5 questions I frequently get asked about automating operations with AI

Special Guest Blog Post written by Parabola Founder & CEO, Alex Yaseen 

Operators are under pressure.

They’re expected to move faster, do more with less, and somehow keep everything running smoothly while their systems, tools, and data are a mess.

Now, AI is adding a whole new layer. On one hand, it’s exciting. The potential is real. On the other, a lot of teams feel stuck. They know they should be using AI, but they’re not sure where it fits into their day-to-day work.

These are the five questions I get asked most often—whether someone’s trying to get started with automation, or trying to figure out how AI actually helps.

1. Can we automate this, or is it too messy?

This question usually comes from someone deep in a spreadsheet that was never meant to scale.

The short answer is: yes, you can probably automate it. But the longer answer is that you’ll need to rethink the process first. AI can help summarize, transform, and clean data—but it won’t fix a broken workflow. That’s on you.

The best teams pair structured automation with lightweight AI to get leverage. Think: using rules and logic to standardize a workflow, and AI to handle exceptions or unstructured inputs.

2. Do we need engineering or a data team to do this?

AI makes a lot of things more accessible. But most teams still assume they need technical support just to get started.

The shift I’ve seen recently is that more ops teams are starting to build for themselves. With the right tools, they don’t have to wait for an engineer to map an API or a data analyst to clean a CSV. That speed matters. Especially when the business is changing weekly and you need your tools to keep up.

3. Where’s the best place to start?

I get this one a lot. The pressure to do something with AI can be paralyzing.

My advice is: don’t overthink it. Start with something you already do often. Maybe it’s a weekly report, a monthly reconciliation, or pulling together data from five different systems. Add automation to make it faster. Layer in AI to make it smarter—maybe to interpret an email or summarize rows of free-text data. You’ll get a feel for what’s possible, and you’ll quickly see where the value is.

4. How do we avoid creating a black box?

There’s a real fear that AI-powered workflows become black boxes: hard to audit, impossible to explain, and fragile when things break.

That’s why visibility matters. Automations should be transparent and traceable. You should always understand how decisions are made, and why an output changed. That’s also why I’m a fan of keeping AI in the loop, not giving it full control. Let it assist, not own.

One way to do that is to treat your workflows like a living SOP. Every automated process should serve as a clear, evolving record of how things work, just like a great SOP would. The difference is, now it’s executable. If the process changes, the workflow updates with it. You’re not just documenting how your business runs. You’re encoding it in real time.

5. How do we scale this across the team?

Once a team gets one automation working, they usually want to do more. But it’s easy for things to get messy again—especially if AI tools aren’t consistent or shareable.

The best approach I’ve seen is to treat your automations like internal products. Make sure they’re documented. Make sure they’re understandable. And make sure they’re flexible enough to evolve. AI doesn’t replace that discipline—it makes it more important.

Why this matters

I’ve been lucky to learn from some of the most forward-thinking operators in the industry. Their questions have shaped how we think about building tools that are simple, flexible, and powerful enough to keep up with the complexity of modern supply chains.

At Parabola, we’ve seen firsthand how ops teams can move faster when they combine structured automation with the right AI in the right places. If this is something you’re thinking about, I’m always happy to connect and trade notes.

And big thanks to Supply Chain Now for continuing to push the conversation forward. Their insights are a constant source of clarity and education in a space that’s evolving fast.

Alex Yaseen is the founder and CEO of Parabola. After working closely with the in-the-weeds people powering some of the largest retail and CPG brands, he started Parabola to empower the ops and finance teams closest to the messy work to be the ones who automate it.