The B.O.A.T. method for turning a pile of tools into one operation, and how I run it with four companies at a time.
Mark Garza · Laimen AI · Austin, TX
Start here
One job. Five handoffs.
A CUSTOMER ASKS
01
Request
02
Plan
03
The work
04
Bill
05
Follow-up
How it runs today
Five islands. Handoffs by hand.
Request
The inbox
Plan
A spreadsheet
The work
The system you pay for
Bill
The one somebody built
Follow-up
Copy + paste
RE-KEYED
CALLED IN
RE-TYPED
COPIED BY HAND
That isn't an AI problem. It's a pile-of-tools problem.
Gartner's name for the fix
B.O.A.T.
Business orchestration and automation technologies
Source: Gartner
The stack, bottom up
Five layers. Click them in order.
← → or click
Consumed by
Bots
Human
AI agents
Microservices
Foundational
RPA
API integration
Unstructured data ingestion
Workflow management
Low-code development
Process design
Event-driven architecture
Core
Business process orchestration
Advanced
Multimodal AI
Computer use
Multiagent orchestration
Agent building
Custom prompts
Infrastructural
SDLC management
RAG
LLMs
Vector DB
Agent memory
AI/ML
Observability
Security
DevOps
Analytics
Platform administration
Infrastructural
The ground everything stands on
Your data in one secure place
Analytics on the work, by job and by customer
The AI models the rest of the stack calls on
Advanced
AI that does real work
Reads a request and drafts the reply
Writes the quote, the note, the summary
Flags the exception before it costs you
Core
One conductor for every job
Knows where each job stands
Decides the next step and who owns it
Escalates when something stalls
Foundational
The moving parts
Your systems talk before anyone retypes
One step done, the next one triggered
Forms, calendars and email fed from one record
Consumed by
Everyone on one playbook
You, your team and your agents
AI agents and bots
Portals, forms and the software you already run
The one layer to remember
The conductor.
Most AI projects buy a clever agent and skip the middle layer. Then the agent has nowhere to put its work.
01
Knows where every job stands
One state for every request, order, lead or claim. Not five spreadsheets.
02
Decides the next step and who owns it
A person, an agent, a bot or another system. Written down once, run every time.
03
Escalates when something stalls
A job that hasn't moved shows up on someone's list. Nothing dies in an inbox.
One job, end to end
Request to follow-up, orchestrated
JOB · ONE CUSTOMER · END TO END
Human
A request comes in
AI agent
Reply drafted
Human
A person approves
Bot
Work scheduled
Event
Work done
API
Bill + follow-up go out
Business process orchestration
Nobody retypes a thing.
The house
Agents run the work. People run the agents.
ONE PLATFORM the house everything gets built in
CORE
+ foundational
The editor
Map the process: the sequencing, the exceptions, the handoffs
ADVANCED
AI agents
The agents
Do the work. Every step attributed, every state reported
INFRASTRUCTURAL
human control
The people
When an agent isn't sure, it stops. A person decides
What to automate first
Three tests.
TEST 01
Twice a week
Anything someone copies, pastes or retypes more than twice a week. Ask them. They'll have a list by lunch.
TEST 02
Outside the trust bubble
The phone, the sales conversation, the judgment call stay human. Automate what nobody would miss a person doing.
TEST 03
Should, not can
AI can do almost anything. The question is whether it's worth the time, effort and money to make it, and whether you get that back.
The rhythm
Map. Build. Orchestrate. Repeat.
01
Map
One process as it runs today: who, which tool, where it stalls
02
Build
The sequence, the exceptions, the handoffs, the guardrails
03
Orchestrate
Agents do the work, people stay in charge, every step visible
04
Repeat
Prove it, measure it, then pick the next one
START HERE →
One process. Finished before the next one starts.
Two examples
Same move. Two businesses.
A quarry
20 h → 4 h
a week preparing quotes, with a tool built in-house
NEXT → collections follow-up
An insurance agency
3 min · 45 min
per client on the confirmation note; a day on booking links
NEXT → the note writes itself on submit
Find the hours. Hand the routine part to software. Keep people on the conversations that need them.
How I run it
Four partners. One automation a month.
4
partners at a time, not forty
1
finished automation a month, in use before the next
1 hr
of build time every day, your own slot
1 hr
office hour a week: troubleshooting, brainstorming
24/7
AI support agent on the team, for questions and ideas
BRIEFED →
Every morning and evening on what my partners need
Two ways to use this
Run it yourself, or run it with me.
IF YOU HELP CLIENTS
Take the method
The stack as a checklist, the three tests for what's first, the rhythm of one finished automation at a time. Run it with your clients. Tell me what you learn.
IF YOU'D RATHER DO IT WITH ME
Book a strategy session
Ninety minutes. We map one process as it runs today and decide the first automation. You leave with the map either way. If a partner slot is open and it fits, we start the next month.
START →
partner.laimen.ai · mark@laimen.ai
B.O.A.T. for your company
partner.laimen.ai
Let's build the house.
Mark Garza · Laimen AI
Model: Gartner B.O.A.T. · Deck and video at partner.laimen.ai