AOA: Audit, Optimize, Automate
AOA stands for Audit, Optimize, Automate. It is a framework for finding where AI saves a business time and money: find the leak in a process, fix the process, then automate the cleaner version. Corey Ganim created it with Nick Spisak.
The three steps
1. Audit: see the work as it happens today
Ask the owner or employee to share their screen and show how the work gets done. Capture every step without trying to fix anything yet. Note where information comes from, which tools get opened, what decisions get made and where the work slows down.
Useful questions:
- Where does work tend to pile up?
- Which manual task keeps stealing time from you or your team?
- How many hours does it take each week, and what is an hour of that person’s time worth?
2. Optimize: remove the waste before adding AI
Most manual processes contain steps nobody needs. Cut those first, because automating a bloated process only makes the bad version run faster.
3. Automate: put AI on the cleaner version
Start with an existing tool if one solves the problem. If the process is repeated and specific to the business, turn it into a reusable skill, such as a Claude Skill. Then document the new process and train the team on it. Move to the next workflow.
Examples
These are illustrations from Corey’s teaching, not audited results.
Customer onboarding
Audit: watch the full 30-minute onboarding sequence and record all 14 steps. Optimize: three steps turn out to be unnecessary, leaving 11. Automate: turn those 11 steps into a Claude Skill, built with the client on the call so they understand how it works.
Owner email
Audit: the owner spends five hours a week in email and values their time at $250 an hour, a $1,250 weekly time cost. Optimize: decide what actually needs the owner’s attention. Automate: if a tool cuts the task to one hour, the estimated time value returned is $1,000 a week. The owner supplied both inputs, and the result is an estimate, not audited savings.
Where AOA gets used
- AI assessments use it to find the first opportunities in a business.
- AI Concierge engagements apply it one workflow at a time.
- AI Operator Academy teaches it to members who sell AI services.
Read the full model inCorey’s guide to selling AI services.
Questions
What does AOA stand for?
Audit, Optimize, Automate.
Who created AOA?
Corey Ganim and his business partner Nick Spisak, the co-founders of Return My Time.
Why optimize before automating?
Most manual processes contain steps nobody needs. Automating a bloated process only makes the bad version run faster, so the waste comes out first.
Do I need to code to use AOA?
No. The audit and optimize steps are conversations and process mapping. The automate step usually means an existing AI tool or a reusable Claude Skill, not custom software.
Is AOA the same as AI Operator Academy?
No. People sometimes use AOA as shorthand for AI Operator Academy, but on this site AOA means the framework. The Academy is the community where members learn to sell services built on it.