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Value chain

The Value chain card on the Overview spreads each role's time across the phases of the industry's core value chain, then totals people (as FTE), cost and moderate-scenario saving per phase. It answers "where in the operating model does the AI opportunity sit?"

The figures are indicative: the phase weights are role-type assumptions, and the card's provenance badge says so.

Which value chain is used​

The Workbench picks the lens in this order:

  1. The engagement's industry pack's value chain, if it has one and it covers a meaningful share of the workforce. The insurance pack uses the five-phase Claims lifecycle: Intake → Triage → Assess & Reinstate → Manage → Close.
  2. With no pack value chain, the reference data's automatic lens (the claims lifecycle, as shipped) when it covers a meaningful share of the workforce.
  3. Otherwise the generic operating model, which covers everyone: Acquire & advise, Core delivery, Service & operations, Control & governance and Leadership & people. Each role category maps to one phase.

"Meaningful" means the chain's roles cover at least 20% of the workforce (the built-in threshold). A defined chain such as claims weights only the roles it knows, so it would be a poor lens for a mostly non-claims workforce.

Reading the card​

The title reads, for example, Claims lifecycle — N roles, with the description Each role's time spread across the phases it typically touches. Indicative: phase weights are role-type assumptions. The table lists each Phase (with its definition) and its FTE, Cost and Moderate saving. A line under the table gives the moderate scenario's impact, for example AI enables capacity creation equivalent to ~120 FTE, alongside productivity improvements equivalent to a further ~85 FTE, delivering a total workforce impact of 18.0% of the lifecycle workforce: the first figure is the capacity AI frees outright (automation), the second the further capacity it accelerates (augmentation), and the share is their sum over the people in the value chain. The HTML report uses the same sentence. The weights for a role (for example a claims handler spends 10% on intake, 55% on managing claims, 15% on closure) come from the reference data, where administrators can review and change them.

Mapping with AI​

If no built-in value chain covers enough of the workforce, the card says No built-in value chain covers enough of this workforce to be a fair lens.

Leads and analysts see Map with AI (or Remap with AI) when AI is configured and the engagement is active; otherwise the card explains that An AI-mapped value chain needs AI switched on and write access. The AI is given the client's sector and the list of role types in the staff list (names, categories and headcounts; no people), and proposes:

  • a label and four to six sequential phases for that industry's value chain;
  • how each role's time divides across those phases.

The Workbench validates the answer: three to seven phases are kept, weights must use the exact role names, roles the AI didn't place are spread evenly across the phases, and the answer must cite the staff list. It then computes every figure from the staff list itself. The card is labelled AI-mapped value chain with its confidence and sources: The AI proposed these phases and each role's weights; the figures are computed from this staff list. It then says how many roles (and people) the AI placed, and how many more were spread evenly, for example It placed 40 roles (1,500 people); we spread 3 more (60 people) evenly across the phases. A large evenly spread share is a reason to check the map before quoting it.

If the answer doesn't pass validation, or AI isn't available, the rule-based value chain stays. The AI map is cached for the staff list until it's next rescored.

When to map with AI

Use it when the client's industry has no built-in value chain and the generic operating model is too coarse for the story, for example a logistics or healthcare client. Check the phases and weights with the client before quoting phase-level figures.

In deliverables​

The value chain appears in the HTML report (the Value chain section) and the PowerPoint deck:

  • the HTML report uses the AI map when the staff list has one, otherwise the rule-based lens;
  • the PowerPoint deck always uses the rule-based lens (the pack's chain, the automatic lens or the generic model), even when an AI map exists.

Without an AI map, the card on the Overview and both deliverables show the same rule-based value chain, figure for figure.