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AI opportunity sequencing worksheet

AI opportunity sequencing worksheet
# Champions
# Transformation leader
# Deployment & Adoption

Compare AI opportunities against a business priority, recommend what should move first, and outline the first 90 days.

July 29, 2026
AI opportunity sequencing worksheet

What you will leave with

A credible AI roadmap recommendation with sequenced AI workflow opportunities compared and prioritized against one business priority. 

1. Start with the business priority and decision

Business priority: What business result or operating problem matters now?

Why now: What changed, became urgent, or created an opening for action?

Leadership decision: What priority, owner, investment, or resources must leadership approve?

Who is the Executive Sponsor or leadership decision owner?



2. Define your top AI opportunities

Start with the work, not the tool. Define up to three AI opportunities at a high level: 
  • the recurring work
  • first users
  • main workflow constraint today
  • intended outcome
  • workflow owner or ownership gap
Capture the current-state evidence needed to qualify and compare each AI opportunity. You do not need to map every step, handoff, exception, or tool.
AI OPPORTUNITY 1: 
Work, first users, and main constraint

Intended outcome and why it matters

Workflow Owner or ownership gap

AI OPPORTUNITY 2:
Work, first users, and main constraint

Intended outcome and why it matters

Workflow Owner or ownership gap

AI OPPORTUNITY 3: 
Work, first users, and main constraint

Intended outcome and why it matters

Workflow Owner or ownership gap



3. Compare your top AI opportunities

Capture the same six qualification signals across AI opportunities. Mark anything unconfirmed Unknown. Not every unknown must be tested immediately.

3a. Qualification signals

Rate each signal Strong, Mixed, Weak, or Unknown, and add a short evidence note for the rating. 
  • Strong means the signal clearly supports the opportunity
  • Mixed means the evidence is uneven or conditional
  • Weak means the signal adds little support
  • Unknown means it has not been confirmed.
An AI opportunity does not need every signal to be Strong to qualify.
  1. Cost: What spend or work could change? Consider external spend and internal preparation, review, or rework.
  1. Time: Where could cycle time improve? Consider the full workflow, not only one faster task.
  1. Constraint: What limits the work today? Identify the bottleneck, handoff, approval queue, quality issue, or capacity limit.
  1. Revenue: What growth or revenue path could improve? If the connection is weak or not relevant, say so; the opportunity may still create value in other ways.
  1. Risk: What risks could the opportunity reduce or introduce? Consider errors, quality failures, sensitive information, human review, and control needs; higher risk may require stronger safeguards or controls.
  1. Scale + importance: How broadly and consequentially could this matter? Consider the people, teams, transactions, launches, or decisions affected and the importance of the work.
AI opportunity
Signal
Notes
AI opportunity 1
Cost

Time

Constraint

Revenue

Risk

Scale + importance

AI opportunity 2
Cost

Time

Constraint

Revenue

Risk

Scale + importance

AI opportunity 3
Cost

Time

Constraint

Revenue

Risk

Scale + importance



3b. Roadmap questions

Use the same four questions for every opportunity, then compare the answers.
1. Priority: Is the work and outcome specific and consequential enough for leadership to evaluate? 
Write down: one recurring workflow; first users; intended outcome and why it matters now; the proposed accountable leader or ownership gap; workflow owner(s); the criteria for the next decision.
2. Value: Would changing this workflow address a real business constraint?
Write down: the current constraint; the baseline you know or need; the measurable outcome that would justify investment; and the quality, human-review, or control conditions that must hold.
3. Readiness: Can the organization support the first scope safely and reliably? 
Write down: the required and the current Low / Medium / High level for:
  • Safeguards (security + privacy)
  • Controls (accountability, decision rights, approvals, human review, monitoring, and escalation),
  • Capacity (people, time, skills, technical support, and operating support).
If the current state is not confirmed, mark it Unknown. Note the gap and who can confirm or close it. 
4. Evidence: Which condition—Safeguards, Controls, or Capacity—is least proven, how broad and consequential is the uncertainty, and can it be resolved safely? 
Write down: the unknown, its breadth, consequence, and resolvability, then size it as:
  • Bounded: Narrow or narrowable, with contained downside and safely answerable now.
  • Addressable: Material or consequential, with one closeable prerequisite that creates a credible path.
  • Foundational: Broad or severe, with no safe path using current safeguards, controls, or capacity.

Signal
Notes
Opp 1
Priority work + outcome

Value constraint + income

Safeguards
(security + privacy)
required / current

Controls
(ownership + controls)
required / current

Capacity (delivery + support) required / current

Evidence gap
(greatest unknown + size)

Opp 2
Cost

Time

Constraint

Revenue

Risk

Scale + importance

Opp 3
Cost

Time

Constraint

Revenue

Risk

Scale + importance

A known gap is a roadmap dependency. A factual unknown should be resolved through confirmation, approval, or an operating commitment. 
Only use a bounded test for an empirical unknown if leadership approves prioritizing the AI opportunity. Use smallest credible confirmation or test, the evidence threshold, and how either result would change the recommendation.

