From Workflows to Prompts to Context
Why the future of operational excellence in manufacturing starts with what you already know
Over the last decade, manufacturers have spent serious time and money digitizing their businesses.
CRM systems. ERP platforms. CPQ rules. SOPs.
Endless playbooks, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint decks.
But now?
We’re in the AI era—and most companies are asking the same question:
“We’ve tried ChatGPT… but how do we actually use AI to improve our business?”
The answer isn’t more data.
It’s better prompts—grounded in what already makes your business unique.
AI Without Context Is Just a Toy
Today’s large language models (LLMs) are powerful. But they’re also generalists.
They don’t know your product catalog.
They don’t know which bundles perform best in heavy industrial environments.
They don’t know that your Eastern region quotes are always margin-sensitive.
Without context, AI will guess. And guessing doesn’t cut it on the factory floor.
You Already Built the Foundation. Now Use It.
If your team has:
Documented quoting logic in Excel
Playbooks on SharePoint
Tribal knowledge in email threads
SOPs for sales, service, or field techs
Approval workflows baked into Salesforce
…then you’re sitting on the raw materials to make AI useful.
You don’t need to start from scratch.
You just need to convert what you already know into prompt-ready context.
Prompts Are the New Process Maps
In the last era, we mapped workflows for automation.
In this one, we design prompts for intelligent agents.
That means shifting from:
Example: CPQ in the Age of AI
Imagine your quoting process already has a 15% discount guardrail and logic that flags incompatible products.
Instead of relying on reps to remember rules from training:
A CPQ Copilot reviews the draft quote
Flags any compliance issues
Suggests winning bundles from past deals
Drafts an approval summary for leadership
And it’s all powered by…
→ Prompts built on your existing knowledge.
The Payoff
When you evolve from workflows to prompts, you unlock:
✅ Faster quotes with fewer errors
✅ Margin protection from real-time AI checks
✅ Sales teams that actually learn what wins
✅ Service teams that solve issues on the first visit
✅ AI that reflects how you work—not just how OpenAI works
Final Thought
The real opportunity isn’t just writing better prompts.
It’s transforming your digital transformation work into reusable context for AI agents.
Prompts are no longer a curiosity.
They’re infrastructure.
And the companies that learn how to build them—based on what they already know—will win the next decade.