AI fatigue starts when leaders say yes to everything. Knowing when to say 'not this' is as important as knowing when to invest — sometimes more so. This checklist is the strategic discipline.
What's inside
Eight conditions that should trigger a hard 'not now' on an AI investment — broken underlying process, missing measurement baseline, no executive sponsor, and more. Each comes with the better investment to make first.
How to use it
- Walk through every item in order — skipping ahead usually means missing the prerequisite that makes a later item work.
- Score honestly. The point of a checklist is to surface gaps, not to feel good about what's already done.
- Run it again in 90 days. Checklists are a baseline; the value is in the delta between runs.