Clarity Before Commitment: Defining Where AI Actually Delivers Value
“We knew AI was relevant, we just didn’t know where to start or what was actually realistic.”
– Leadership Team
The Challenge
As Weldclass continued to grow, manual processes across sales, finance, and customer care began to limit efficiency and scalability. Systems were in place, but operating in isolation, creating duplication, delays, and increasing operational load. While AI was clearly relevant, the business lacked a shared understanding of where it would deliver the greatest value, and how to prioritise investment with confidence.
The Solution
CROFTI delivered a structured AI Automation Workshop program, mapping processes, identifying opportunities, and building a practical, phased roadmap.
The Impact
A fully prioritised 12-month AI roadmap, leadership alignment across seven departments, and clear next steps with defined cost, tools, and ROI potential.
The Roadblock
Weldclass was not lacking capability.
They had strong systems, experienced teams, and a growing business.
But beneath that, operational friction was building.
- Over 1,000 purchase orders manually entered each month
- Hundreds of Excel exports requiring manual manipulation before analysis
- No centralised knowledge base across departments
- Sales and operations teams spending time on admin instead of revenue
- IT overwhelmed with unstructured support requests
- Systems in place, but no automation layer connecting them
The business knew improvement was needed.
They just didn’t have a clear path forward.
“There was a lot of effort going into work that should have been automated.”
– Operations Team
The Fix
CROFTI delivered a structured AI Automation Workshop program designed specifically for Weldclass’s environment.
The approach focused on clarity before action.
We:
- Conducted tailored surveys across seven departments to capture real operational pain points
- Ran deep-dive sessions with Customer Care, Sales, Finance, Operations, IT, Marketing, and QMT
- Facilitated a leadership workshop with live demonstrations of practical AI use cases
- Mapped and prioritised 12 automation opportunities across the business
- Delivered a detailed AI Automation Strategy Report with roadmap, costs, and implementation pathways
This was not theoretical AI.
It was grounded in how Weldclass actually operates and what would deliver real return.
The Payoff
The outcome was immediate and strategic.
- A clear 12-month AI automation roadmap
- Alignment across leadership on priorities and direction
- Defined investment ranges and implementation sequencing
- Shortlisted tools ready for evaluation and deployment
- Increased confidence to move forward with AI initiatives
The business moved from uncertainty to clarity.
“We now know what to do, what it’s going to cost, and what comes first. That’s a big shift.”
– Director
Continuing the Journey
The Weldclass engagement has moved from one-off strategic workshop into an ongoing AI advisory partnership. CROFTI now works alongside Weldclass’s internal AI lead on a fortnightly cadence, guiding architecture decisions, reviewing scoping work, and shaping the sequence of build priorities while Weldclass owns delivery internally.
This model is deliberate. Rather than positioning CROFTI as the long-term builder, the engagement is structured to develop Weldclass’s internal capability to run an AI programme independently. Decisions stay with the business. Momentum stays with the team. CROFTI’s role is to lift the ceiling on what they can attempt, and to compress the time it takes to get there.
Several high-value initiatives identified during the workshop are now moving into delivery, including:
- A sales recording and follow-up pipeline — capturing customer conversations, drafting follow-up actions, and reducing the post-meeting admin that currently consumes selling time
- A business-wide AI knowledge bot — giving every staff member instant access to product, process, and policy information without disrupting the people who hold it today
- Direct integration between Microsoft Copilot and NetSuite — turning the system of record into a conversational interface, so sales, operations, and finance staff can pull information in seconds rather than navigating menus
- AI-assisted phone handling for inbound enquiries — reducing the manual load on the customer service team and freeing capacity for higher-value conversations
- Automation across customer email handling, IT support, and finance workflows — applied where the volume is highest and the work is most repetitive
- An AI governance and acceptable use policy — ensuring adoption scales safely as more of the business comes online
The objective is not technology for its own sake. It is to give Weldclass the operational headroom to grow without proportionally growing headcount and to build an AI-first operating model as a genuine competitive advantage in the welding and safety industry.
CROFTI’s Take
“Weldclass already had strong systems and a capable team, what they needed was a structured way to see where the friction was, and a clear picture of what AI could realistically do for them. What struck us was how much opportunity was sitting right inside their existing Microsoft 365 environment, largely untapped. The roadmap we built together isn’t a wish list, it’s a practical sequence, sized to what the team can deliver and ordered around what unlocks the most value first. We’re excited about what Phase 2 looks like for this business.”
— Lucas Meadowcroft, Head of Innovation & Engagement, CROFTI