Cover of AI Use Case Prioritization Matrix by Dr. Hitesh Sarda

AI Use Case Prioritization Matrix

Score up to eight candidate AI use cases on the criteria that decide whether AI pays off, then write a one-page business case for the winner.

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Every leadership team has a list of AI ideas, and the usual way to rank them is value against feasibility. That ranking keeps producing pilots that impress in the demo and stall afterwards.

This matrix adds the criteria that decide whether AI pays off: how cheap the output is to check, what a mistake costs, whether the work is hard or merely messy, whether a smaller model would do, who owns the outcome, and what it costs at production volume.

What is inside

  • How to run the exercise in a 90-minute leadership session
  • An intake form for each candidate use case
  • The scoring criteria, with what low, medium and high look like
  • A scoring matrix for up to eight use cases
  • How to read the result: pilot, buy, or drop
  • A one-page business case template for the winner
  • A pilot design checklist, so the pilot measures the tool and not the expert running it
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Common questions

How do you prioritize AI use cases?

Score each candidate on its value, how cheap its output is to check, the cost of being wrong, data readiness, whether a smaller model would do, and its cost at production volume. Start with the use case that is valuable and cheap to verify, and buy before you build.

How is this different from a value versus feasibility matrix?

Value and feasibility miss the two things that most often sink AI projects: the cost of checking the output and the cost of a mistake. This matrix scores both, and it prices the use case at production volume instead of at demo scale.

How long does the exercise take?

About 90 minutes with a leadership team, if each person arrives with one or two candidate use cases already written down.
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