AI or business rules: how to choose
Most processes do not need a choice between AI and traditional software; they need each part of the work in the right place. AI is very good at reading, understanding and drafting. Business rules are very good at calculating and deciding the same way every time. This is how we decide which part goes where.
Where AI earns its place
When the input is messy: documents, emails, requests in plain language, voice. When the output is a draft that a person reviews: a summary, an answer, a classification to confirm. When being roughly right is already useful, and someone catches the rest.
- Reading and classifying documents and emails
- Understanding a request in plain words and turning it into a plan
- Summarizing, explaining and drafting answers
- Finding what matters in large amounts of text
Where business rules earn theirs
When the same input must always give the same output: money, permissions, eligibility, anything an auditor will ask about. Rules can be tested, explained line by line and changed with a review.
- Calculations and amounts
- Permissions and access
- Eligibility, approvals and deadlines
- Anything that has to pass an audit
Most processes need both
The useful pattern is to let each one do its part: AI reads and proposes, a person decides where it matters, and a rules engine applies what was approved. Sendero, our product, works this way: the assistant turns a request into rules you can read, the owner approves them, and an engine applies them exactly.
In one consulting case, a client planned to have a language model calculate the figures in a business process and explain them. We moved the calculations into tested business rules and kept AI for interpreting and explaining the results. The figures became auditable, and the AI kept the part where it adds the most.
Five questions that decide it
- Must the same input always give the same output?
- Will someone have to explain or audit the result?
- Is the input free text, documents or voice?
- What does a wrong answer cost, and who would notice it?
- Can a person review the result before it is applied?