of your WINS-ready work is not yet digitized, note it—because the first step to AI enablement is digital access.

Categorizing Your Workflow

To effectively assess AI’s impact, categorize your workflows into four groups:

1. Completely AI-Automatable Processes - These are tasks where you start with WINS content and end by producing more WINS content. For example:

• Drafting HR communications using employee feedback and survey results
• Composing legal memos from precedent documents and regulatory text
• Generating quarterly financial reports from transaction and performance data
• Creating training guides from product documentation

In each of these cases, the inputs and outputs are purely digital and WINS-based—making them strong candidates for full automation with AI.

2. AI-Accelerated Processes - These are tasks where your actions—physical, cognitive, or collaborative—lead to the creation of new WINS content. For example:

• Summarizing and drafting follow-ups from team meetings or customer calls.
• Developing policies based on input from various stakeholders.
• Creating visual aids like slides or infographics to accompany strategies or presentations.
• Recording voice narration or entering data after observing or completing a specific process.

In these situations, you’re doing something—thinking, planning, speaking, designing—and the result is a new document, visual, dataset, or recording. AI can dramatically reduce the time it takes to generate the initial version of this content. Think of it as a digital drafting assistant. It won’t do the whole job, but it gives you a strong head start so you can spend your energy on refining, validating, and aligning the output with your goals and audience.

3. AI-Supported Processes - These are tasks where WINS content—such as data, documents, visuals, or recordings—inform or influence something that happens beyond the digital realm. For example:

• Using customer feedback to guide how a team interacts with clients.
• Reviewing performance dashboards before making staffing or budgeting decisions.
• Reading legal advice before conducting negotiations.
• Referring to safety policies before performing physical work.

In these situations, the WINS content supports action, but the action itself involves people, environments, or real-world decisions. AI can improve the quality, speed, and clarity of the inputs, helping you prepare better and act faster—but the real impact happens offline. This makes AI a valuable assistant for preparation, but not a replacement for the human who takes the final action.

4. AI-Ignorable Processes - These are tasks that don’t rely on WINS content at all—activities where neither the input nor the output involves words, images, numbers, or sounds. However, it’s important to note that some work may appear to fall in Categories 1 through 3 but remains undigitized, meaning the underlying WINS content hasn’t yet been captured in a digital form. In these cases, even though the task is conceptually WINS-based, it should be treated as Category 4 until digitization occurs. Review these areas for digitization opportunities.

For example:

• Engaging in face-to-face conversations with people.
• Repairing equipment or addressing issues like downed power lines.
• Leading team retreats or mentoring colleagues.
• Assembling, installing hardware, or conducting physical inspections.

These jobs are rooted in direct action, physical presence, or human connection—things AI cannot simulate or substitute. For these tasks, AI doesn’t play a role today and likely won’t for the foreseeable future. That means you can safely deprioritize AI in these areas and focus your attention on more digitally centric opportunities.

Using that information

Now that you have the two percentages one for Cost and one for Scope, you can plot that on a chart and divide that into a 2 x 2 matrix.

Immediate AI Impact (High-Cost x High-Scope) - Highly digitized and heavily reliant on tasks involving Words, Images, Numbers, and Sounds (WINS).

Implications of Immediate AI Impact

• Rapid AI adoption crucial to remain relevant in a world transformed by AI.
• Tasks will become faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
• AI skilled employees quickly becoming essential.

Strategic Insights for Immediate AI Impact

AI is transforming fields like software development, finance, education, and professional services. Early adoption enhances productivity and creativity. Leaders should invest in AI literacy and skills, enabling effective collaboration with AI tools. Swift integration of AI ensures relevance and opens opportunities for innovation and growth.

Digitization Opportunity (High-Cost x Low-Scope) - Significant untapped WINS potential limited by lack of digitization.

Implications of Digitization Opportunity

• Opportunity to digitize processes for enhanced customer engagement and operational efficiency.
• AI enables personalized, realistic, and imaginative customer interactions.

Strategic Insights for the Utility in Digitization Opportunities

AI-driven digitization benefits electric utilities in infrastructure planning, customer communication, and field operations. AI-enhanced visualization clarifies projects for communities, boosting public trust. AI digitizes maintenance records, enabling predictive analytics to enhance equipment reliability and reduce downtime. Early adoption of digital customer interactions, such as personalized outage notifications and AI-assisted service, improves satisfaction and responsiveness. Digitizing these areas boosts long-term efficiency, regulatory compliance, and competitive advantage.

Strategic AI Advantage (Low-Cost x High-Scope) - Heavily digitized but not primarily WINS-based, yet capable of benefits from AI.

Implications of Strategic AI Advantage

• Enhanced productivity in critical supporting functions
• Accelerates processes, improves quality, and reduces costs.
• GenAI as a foundational productivity skill across the workforce.

Strategic Insights for the Utility in Strategic AI Advantage

Electric utilities can benefit from AI in areas like regulatory compliance, supply chain management, and workforce training. AI-driven automation can streamline compliance processes and reduce errors. AI can optimize procurement and inventory forecasting, cutting operational costs and enhancing supply chain resilience. AI-enabled training simulations help staff quickly build skills, boosting safety and productivity. Adopting AI thoughtfully can improve efficiency, agility, and competitiveness for utilities.

Long-Term AI Potential (Low Cost x Low Scope) - Capabilities with low digitization and minimal reliance on WINS tasks, typically involving physical labor or product creation.

Implications of Long-Term AI Potential

• Immediate AI urgency is low, but productivity gains can still be rapidly realized.
• Early AI initiatives can yield positive EBITDA impacts within the first year

Strategic Insights for the Utility in Long-Term AI Potential

Electric utilities have gradual opportunities for AI integration in field maintenance, equipment installation, and inspections. AI-enhanced drones or robotic inspections can improve infrastructure assessments’ accuracy, safety, and speed. AI tools for scheduling, asset tracking, and safety analytics can enhance manual operations and deliver productivity improvements and cost savings quickly. These initial steps lay a foundation for deeper digital integration and long-term competitive advantage.

Your Next Steps

Using WINS clearly identifies your organization’s opportunities and risks in adopting AI. Proactively embrace AI, understanding its potential and responsibly managing its limitations.

AI isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about freeing your teams to focus more on meaningful, creative, and inherently human activities, driving your organization toward a more purposeful and productive future.

Leave a comment if you need help with the Framework!