Working template · September 2026 · Version 1.2
AI strategy and business-case worksheet
Compare AI opportunities and AI agent authority constraints, business costs and responsible technical specialists.
- For
- Leaders, finance, process owners and IT.
- You leave with
- A prioritised opportunity map, explicit business-case assumptions and a roadmap with owners.
Choose your format
DOCX is editable in Word or a compatible editor. PDF is ready to print. No signup is required.
Inside this template
The full document follows these sections. The first prompts are shown below so you can check the fit before downloading.
Ada Studio · Working template
Frame the opportunity
Start from a business objective and the current work, including the option to keep the manual process.
Objective and value stream
Name the business objective, sponsor, workflow, affected people and current AI tools or experiments.
Baseline and expected benefit
Record today’s time, review effort, quality and costs. Describe the expected benefit and how it would be measured.
Opportunity comparison
Compare candidate uses by expected value and feasibility. Higher feasibility means simpler integration, usable data and available capacity.
Risk and permission
Record intended actions, authority limits and the authorising owner, separately from expected value. Include privacy, security, legal and human-review checks; a high score grants no permission.
Test the business case
Use ranges and evidence. Treat benefit estimates as assumptions until a pilot tests them.
Data readiness
Name valuable data, owners, quality gaps, access restrictions and integration requirements. Assign preparation actions.
Buy, build or partner
Compare business fit, compatibility, total cost, supplier evidence, support and exit arrangements, including a manual alternative.
Costs and benefits
Record setup, integration, subscriptions, staff time, review, maintenance and exit costs. State benefit assumptions, uncertainty and evidence needed.
Resources and collaboration
Name responsible technical specialists for tool/data permissions, integrations and implementation validation. Identify internal capacity and external training or research support; verify partners and funding assumptions.
Own the next 90 days
The roadmap is a planning output. Agree engagement timing and fees separately.
Priorities and decisions
For each use, record pilot, defer or decline, with the rationale, assumptions and approval conditions.
Owners and milestones
Assign a sponsor, delivery owner, resources and milestones for the next 90 days. Record dependencies and due dates.
Pilot and acceptance
Define baseline, test examples, human reviewer, acceptance criteria and conditions for stopping. Link the pilot worksheet.
Review and portfolio
Set a review date and link the use-case register. Decide what evidence could justify continuing, changing, scaling or retiring the use.