Every operation has processes. Ask how a new hire gets onboarded and someone will explain it in detail. Then ask them to explain it while they are on vacation. That is the test. If the answer lives in one person, you do not have a process. You have a dependency.
What a process actually is
A process is a written sequence that a competent stranger could follow on their first day and get the same result your best person gets. Not a policy document. Not a training video. A list of steps, in order, with what done looks like at the end.
The fifteen-minute version
Do not schedule a documentation project. It will never happen. Instead, the next time your best person does the thing, stand next to them with a notes app and write each step as they do it. Number the steps. Add one line at the bottom: how do we know it worked. That is the first draft, and it takes fifteen minutes.
Then give it to the newest person and watch where they get stuck. Every place they stop and ask a question is a missing step. Fix those. Now you have a process.
Where the AI fits
Recording a walkthrough and having a tool draft the numbered steps is a real shortcut, and I use it. But the tool cannot tell you which steps matter. Watch the new person. That is where the truth is.
Own it, then let it go
Every process needs one owner who can change it. Not a committee. One name at the top of the document. When something breaks, that person fixes the document, not just the moment.
Your best people are not your process. They are the source material. Write it down while you still have them.