📦 AI reduces documentation time, giving consultants more hours with real users.

🧠 Great requirements aren’t in workshops—they’re found by watching people work.

🛠️ The Universal AI Prompt automates prep work and flags process gaps.

🕵️ Talking to end users reveals hidden needs no workshop ever will.

🚀 AI doesn’t replace consultants—it lets them focus on what truly matters.

Picture this: you’re knee-deep in an SAP project and a critical business requirement pops up when it’s almost too late. Those workshops felt productive, but they clearly missed a key piece of the puzzle. Important needs got forgotten, assumed, or simply didn’t surface until much later—usually when making changes is painfully expensive or flat-out impossible without blowing up timelines and budgets.

Here’s the thing: the real requirements aren’t hanging around in your workshop notes. They’re out there on the shop floor, in the day-to-day operations. I learned this the hard way on a warehouse project: after countless structured meetings, it wasn’t until I stepped out onto the warehouse floor and talked with the staff doing the work that the real requirements became crystal clear.

But here’s the rub: who has time for that kind of on-the-ground discovery on a tight project schedule? If you’re thinking, “I barely have time to grab lunch, let alone stroll through a warehouse,” you’re not alone.

Most SAP consultants (my past self included) are buried under paperwork. We end up drowning in documentation and reports, as if our job description secretly reads Professional Note-Taker. Without some help, I would spend hours churning out slides and meeting notes, manually checking for gaps—leaving almost no time to actually talk with the people who matter most: the end users.

Around that time, I had a discussion with a friend about how AI could help to automate the routine stuff, provide predictive insights, and improve team communication. But here’s the caveat: AI is only as good as the input you give it. Garbage in, garbage out—if your inputs are rubbish, AI won’t magically save the day.

So I put that idea to work. Enter my secret weapon: the Universal AI Prompt. (Cue dramatic music.) You can find it at the bottom of this blog post. By letting AI handle the documentation heavy lifting, I was free to focus on the good stuff. I could go out and gather the real requirements instead of being chained to my desk. The result? Smoother workshops, clearer documentation, and far fewer last-minute surprises.

Now, why do so many consultants get caught in this documentation trap? And more importantly, how can AI help us escape it? Let’s find out.

The Documentation Trap

Consultants like me are expected to bridge the gap between business folks and the SAP system—making sure the software meets real operational needs. But doing that right takes time and deep engagement, and time is often in short supply.

The Reality of Blueprinting Without AI

In a typical project, preparing for a business blueprint workshop means doing tons of repetitive work, like:
✅ Gathering initial requirements from stakeholders
✅ Reviewing standard S/4HANA features to identify potential gaps
✅ Structuring and formatting the workshop slides
✅ Documenting every discussion and capturing each decision
✅ Summarising gaps and reporting them to management

This whole process is incredibly time-consuming. Instead of spending that time out on the floor with business users, we end up stuck in an endless documentation loop—often scrambling to finish one batch of paperwork before the next workshop starts.

And here’s the cruel joke: even after all that prep, workshops still rarely capture everything the business needs:

• Many key users never voice their full needs in a formal meeting.
• Critical workflows and little operational quirks get overlooked in the boardroom.
• The real eye-openers only surface when you watch people at work, not when you ask them in a meeting.

Without time to talk with users outside those meetings, these hidden requirements stay hidden until later—leading to costly delays, rework, and dreaded scope creep.

The SAP Community Article: AI as a Solution

So how do we escape this trap? Well, AI can:
✅ Automate the tedious tasks (meeting notes, report writing, etc.)
✅ Provide predictive insights to spot gaps before they become show-stoppers
✅ Streamline team communication and feedback loops

But none of that matters if you don’t use AI correctly—give it bad prompts and you’ll get bad results.

That’s where my Universal AI Prompt comes in. With a structured approach to AI-powered documentation, we can free ourselves from the drudgery and spend more time uncovering the real business needs.

Next, let’s see how AI can truly spring us from this documentation trap—letting us work smarter, not harder.

How AI Frees Us to Work Smarter

Imagine if we consultants spent far less time fiddling with documents and more time uncovering real business requirements. That’s exactly what AI makes possible.

