Use this when

Items arrive that need to go to different places, and sorting them by hand is slow or inconsistent.

The pattern

INCOMING ITEM
      ↓
AI CLASSIFIES (which category?)
      ↓
CONFIDENT?
  ├── Yes → route to the matching queue or team
  └── No  → route to a person to decide

The AI reads each item, decides its category, and sends it to the right destination. When it is not confident, it routes the item to a person instead of guessing.

Why it works

Routing is a classification problem, which is one of the most reliable uses of AI. The output is one of a known set of destinations, so it is easy to check and easy to act on. Adding a confidence threshold means the AI only routes automatically when it is sure, and defers the rest, which keeps misrouting low.

How to apply it

  1. Define clear, distinct categories that cover the real cases, including an "unclear" option.
  2. Decide where each category routes.
  3. Set a confidence level below which the item goes to a person.
  4. Give the "unclear" and low-confidence cases a real destination, often an exception queue.

Good fit

  • Shared inboxes, support requests, incoming documents.
  • High volume with a manageable set of destinations.
  • Cases where misrouting is annoying but recoverable.

Poor fit

  • Destinations that are hard to define or overlap heavily.
  • Situations where a wrong route causes serious, hard-to-reverse harm.

What this does not solve

Triage gets an item to the right place; it does not handle the item once it arrives. A correctly routed request still has to be worked. And routing quality depends on well-designed categories, which is where most of the effort goes.