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7 Questions to Answer Before You Spend Another Dollar on AI
A seven-question test to tell whether your workflow is stable enough to automate, before the tool makes the exceptions more expensive.
Britt Bowman LLC | Executive Diagnostic
7 Questions to Answer Before You Spend Another Dollar on AI
A seven-question test to tell whether your workflow is stable enough to automate, before the tool makes the exceptions more expensive.
Know whether the work is ready for AI before you fund the wrong fix.
See the diagnosticOperating-readiness signal
AI scales the operation it enters. Stable or not.
The reframe
AI does not repair an unstable workflow. It accelerates whatever is already there.
When an AI investment disappoints, the tool gets blamed first. The failure usually began earlier, in a workflow nobody could describe the same way twice.
If ownership, inputs, exceptions, and the definition of done are still moving, automation does not remove the mess. It moves the mess faster.
The question is not whether AI can do the task. It is whether the operation is ready to absorb it.
The diagnostic
AI Readiness Diagnostic
A seven-question test to tell whether your workflow is stable enough to automate, before the tool makes the exceptions more expensive.
Can the team describe the workflow the same way?
What to notice
Ask three people to map the work. If you get three different processes, the workflow is not stable enough to automate.
The trap
Buy the tool and let implementation force alignment.
First move
Agree on the current-state workflow before designing the automated one.
Is there one accountable owner?
What to notice
The work crosses teams, but nobody owns the result from trigger to completion.
The trap
Assign ownership to the technology team.
First move
Name the business owner who can change the workflow, resolve exceptions, and accept the outcome.
Are the inputs defined and available?
What to notice
The pilot depends on files, fields, or context that arrive late, live in different places, or mean different things.
The trap
Assume the model will infer what the process never defined.
First move
List the minimum inputs, their source, their owner, and the quality threshold for each.
Are the exceptions visible?
What to notice
The happy path looks clean in a demo, but edge cases consume the team in real life.
The trap
Design for the average case and treat exceptions as a later phase.
First move
Count and categorize exceptions before automation. A workflow dominated by exceptions needs redesign first.
Is the definition of done specific?
What to notice
The team can say the output looks better, but cannot state what good means or how it will be checked.
The trap
Use time saved as the only success measure.
First move
Define the quality, speed, risk, and adoption thresholds that make the change worth keeping.
Will the new step fit the work people already do?
What to notice
The pilot requires people to leave their normal system, remember a new prompt, or perform duplicate entry.
The trap
Treat training as the adoption plan.
First move
Put the capability inside the existing moment of work, with a clear trigger and next action.
What will stop when this starts?
What to notice
The AI step is added, but the old process, report, approval, or meeting remains.
The trap
Call the duplicate work temporary and never remove it.
First move
Name the work that will be retired, the date it ends, and who can make that decision.
Take this to your next leadership meeting
Five questions that expose the operating constraint.
Can three people draw the same current-state workflow?
Who owns the business outcome after launch?
Which exceptions consume the most time today?
What specific threshold makes the new way worth keeping?
What old work will stop when the AI-enabled work begins?
From symptom to cause
Find the operating constraint before you choose the intervention.
The readiness check tells you whether the workflow can absorb AI. The BRIDGE assessment identifies the condition most likely to block adoption and the first move to make.
Continue to the full diagnosis
Your guide identifies the visible pattern. The assessment identifies the operating condition underneath it and the first intervention to sequence.
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