Workflows · Guide
A quotation assistant must not become your price authority
Separate product interpretation, price lookup, and commercial approval before automating quotes.
Identify three different jobs
In an illustrative distributor, a buyer asks for a replacement part using an old product name. Interpreting the request, locating the approved price, and agreeing a discount are different decisions. Combining them in one prompt makes it difficult to discover whether an error came from product matching or commercial judgment. Keep those decisions visible in the workflow.
Use authoritative price data
Use a controlled catalogue for identifiers, units, effective dates, and currency. The model may propose candidate products with supporting text, but the application should retrieve prices from the approved system. If a price is absent or expired, show that explicitly. A plausible number is more dangerous than an obvious gap because it can enter a customer commitment unnoticed.
Workflow at a glance
Approve the commercial version
Prepare a draft containing quantity, delivery assumptions, tax treatment placeholders, and validity conditions for staff review. Lock the approved version and record who approved it. If the customer changes quantities, invalidate affected approvals instead of quietly updating the total. Approval tooling can support the handoff, but the business must define who has pricing authority.
Test ambiguity deliberately
Include discontinued parts, conflicting units, mixed currencies, and missing delivery destinations in a pilot set. Measure wrong-product proposals and review effort, not just draft speed. Start with draft-only operation. An assistant is useful when it makes commercial uncertainty easier to see; it is not useful merely because it can produce a polished quotation.
A practical next step
Prepare three draft quotations: a missing unit, an expired price, and changed quantities after approval. Ask the commercial owner where each should stop. A passing result may be a clearly unresolved question rather than a finished quote. Keep these cases in regression tests so future prompt changes cannot silently expand pricing authority.
Sources and further reading
- Building effective agentsBuilding effective agentsAnthropic · Documentation ·
- Create and test an approval workflow with Power AutomateCreate and test an approval workflow with Power AutomateMicrosoft Learn · Documentation ·
Editorial approach
AI-assisted original writing, checked against linked public sources. Practical recommendations and illustrative scenarios are editorial analysis, not reported client results. Source dates and product details may differ from this collection’s preparation date.