4. Sequence your AI opportunities

Use your responses to the roadmap questions for each opportunity to recommend a Now, Next, or Later sequence. Record the rationale for each position, and what evidence would change it. These are conditional recommendations.
Position


Now
AI Opportunity 

Why it currently leads

Next
AI Opportunity

What must be true before it advances

Later
AI Opportunity

Why it should wait

What would trigger review and potential advancement



5. Prepare the recommendation and plan the next proof point

For the AI opportunity you recommend advancing now, name the greatest unknown you identified and sized in the opportunity comparison. 
Confirm whether it is a factual unknown to resolve with evidence or an empirical unknown that needs a bounded test. 
Define the smallest credible proof point now; perform any test only after leadership approves the opportunity, as part of the 90-Day Foundation Plan.
Priority and scope
Now AI opportunity

Recurring work and intended users

Intended outcome

What is outside the current scope


Ownership and decision
Workflow owner or ownership gap

Transformation Leader

Executive Sponsor or decision owner

Day-90 decision the delivery evidence should inform


Least-proven condition
Least-proven condition
Choose one:
  • Safeguards: security + privacy
  • Controls: ownership + operating controls
  • Capacity: delivery + support
How broad, consequential, and resolvable is it?


Proof point for Now
What must be confirmed or tested?

What will you observe or measure? Include baseline or threshold if known.

What is the smallest credible confirmation or bounded test that could resolve it?

Check: is the proof point direct, observable, bounded, and consequential?

AI opportunity roadmap recommendation template

Based on [current evidence], we recommend [Now AI opportunity] for the next 90 days because [priority, value, and readiness]. 


We recommend [Next AI opportunity] for Next until [advance condition], and [Later AI opportunity] for Later until [review trigger]. 

Leadership must decide whether to approve [priority, owner, investment, and resources]. If approved, [Transformation Leader] will lead Design, Develop, and Operationalize with [Workflow Owner and other contributors], testing [least-proven condition] through [proof point]. 


At Day 90, use [evidence] to recommend whether leadership should advance, reshape, defer, or stop the Now AI opportunity and confirm or change the roadmap.

6. Turn the recommendation into a 90-Day Foundation Plan

You have already captured the inputs for the 90-Day Foundation Plan. Use Build a Focused 90-Day Foundation Plan asset in the 90-Day AI Transformation Starter Kit, or paste the prompt below into ChatGPT with your completed worksheet, to generate a first-draft AI opportunity roadmap recommendation, stakeholder and ownership map, AI opportunity portfolio tracker, and 90-Day Foundation Plan.

Quick-start prompt

Using my completed AI Opportunity Sequencing Worksheet, generate four connected outputs: a credible AI opportunity roadmap recommendation, a stakeholder and ownership map, an AI opportunity portfolio tracker covering up to three AI opportunities, and a focused 90-Day Foundation Plan for the Now AI opportunity.

Reuse my business priority, up to three AI opportunities, six qualification signals, four roadmap questions, Now/Next/Later roadmap positions, intended outcome, accountable Transformation Leader, contributing Workflow Owner or workflow-specific ownership gap, least-proven condition, proof point, selected adoption and responsible-scale conditions, contributors, and blockers. Start with a leadership-ready AI opportunity roadmap recommendation explaining why the Now AI opportunity comes first, what must be true before the Next and Later AI opportunities advance, and which investment decision leadership must make. Keep the roadmap recommendation conditional until leadership confirms approval; do not invent an approved owner, investment, or resources.

Build the stakeholder and ownership map, AI opportunity portfolio tracker, and 90-Day Foundation Plan around four plan foundations: AI roadmap; organization-wide adoption; responsible scale; and business value. For each foundation, show what my worksheet establishes, a specific proposed action, the accountable Transformation Leader, contributing role, dependencies or safeguards, evidence or a decision checkpoint, and any missing item marked [TO CONFIRM].

After leadership approves the Now AI opportunity, show a phase-level 90-day plan. Design: confirm the bounded workflow, first users, baseline, accountable roles, required operating conditions, and learning goal. Develop: define the smallest useful delivery approach and the approved confirmation or bounded validation needed for the greatest unknown. Operationalize: plan first-user introduction, manager reinforcement, enablement and support, evidence tracking, and the Day-90 review. Do not invent detailed requirements, integrations, test cases, or rollout commitments unless they are present in the inputs or confirmed by the relevant owner. Phases may overlap.

Distinguish worksheet facts from proposed actions. Keep all three AI opportunities visible in the AI opportunity portfolio tracker; do not treat Next or Later as phases of Now or approved parallel work. Provide a concise [TO CONFIRM] list. Pre-draft the five-point opportunity summary for Now: Priority AI opportunity; Intended outcome; Accountable owner; Evidence needed; and 90-day action. Mark an unconfirmed owner [TO CONFIRM]. The accountable owner is the Transformation Leader driving the approved Now AI opportunity.

Review the generated outputs with the Executive Sponsor, contributing workflow owners, and relevant delivery, governance, and measurement partners. Confirm ownership, permissions, approvals, baselines, safeguards, escalation paths, and resources before treating the plan as approved.

7. Capture your five-point Champion Network post

To earn the Transformation Labs 101 AI Roadmap Foundations badge, post your five-point summary in the OpenAI Enterprise Champion Network:
1. Priority AI opportunity: 
2. Intended outcome: 
3. Accountable owner (or ownership gap):
4. Evidence needed: 
5. 90-day action: 

What I’d most value the Champion Network pressure-testing: Name the assumption, readiness gap, or decision where peer input would help.
Aim for clarity, not polish. Make uncertainty visible, distinguish proposed work from approved work, and exclude confidential details as necessary.

8. Prepare for peer review (optional)

  • What could change which AI opportunity moves first, waits, or is revisited later? 
  • Whose decision or input is missing?
  • What would you like peers to help you pressure-test?
Bring your AI roadmap recommendation and remaining questions to a Transformation Labs 101 Roundtable in the  OpenAI Enterprise Champion Network  for peer review.
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