Checklist
AI Opportunity Assessment Checklist
Before investing in an AI platform or beginning a pilot, it is important to establish whether the proposed idea solves a genuine organisational problem. This practical checklist helps you assess one specific AI opportunity across business value, information quality, operational readiness, ownership, risk and human oversight.
Use it to move the conversation away from tools and towards the work that needs improving. It prompts your team to describe the current process, identify repeated tasks or delays and define what a useful outcome would look like. It also helps uncover missing information, unclear responsibilities and potential risks before they become part of an expensive implementation.
The checklist does not decide whether AI is right for your organisation. Instead, it gives decision-makers a structured way to compare the opportunity with simpler alternatives, identify questions requiring further investigation and agree whether the appropriate next step is preparation, a controlled pilot or no further action.
What you get
You receive a structured assessment covering the essential questions behind a responsible AI decision. It begins by helping you define the business problem, the people affected and the reasons the current process needs attention. You can then record the expected improvement and decide how that improvement would be measured against the existing position.
The checklist examines the information an AI system would need, where that information comes from and whether its accuracy, sensitivity and permitted use are understood. It includes prompts for access controls, confidentiality, retention and the handling of incomplete or uncertain information.
You will also consider who owns the proposed use case, who reviews AI-generated outputs and who has the authority to approve, reject or stop the workflow. Dedicated questions help you identify exceptions, escalation routes and decisions that must remain with an authorised person.
A final summary section allows you to record unresolved questions, required actions and the recommended next step. This might be improving the underlying process, preparing information, obtaining specialist advice, testing a limited pilot or choosing a simpler non-AI solution.
The checklist is designed to support discussion rather than produce an automatic readiness score. A high score alone cannot demonstrate that an opportunity is safe, compliant or commercially worthwhile.
Who it's for
This checklist is intended for business owners, directors, operations leaders, IT teams and other decision-makers considering how AI might support their organisation.
It is particularly useful when a team has identified a repetitive task, document process, information-handling problem or service workflow but has not yet decided whether AI is the right answer. Professional firms can use it to consider confidentiality and human-review requirements. Small businesses can use it to compare expected value with cost and available capacity. Charities and membership organisations can examine governance, sensitive information and accountability. Remote teams can assess shared knowledge and distributed workflow opportunities.
No technical expertise is required. The questions are written in straightforward language so operational, technical and leadership colleagues can complete the assessment together. Where an answer is unknown, record it as an action requiring investigation rather than making an assumption.
Where should we send it?
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