Where automation pays off in sales and service, and where a person should always stay in the loop.
The best automations remove the waiting between steps: a lead scored and assigned in seconds, a booking that confirms itself, an invoice that chases itself.
Start by mapping the handovers where things get lost: forms nobody reads, emails forwarded twice, spreadsheets updated by hand.
Keep people where judgement matters: the first real conversation, a complaint, a negotiation. Automation should give them context, not replace them.
Measure the result in time to answer and in lost leads. If both go down, the automation is working.