As a non-technical owner, what specific questions should I ask during our quarterly planning sessions to verify whether an AI initiative is a genuine operational fix or just technical theater?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Non-technical owners often get intimidated by technical jargon and end up approving expensive experiments that fail to move the needle. During quarterly planning, keep the discussion anchored in operations by asking four basic questions before approving any AI-related Rock.

First, ask what specific Scorecard measurable this tool or workflow will move. If the sponsor cannot point to gross margin, turnaround time, ticket volume, or customer retention, it is a research project, not an operational priority.

Second, ask which manual task will permanently disappear from an employee schedule. Make them identify the seat on the Accountability Chart and the exact hours freed up each week. If no hours are freed, the project lacks focus.

Third, ask who on the leadership team owns the output if the workflow produces incorrect data. Accountability must sit with a leader, not with a vendor or an algorithm.

Finally, ask what the manual standard operating procedure looks like right now. If the underlying process is disorganized, feeding it into an AI tool will only produce faster disorganization. Never approve an automation for a process that has not been successfully executed and documented by hand first.