Going AI-native

Writing SOPs with AI: from "how we do it" to written processes

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is just "how we do this here", written so someone else can follow it. AI is useful for the first draft. It can't know what actually happens in your office, though, so the people who do the work own the facts.

The template

Use the same template for every procedure, so they're easy to write and easy to follow.

Keep each SOP to about a page. If it runs longer, split it.

Using AI for the first draft

1. Capture the real process. Have the person who does it walk through it while talking, or jot rough notes. Include the exceptions.
2. Draft with the gaps marked. Give the AI tool your template and the notes, and tell it to use only what's in them and to mark gaps rather than fill them.
3. Have the doer follow it literally. The person who does the task follows the draft as if they were new. Every stumble is a missing or wrong step.
4. Have the owner approve it. The accountable person signs off the content and the risk.
5. Publish it with a version and a review date, in the one place your team looks.

A warning: AI drafts can include steps that sound right but aren't what you do. Never rely on a drafted SOP until someone who does the work has checked it.

Which processes first

Pick processes that are frequent, follow a recognisable pattern, and cause trouble when done inconsistently. Leave your trickiest regulated edge cases until you've got the habit.

Worked example: "Tenant reports a repair" (fictional agency)

• Purpose: get repairs logged, judged for urgency and moving, with the tenant kept informed.
• Trigger: a tenant reports a problem.
• Owner: property manager.
• Steps:
  1. Log the report the day it arrives.
  2. Ask the agency's standard questions (what, where, since when, any risk to safety).
  3. Judge urgency against the agency's own categories.
  4. Contact the landlord if the agency's approval rules require it.
  5. Instruct a contractor, or pass to a member of staff.
  6. Tell the tenant what happens next, using the agency's update template (see repair update templates).
• Exceptions: safety risk → follow the emergency route; landlord unreachable → follow the agency's escalation rule.
• Done: the repair is booked, the tenant is told, and the record is updated.

Scottish agencies set these steps against the Code of Practice repair duties and the Repairing Standard. General information, not legal or qualified advice.

From written process to work that gets done

A written SOP is useful on its own. It also makes it possible to hand the routine cases over. Lorework learns your procedures and templates, follows them on routine work, shows the sources it used, and can be set to ask for approval before it writes or submits anything. Letting agencies in Scotland are the first trade it's built for.

Questions