AI can shoulder a lot of the grunt work, empowering us to:
✅ Automate the tedious tasks (prepping workshop docs, writing up summaries, you name it)
✅ Provide predictive insights so we can anticipate gaps before they become issues
✅ Keep communication flowing so business and tech teams stay on the same page

But just having AI tools isn’t a magic wand. It all comes down to how you use them. Which is why I created my Universal AI Prompt.

How the Universal AI Prompt Transforms SAP Consulting

Instead of toiling for hours on documentation and slide decks, I let my Universal AI Prompt handle them. I use it to:
✅ Auto-generate workshop presentations from my notes
✅ Summarise discussions into structured meeting minutes in minutes (funny how that works out)
✅ Quickly flag potential process gaps that need attention
✅ Free up time for deeper face-to-face conversations with business users

And the best part? I get to spend that saved time with end users, digging into details that would otherwise slip through the cracks.

AI Doesn’t Replace SAP Consultants—It Amplifies Their Impact

You might wonder if AI is out to steal our jobs. The truth is quite the opposite:

✅ AI handles the busywork, letting consultants spend time where it truly matters—on the warehouse floor, the shop floor, in finance meetings, observing workflows and catching issues early.
✅ AI makes sure no critical detail falls through the cracks, reducing rework and last-minute surprises.
✅ AI helps deliver high-quality documentation faster, so management gets clear, structured insights immediately.

This isn’t just theory—I’ve seen it in action on real projects. In the next section, I’ll share a real-world example of how AI freed me up to work smarter and deliver a better outcome.

Real-World Proof: My AI-Powered Workshop Success

Time for some real-world proof. One of the toughest parts of any SAP project is capturing the full picture of business requirements early on. Users often share only fragments of what they need in initial meetings—some assume certain details are obvious, and others don’t realize what’s critical until later.

I faced this challenge in a recent S/4HANA warehouse implementation, where my mission was to prepare a business blueprint workshop and pinpoint gaps between standard S/4HANA and the warehouse’s needs.

The Traditional Approach: A Documentation Nightmare

Normally, tackling this job would be a documentation nightmare requiring me to:
❌ Spend hours gathering requirements from every stakeholder
❌ Manually craft a PowerPoint deck for the workshop
❌ Take notes during the session and summarise them afterward
❌ Identify the real gaps only after multiple rounds of follow-up discussions

This old-school approach eats up time and leaves little room for real conversations with end users.

The AI-Powered Approach: More Time for Real Conversations

I chose a different path. I used my Universal AI Prompt to:
✅ Whip up a structured business blueprint presentation in minutes
✅ Summarise my observations and discussions into notes almost instantly
✅ Quickly highlight potential process gaps based on what I’d gathered
✅ Free up hours so I could observe warehouse operations and ask better questions

The Key Difference: Uncovering Hidden Business Requirements

Because AI took care of the paperwork, I spent a lot more time out on the warehouse floor. As I watched the real workflows, I spotted gaps that never came up in the meeting room. Casual chats with the staff revealed pain points that would’ve been missed in a formal setting. By the time the workshop rolled around, I had a refined list of gaps ready to discuss, which made the session much smoother and more focused.

The Result? A Faster, More Effective Workshop

The workshop itself went off without a hitch—hardly any adjustments needed. I sent out the meeting minutes that same day, and management got a structured summary of the gaps immediately, instead of waiting weeks for the usual back-and-forth.

What If You Didn’t Use AI?

Now imagine I had done all of that manually:
❌ More time spent formatting documents
❌ Less time engaging with end users
❌ Higher risk of missing critical business requirements early on

In short, by offloading the documentation grind to AI, I delivered better insights, ran the workshop faster, and produced a more accurate business blueprint—all while reducing project risk.

Now let’s talk about how you can apply this approach in your own projects.

How You Can Use AI the Right Way

By now, you know AI can automate a lot of tasks, provide predictive insights, and improve team communication. But as we’ve seen, AI alone isn’t a silver bullet—it’s how you use it that makes the difference.

If you don’t take a structured approach, AI might churn out generic results that don’t fit your actual needs. With the right prompting strategy, however, AI frees you to focus on real conversations, uncover hidden requirements, and deliver better results faster.

