Five Questions Every Executive Should Ask Before Funding an AI Use Case

Vendor demos are designed to answer one question well: can the technology do the thing. They are not designed to answer the questions that actually determine whether your organization will get value from it. Before the next AI use case gets funded, these are the five questions worth asking instead.

• What specific business metric will move, by how much, and how will we know? If the answer is vague, the business case isn't ready.
• Who owns the decision to scale this past pilot, and have they actually agreed to fund that, not just the pilot?
• What data does this use case need, and have we confirmed it's accurate, accessible, and governed?
• Who is affected by this change, and what is the plan to bring them along, not just inform them after the fact?
• What does 'turn it off' look like if this doesn't work, and who is watching for that signal after launch?

Notice that none of these questions are about the model, the algorithm, or the vendor's roadmap. That's deliberate. By the time a use case reaches the funding conversation, the technology is usually the least uncertain part of the equation. These five questions surface the Clarify, Assess, Organize, and Nurture gaps that vendor demos are never going to mention, and that ACTION™ is built to catch before the money is spent.