Five questions to ask before adopting AI in your organisation
AI tools can bring real value. Asking a few disciplined questions first keeps that value from creating new, unmanaged risk.
Teams are experimenting with AI assistants, automated analysis and AI features embedded in existing software. Leaders do not need to become technical experts to guide this well. They do need to ask the right questions consistently.
1. What problem are we solving?
A clear purpose makes it possible to judge whether the benefit justifies the risk, and to notice when a tool drifts beyond its intended use.
2. What data will it see?
Understand what information enters the tool, where it is processed, whether it is retained and who else might access it. Classify before you connect.
3. Where does a human stay in the loop?
Decide which outputs need human review before they are acted on, and make sure the reviewers have the time and knowledge to challenge them.
4. Who is accountable?
Name an owner for each significant use of AI — someone responsible for its configuration, its performance and its risks over time.
5. How will we know if something goes wrong?
Agree what monitoring, feedback and escalation look like, and how the tool could be paused or withdrawn if needed.
A practical next step
List the AI tools already in use across your organisation — formally approved or not — and apply these five questions to the three that handle the most sensitive information.