That’s exactly why I came up with the Universal AI Prompt—a structured way to interact with AI so it gives you meaningful, SAP-specific output.

Try It for Yourself

If you want to:
✅ Spend less time formatting documents and more time engaging with end users
✅ Use AI to summarise key findings faster and uncover hidden gaps earlier
✅ Reduce the risk of missed requirements and last-minute project surprises

…then check out my Universal AI Prompt (How AI Frees Consultants to Focus on What Matters – No Tie Generation).

Challenge: Start Using AI to Free Yourself

Here’s my challenge to you: next time you’re drowning in documentation, stop and ask yourself:
❓ How much time could I save if AI handled the repetitive tasks?
❓ What crucial requirements might I be missing because I’m not out on the floor observing operations?

AI isn’t here to replace us—it’s here to free us. The question is, how will you use that freedom?

The Universal AI Prompt

You are an AI Universal Prompt Generator designed to guide me through the FRAMING process to craft a tailored and effective prompt, and then you execute it at the end. Follow these steps to engage with me and ensure the prompt is comprehensive and actionable.

The FRAMING framework is an acronym for Format, Role, Aim, Mood, Info, Nuance, and Goals. Each component ensures the AI generates precise, relevant, and impactful responses.

The “Format” defines the structure of the output. It could be an essay, a guide, a narrative, or any other format that suits the task at hand. By specifying the format, the AI can deliver the response in the style most appropriate for your needs.

The “Role” identifies the audience or the perspective from which the AI should respond. This might range from a beginner needing a simple explanation to an expert requiring in-depth insights. Specifying the role allows the AI to match its tone and complexity to the intended audience.

The “Aim” establishes the overall purpose of the interaction. It clarifies whether the response should educate, entertain, persuade, or brainstorm, aligning the output with your desired outcome.

The “Mood” determines the emotional tone of the response. Whether you prefer the tone to be formal, light-hearted, serious, or engaging, setting the mood ensures the response resonates with the intended audience.

The “Info” provides context and background details that the AI needs to produce accurate and well-rounded outputs. Offering sufficient information helps the AI understand your expectations and respond effectively.

The “Nuance” defines the level of detail required. Whether you want a summary or a deep dive, specifying nuance allows you to control how thorough the response will be.

The “Goals” outline the actionable outcomes or specific objectives for the AI’s response. Whether seeking practical steps, a creative idea, or a framework for a real-world problem, defining the goal ensures the AI’s output is targeted and meaningful.

First, you ask me my main idea or what I want the AI to achieve. You ask me to provide as much detail as possible. For example, I might want a guide to improve team communication, a creative story about a time traveller, or a business pitch for a sustainable product. Once I respond, you will guide me through each step of the FRAMING process to refine your prompt.

During each step of the FRAMING framework, you remind me of the essence of that step. For example, when asking the “Format” related question, you explain in detail that the format defines how the response will be presented, as a reminder for me to supply a suitable response.

When asking a FRAMING framework step question, you give three suggestions inspired by what I have supplied as responses so far.

Once we have worked through all the FRAMING steps, you will give a complete and structured overview of the responses I have supplied. You must then follow up by asking whether I want to add anything more. There will be an iteration of me adding more content and you verifying if anything needs to be added until I confirm that I have nothing more to contribute.

You synthesise the information into a complete AI prompt and then also execute that prompt when I confirm I have nothing more to add.

When responding, make sure you follow these guidelines:
– Write in the first person, active voice, and present tense.
– Don’t blab.
– Keep sentences brief and clear. Limit to 10-20 words.
– Use everyday words that are easy to understand.
– Pick common words over complex ones. Use technical terms only when needed.
– Avoid words with 4+ syllables. If you must use them, keep surrounding text simple.
– Write for a 8th grade reading level.
– Skip overused business terms and jargon like: delve, digital age, cutting-edge, leverage, proactive, pivotal, seamless, fast-paced, game-changer, quest, realm, landscape, evolve, resilient, thrill, unravel, embark, world.
– Make direct statements without hedging.
– Connect ideas naturally without forced transitions.
– Use standard punctuation.
– Vary sentence structure and punctuation naturally.
– Never use: indeed, furthermore, thus, moreover, notwithstanding, ostensibly, consequently, specifically, notably, alternatively.