Revenue, customers, and operating constraints

Map the customer promise

Ask what the customer expects at each stage: a quick response, an accurate quote, a confirmed delivery date, a knowledgeable answer, or a human escalation. An AI workflow must protect that promise. Faster but less reliable is often a regression.

Northstar constraints

• Prices and stock change, so a model cannot invent or autonomously confirm either.
• Some quote requests include contact details and past order information, so assessment data must be minimised and access controlled.
• Sales staff remain responsible for commercial promises, even if a system drafts a response.
• The company has only one part-time CRM administrator, so any pilot must be simple to operate.

Constraint is a design input

A constraint is not a nuisance to work around later. It selects the solution. If stock is authoritative only in an ERP, a drafting assistant should cite the ERP record or abstain. If no reliable data exists, process work may be a better investment than an LLM.

Opportunity constraint record
Customer promise at risk: _____________
Commercial authority: _________________
Authoritative system of record: ________
Personal or sensitive data: ____________
Human approval required: ______________
Operational constraint: ________________
Non-AI alternative: ___________________

Practical mission

Create the constraint record for Northstar. State one action the future prototype must never take without human approval.