Start with the customer and follow the whole process

The sequence that works is: customer need, experience, business process, automation, a person where judgment is needed, result. When you start from the end, you get an agent that serves a process that shouldn't exist that way in the first place.

Following the process end to end is usually the uncomfortable part, because it cuts across areas that don't report to the same person. That's where you find out whether the transformation is real or just a coat of varnish over the same old thing.

Automating for its own sake isn't the goal. The goal is for the customer to get what they came for.